I agree with Jesen
To continue your thought, I think Kirk winning the Senate seat gives the Texas Democratic party a shot in the arm showing it can still be a relevant force in a statewide election.
The knock-on effects from that are a possibility that somebody (with Kirk's support) defeats Perry in 2006 IF they choose a semi-viable candidate with a decently-run campaign (i.e. NOT Chris Bell!


). I was always partial to Henry Cisneros, but Bill White or any of a number of candidates could do it.
The big problem Kirk winning the Senate seat doesn't solve is that the Democrats had problems filling in the middle- they could elect Governors (up to Ann Richards, anyway) and city councilmembers but started losing the Legislature and other elective state positions AG, RRC, etc. that really have the power to do things and vote money for pet projects in the Reagan/Bush I years, then got gerrymandered into irrelevance. Reversing that takes time and pushing good candidates that do well in those positions.
This meant that outside of the blue dogs who'd been around since Briscoe's time, there wasn't much perception both in Austin and in the voting public that Democrats were where the path to power lay.
We talk a good game in Texas about being independent thinkers but politics is a good 'ol boy system where the party in power stays in power by mutual backscratching and backroom deals with the understanding everyone plays ball. That's why Perry and a ****-load of other Dems switched to the GOP in the 80's and 90's.
As a Texan Democrat, it's been a long period in the wilderness with W and Perry's regimes as governor where sanity, compassion, and basic competence seem to have fled the building. Could Ron Kirk winning turn the tide?
It'd be a nice first step.
As to Ron Kirk as a senator, I imagine he'd probably just scale up how he ran the city of Dallas as mayor. To say he was "business-friendly" was an understatement. he'd definitely fight for more Medicaid funding and other stuff, do what he could to attract business and federal $$$ to Texas. If the Lege tried any of the shenanigans with redistricting @ OTL I could certainly see him making resolutions on the floor punishing Texas for violations of the CRVA and other stuff. Otherwise, the guy's a corporate lawyer. He liked things to run smoothly, make sure his people got their cut, and keep on trucking. He'd
definitely be an improvement over Cornyn IMO.