Tensions high at Texas Democratic regional conventions

Here is the apportionment so far of presidential caucus delegates to the Texas Democratic state convention based on reports from Saturday's county and senate district conventions. A total of about 7,300 delegates were expected to be selected in this stage of the caucus process, according to the Texas Democratic Party. Results are from 123 of about 280 conventions. • Clinton: 933, or 50 percent*

AUSTIN — Traffic jams, long lines, crowds, confusion and chaos marked Texas Democratic regional conventions Saturday as an unprecedented number of political activists turned out to help elect presidential nominating delegates for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

There are 67 at-large delegates at stake, depending largely on the results of the state senatorial district and county conventions.

Obama was the caucus winner on primary night, but an Associated Press delegate count showed Obama might lose ground. However, Obama's campaign late Saturday said he would win, claiming he would receive 38 delegates to Clinton's 29. If accurate, that would give Obama a total five-delegate advantage over Clinton in the Texas primary/caucus contest.

Houston-area conventions often were marked by exasperation as thousands of people who had never participated in the process before gathered to show support for their candidate and try to win a slot to attend the state party convention in June.

"It's going very good," state Senate District 17 Chairman Bert Anson said in the midst of the convention in the Alief Elsik High School gymnasium. "I've only been yelled at and cursed twice. I've only lost my temper once. No. I've lost my temper twice."

Delegates statewide also had to suffer through long sign-in lines to declare their allegiance to a candidate. Some arrived at 7 a.m. and did not make it into their convention halls for hours. The delegates were elected at the March 4 precinct caucuses.

"People are frustrated. Everybody's got a life. We're not professional politicians," said Ron Rothe, a Clinton alternate attending the Senate District 4 convention at the San Jacinto College North Campus. "But the crowd is very amiable and we only do this every four years."

Republicans also held Senate district and county conventions Saturday to elect delegates to their state convention, but there were no delegate contests because U.S. Sen. John McCain has clinched the GOP nomination.

Gov. Rick Perry attended the Senate District 14 convention in Austin to urge his fellow Republicans to pass a resolution showing support for the Boy Scouts of America against "increasing attacks" from "radical homosexuals, liberal extremists" and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Boy Scouts bar gays from serving as troop leaders.

Democratic Party officials on the March 4 primary night had predicted Obama would lead 37-30 based on a preliminary count of the one million people who turned out for precinct caucuses. However, the delegate split can change based on how many delegates pledged to each candidate showed up for the local and state conventions Saturday.

Clinton claimed a 65-61 advantage in the delegates allotted based on the March 4 popular vote results in the primary.

The conventions Saturday were electing about 7,300 delegates to the state Democratic Convention June 5-7 in Austin. Those delegates will make the final decision on how the 67 caucus delegates are divided.

Typically, only a few hundred people turn out for the local conventions, but this year party officials had to find larger venues because tens of thousands of delegates attended the conventions.

Traffic jams leading to the Travis County Exposition Center for the Senate District 14 and Senate District 25 conventions caused numerous delegates to abandon their vehicles more than a mile away to walk to the convention.

The Senate District 11 convention in Pasadena had more than 1,200 people show up at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall. The parking lot overflowed into a nearby elementary school, and cars lined the streets for blocks.

At the Senate District 6 convention, an area of heavy Clinton support, there were more than 40 precincts who had no delegates show up for the convention.

Clinton received about 64 percent of the popular vote in the Senate District 6 in the March 4 primary, but only 55 percent of the delegates attending Saturday's convention backed her.

That gave Obama an opportunity to make up for losing ground in Webb County. Clinton received all 51 delegates to the state convention because Obama's delegates did not reach a 15 percent threshold attendance for claiming delegates. He had received 20 percent of the vote in the primary there.

One of the wildest conventions was Senate District 19 held at a San Antonio warehouse.

When there was a fight over the list and credentials of registered delegates, the warehouse owner threatened to expel the convention. Also, the San Antonio Fire Department cited the convention for overcrowding and finally the delegates voted to abandon the rules. The convention halted at one point so people could move their cars from parking spots reserved for a nearby wedding.

