Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is reporting that LULAC has filed suit against the TDP over the primacaucus delegate selection procedure.
The link at Marshall's site goes directly to the El Paso Times story about the suit. No details.
Anyone know anything more?
Update from Phillip
Considering how focused the TDP has been on changing the rules going forward -- and eager and willing to address these changes at the upcoming convention -- it's a shame LULAC is doing this. We could have been all coming together right now, and instead, we get a lawsuit. And based on the article below the fold, the lawsuit is just a heavy hammer being thrown around to make sure LULAC gets their chips at the bargaining table counted.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: as an Hispanic, I sure felt like my vote was counted.
A few months ago I wrote a guide to resolutions in which I explained that resolutions could be introduced at the state convention by petition of 20% of the delegates.
I may have been mistaken about this. While the Rules of the Texas Democratic Party state quite clearly that the petition requires signatures of 20% of the delegates (Article IV section A.7), elsewhere the rules require signatures from 30% of the delegates (Article IV section D.5.e.4), a [insert expletive here] how-do-you-do to those Democrats who are so committed to a cause that they would attempt to gather petition signatures from 1,458 (20%) of the state convention's 7,290 delegates!
My name is Ramey Ko, and I'm running to be a delegate for Obama to the Democratic National Convention from Senate District 14, and I am asking for the chance to earn your support. As a young Asian American, I hope to bring a vibrant grassroots perspective to Denver, as well as provide a voice for a community that is just beginning to receive some attention in politics.
Working for Change
I have been an Obama supporter since 2003, when I first met then State Senator Obama as one of my law school professors at the University of Chicago. I helped collect petition signatures to get him on the Democratic primary ballot for US Senate. After he announced his intention to run for president, I founded Asian Americans for Obama in December 2006. Our efforts have lead to the creation of translated outreach materials and Obama videos subtitled in several Asian languages, numerous AAPI targeted voter registration drives, stories in numerous national and local ethnic media outlets, visibility at Asian community events, Asian American phone banks, and even the opening of a grassroots campaign office in the Philadelphia Chinatown.
You can learn more about why I'm running and my work as an activist for Obama at www.RameyKo.com. Please don't hesitate to e-mail me at Ramey.Ko@gmail.com with any questions or comments.
(A similar article was written in The Newspaper Tree. Should the challenge be successful, it could amount to a swing of approximately 22 state convention delegates for Obama. Coupled with whatever is going on in SD 26 (they're supposed to release numbers today), Obama could expect a significant bump in challenges. Enough to make his split 38-29, and not 37-30? We'll have to wait and see... - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Danny Anchondo, Chairman of the El Paso County Democratic Party, and fervent Hillary supporter, may have put the entire delegation of El Paso in jeopardy.
The El Paso County Democratic Convention is mired in controversy regarding the seating of at-large delegates to the state convention in June. El Paso's popular vote went for Hillary Clinton, around 70%-30%. The delegate proportion at the convention went in Hillary's favor at a margin of around 76%-24%.
Democratic party rule [(10. Election Procedure in Presidential and in Non-Presidential Years, (d)(4)]
reads "Poll results shall be used by the Nominations Committee and by the Convention as a whole as the basis for nominating and for electing At-Large Delegates so as to ensure the fairest possible representation of the Convention participants as a whole within the total delegation, without disturbing the Precinct Caucus election results."By this rule the delegates that are sent to the state convention should more or less reflect the popular vote margin.
This is where the wheels came off. Anchondo stacked all the committees with a large amount of Hillary supporters and ensured that they got their way. That's fine, that's politics and the system we operate under.
However, there are rules to protect the minority. Apparently Anchondo, and Nominations Committee Chair (and former State Committeeman) Ken Sutherland didn't care much for protecting the minority. Sutherland says that he knows that there were many Hillary delegates that never got seated and that the number of delegates signed in at the convention, about 6% more than the popular vote margin, didn't accurately reflect the will of the people in El Paso.
So he felt like a more appropriate representation of the will of the people of El Paso was a 90%-10% split in favor of Hillary! The Obama camp immediately raised objections but Danny Anchondo pulled a Pontius Pilot and left the vote up to the body, which was 3-1 in favor of Hillary.
