ALEX CHADWICK, host:
And Texas now beyond Fort Hood. We're back with the editor in chief of Texas Monthly magazine. He's Evan Smith.
Welcome back to DAY TO DAY, Evan.
Mr. EVAN SMITH (Texas Monthly): Thank you, Alex.
CHADWICK: So we spoke last week about the Texas primary process. Voting is already underway and it's really huge in the big urban counties like Dallas and Harris, where Houston is. Ten times as many Democratic voters so far as at the same point four years ago. Ten times as many. What is...
Mr. SMITH: Right. In fact, the turnout in every single big county in Texas and many of the small counties is record-breaking. We're seeing increases of 500 and 700 and 800 percent overall, Democrat plus Republican, of the turnout in the first six or seven days of early vote, and much of it is Democratic. Indeed, it's two to one or in some cases three to one Democratic. In counties that we didn't know there were that many Democrats.
CHADWICK: You didn't think - couldn't can't count that high in the Democratic world(ph).
Mr. SMITH: Had no idea. And it's made us wonder if the electoral map in Texas is going to shift not just at the top of the ticket but down ballot. This could be a very different state come January 1.
CHADWICK: Well, Texas Monthly online says that anecdotal reports indicate to you that a lot of these voters actually are Republicans who are crossing over. Do you believe that and what indeed would it mean?
Mr. SMITH: Either they're cynical Republicans who are crossing over to vote for Hillary Clinton, because they believe she'd be a more defeatable nominee in the fall for John McCain, or they're these so-called Obama-cans.
I think what it means is that the Republican brand in Texas is tarnished. Maybe not as much as it is nationally, but a lot of Republicans in Texas are disappointed with the national party leadership and disappointed with the state party leadership. And they're willing to give this other guy, this Obama, a shot.
CHADWICK: The polls that I have read have been very close for both candidates over the last week or so. But there's a new one out from a Houston polling group that finds Senator Obama with a lead that's beyond a statistical measure.
Mr. SMITH: Right. This is the Reuters/Zogby/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll, the four-headed hydra that has been polling this race. And indeed, he's up by some six or seven points. And I think that is consistent with the trend line, at least in the air. It's problematic for Senator Clinton because so many of the demographic groups that were strongest for her at the beginning of this primary process, Alex, seem to at least be dead even or tilting a little bit in Senator Obama's direction. And there seems not to be a way for her to change the conversation.
CHADWICK: We're going to change the subject.
Mr. SMITH: Sure.
CHADWICK: We're going to talk about Republicans.
Mr. SMITH. All right.
CHADWICK: If we may for a moment, because Senator McCain still is in a race, at least in theory. And last week, you know, Governor Huckabee, he was doing OK in Texas.
Mr. SMITH: Right. Well, he's not doing so well in Texas, but I continue to believe it's a problem for Senator McCain, that fully a month after the Republican Party around the country and in Texas particularly has been told he is your nominee, that some 40 percent of people, according to polls, or maybe even higher than 40 percent, are choosing somebody else.
And there is here in the rodeo buckle of the Bible Belt, Alex, a certain percentage of the electorate that thinks they don't like John McCain.
You know, look, John McCain's going to be the nominee. John McCain's going to win the Texas primary, but I think if he only gets 53 or 54 or 56 percent against Governor Huckabee, that just further confirms that he has not made the sale with the farthest right part of the Republican Party.
CHADWICK: Evan Smith, editor in chief of Texas Monthly magazine, deep in the heart of Austin.
Evan, thank you.
Mr. SMITH: Thank you, Alex.
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