乔恩·罗森塔尔正试图打破德州民主党长达数十年的全州选举连败纪录，但他必须击败一位极具争议的共和党候选人。
Jon Rosenthal is trying to break a decadeslong statewide losing streak for Texas Democrats, but he’ll have to defeat a polarizing GOP candidate.
德州奥斯汀——在任何其他年份，乔恩·罗森塔尔竞选德州全州性公职都将是一位明显的弱势候选人。
AUSTIN, Texas — Any other year, Jon Rosenthal would be a major underdog for statewide office in Texas.
他是一名民主党人，竞选监管石油天然气行业的职位，而该州在过去30多年里一直主要由共和党掌控。
He’s a Democrat running to oversee the oil and gas industry, in a state that has been largely under Republican control for more than 30 years.
但如果他在冲刺阶段的农村拉票行动能击败这位备受争议的共和党对手，罗森塔尔将获得一个平台——作为德州铁路委员会三名委员之一——去推行他所谓的“常识性解决方案”，以解决石油行业的一些棘手问题。他主张增加委员会预算，以便留住员工、处理未封堵油井以及管理油田废水。
But if his closing rural push against a controversial GOP opponent delivers, Rosenthal would have a platform — as one of three state Railroad Commission members — to pursue what he calls commonsense solutions to some of the oil industry’s thorny problems. He has pushed for bigger budgets at the commission so it can retain employees, address unplugged wells and manage oil field wastewater.
罗森塔尔表示，所有这些都可以在不危及该州原油产量的前提下完成——这对一位自称“钻探，宝贝，钻探民主党人”的油田工程师来说是一个重要的限制条件。
All of that, Rosenthal said, can be done without endangering the state’s crude production — an important caveat for an oil field engineer who describes himself as a “drill, baby, drill Democrat.”