In an impassioned speech to the Democratic State Convention last month, State Rep. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, urged his colleagues to embrace the term "liberal." But so far, there is little evidence anyone is taking his message about the "L" word seriously.

Moreno says Democrats are wrong to avoid "liberal," which he insists is an honorable political word that describes the kind of progressive and people-oriented policies that Democrats stand for.

But Joaquín Castro, the Democratic nominee running for state House District 125, recently recoiled at being called a "liberal" in a news story.

"I really don't consider myself a liberal," Castro said.

The 27-year-old Democrat supports abortion rights and opposes school vouchers, but he believes his political philosophy is rooted in neighborhood empowerment strategies rather than somewhere on the traditional political spectrum.

Another swift denial of a "liberal" description came last week from Samantha Smoot, head of the Texas Freedom Network, an anti-school voucher group that has recently been fighting textbook content battles.

An Express-News story described the network as "liberal" while their counterpart, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, was called "conservative."

Smoot called the newspaper to object. She would prefer her group be described as a "watchdog focused on religious freedom and individual liberties."

TPPF spokesman Michael Sullivan didn't protest the word "conservative," but he said his group doesn't like political labels either.

"We like to talk about ideas and define ourselves on the basis of what we're for," Sullivan said. "We much prefer to be labeled a free-market, economics-based think tank."

It's no wonder the media goes for short labels.

A quick Nexis-Lexis search revealed that in 107 news stories in the past year, TPPF was described as "conservative" 63 times. The freedom network was labeled "liberal" nine times in 85 news stories.

Sullivan charged that the only people who earn the coveted "moderate" label are those groups and individuals the media admires.