At the Senate District 13 convention at Texas Southern University in Houston, an Obama stronghold, Clinton supporters unsuccessfully tried to gain delegate strength by convincing Obama backers to switch sides so they would be elected as delegates to the state convention. Obama came out of the convention with 272 state delegates to Clinton's 69.

When U.S. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Houston, a superdelegate pledged to Clinton, spoke to the Senate District 13 convention, some Obama supporters booed her.

Despite the hassles Saturday, many Democrats said the turnout excited them about their prospects of breaking the Republican political hold on Texas.

"I wish we could bottle this enthusiasm and carry it over to November, which I think we will do," said Rodney Griffin, temporary chairman of the Senate District 13 convention at the Thurgood Marshall High School in Missouri City.

One of the wildest conventions was Senate District 19 held at a San Antonio warehouse.

When U.S. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Houston, a superdelegate pledged to Clinton, spoke to the Senate District 13 convention, some Obama supporters booed her.

http://openthread.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/29/13338/0346/390/486755

UPDATE X3: Dirty Tricks At Texas Caucus in San Antonio?
by mayan
Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 10:09:42 AM PDT
I’m posting this short diary so that folks can know some what may be going on in Texas. I’m not trying be an alarmist or to be a handwringer. I don’t know what if anything can be done about these types of situations but I did think that as many people should know about this as possible.

Here goes:

This is what I read at The Field

There are apparently HRC dirty tricks happening in San Antonio districts.

More after the flip.

mayan’s diary :: ::

The correspondant, a Field contributor, had this to say in pertinent part:

(The Obama delegate) got there to discover a backroom deal had already been cut by Democratic Party leaders in the county, presumably, to set up the rules committees 50/50 Clinton/Obama people, but all the committee chairs are Clinton people.

Clinton’s campaign has sent a bunch of “at large” delegates to the Sen. 26 caucus to hang out in the event someone doesn’t show up at the right time, so they can step in as delegates. (The Obama delegate) is not certain if the Obama folks are doing the same thing, but she said she had not heard of this practice from the folks she’s dealing with on the Obama side.

Somehow, none of the Obama delegates from our precinct are listed on the rolls, so they have all been categorized as provisional for the caucus. She’s not certain if the Clinton delegates from our precinct suffered the same fate. She said this is strange because someone on the Obama side said they saw all the names entered onto the rolls.

This is referring to Senate District 26 (and also apparently, Senate District 18. The post went into more details but I didn’t want to break the three paragraph rule. Also, I note that this is, reputedly, a heavy HRC area in San Antonio.

At any rate, this is a public announcement. I will update should I learn or see more. I just wanted people to know that it ain’t just sweetness and light out there, at all.

UPDATE The first results are from three counties that had gone HEAVILY for Clinton. Thus far it is apparently C - 23 and O - 25.

OTOH, here’s an update on Burnt Orange Report that seems somewhat peculiar about Webb county.

1:15pm Update by David Mauro - In Webb County, it appears that Obama has not met the threshold and Clinton could carry all 51 delegates. While Clinton had expectations to do very well in Webb, a complete shut out would come as a surprise.

UpdateX2 Ugly Rumor Edition Don’t want to throw gasoline on fires...so, as long as I’m reporting ugly rumors (totally unstantiated, BTW), I leave this little prize on yr doormat. This is from Bhatany Report at
The Field

I heard that there is pushing and shoving at the Galveston County convention. And there was a move to adjourn the caucus. And the delegate allotments at the precinct conventions were also wrongly made, so the delegate allocations are messed up too.

I caution that this is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED. But...again, of interest. If true, don’t know who is pushing and shoving who and whether it’s all over. SO please take with a major grain of salt mine.

I also note that things are looking a bit down in the early going on Burnt Orange Report. C - 114; 0 - 43, with 4.58% reporting.

Update X3 Here’s a spreadsheet from Burnt Orange with convention by convention totals. For all you good little political junkies.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.