The irony is that many of the El Paso County Democratic Party establishment that were willing conspirators in the shenanigans, like out-going Representative Paul Moreno, complain about the tactics used by Tom Craddick in the legislature. Apparently they figured if you can't beat'em, join'em. The pulled the same thing in El Paso.
The part I can't figure out about Mr. Sutherlands idea of "fair" is where he came up with the 90% figure. He seems to have pulled that out of thin air and there is nothing in the record offered to substantiate the method used to arrive at that margin. Furthermore, if there was a problem seating the Hillary delegates, one has to wonder why. The Hillary camp clearly controls the local party leadership, the nominations committee, and the credentials committee!
This will end up as a fight at the state level and there are basically three possible outcomes. Outcome number one is that there is a challenge in the state credentials committee and the Obama delegates from El Paso get seated. Outcome number two is that the Obama delegation is not seated and the state party allows everything to proceed as is. And outcome number three is that the entire El Paso delegation is not allowed to be seated.
Now we all know what it's like in the Democratic Party sometimes. Some of the most rough and tumble fights I was ever in were with my own brothers, but at the end of the day, if anyone picked on someone in our family we dropped the in fighting and banded together. Much like our party does.
But this is something that Anchondo has fostered and allowed to get out of hand. The Democratic Party in El Paso may be irreparably split as a result. What makes things worse is that it didn't have to be done this way. Hillary was clearly going to have more than twice the number of delegates from El Paso, as she should have. The Obama camp, led by State Representative Norma Chavez, never sought to unseat Hillary delegates in place of Obama delegates. They were simply trying to get the amount that there were entitled to in accordance with party rules.
Danny Anchondo has taken the Democrat out of the democratic process in El Paso.
Here is the current state of the TX primary following this weekend's convention/caucus results, projecting ahead.
As we have stated before, the final caucus results won't be until the state convention on June 6, so these are not final numbers, but rather the current state of the race, should it end today. Obviously the Caucus numbers can and will change in the coming months -- but it's also fair to report where we are now.
Here is the source for our figures, all of which have a permanent home in the box in the top-right hand corner of our page, along with the county-by-county results we were using all weekend:
My only comment about these results is to link back to what I wrote on February 13, about how to win the Texas primary:
Senator Obama could come close to Senator Clinton in the "primary" portion and dominate the "caucus" portion --- the only catch is that those 67 votes that come from the "caucus" system won't be known until June at the Texas Democratic Party Convention.
If the expectations are that Senator Clinton will win and perhaps even dominate in Texas, then even Senator Obama finishing close on Election Day -- with an understanding that he will do well in the future caucuses -- could be enough to count as a win for Senator Obama.
2:30pm, 4/13 update by Phillip - I updated the caucus-chosen results. The * indicates the 0.3% of delegates that are uncommited going into the state convention.
2:30pm Updated by Phillip - And with the counties I just added, a 37-30 split is again where we're at. Read our results to learn more.
Most of the conventions have already taken place across Texas, so while we're nursing our collective headaches and various body aches, I figured we might want a thread to discuss the resolutions that our respective Senatorial Conventions have passed on to the State Convention this coming June.
Training for Obama Delegation Chairs
Training for ANYONE who has or will have any leadership role in your precinct!!!
Greetings!
If you have attended a training, have contacted your delegates from your precinct, know who is being nominated and who is assigned to vote for those nominees, then you need not join us.
If you don't know what I'm talking about in the first paragraph, then you REALLY need to either come to this meeting or contact the Obama Staffers to get trained.
Training Time & Location:
Saturday, March 22nd, 5:00 pm
816 Congress, 2nd Floor
We'll stay until every question is answered and we'll assist you with understanding the strategy you need to use in YOUR precinct.
Every precinct MUST meet before the Saturday convention to decide their precinct's strategy. If your precinct is NOT meeting, you can expect that you will lose in your elections and/or will have a real problem dealing with the Precinct Caucus on the 29th!
Please do the following:
1) Get yourself trained.
2) Get your Obama delegates and alternates together to plan your strategy
3) Tell us if you are NOT able to organize your precinct so that someone who is trained and can do so can step up to the plate.
Sincerely,
Glen Maxey 512-656-6337
Obama Staffers:
Ronnie or Victoria: 512-476-2008
(Mark's got some great work done here to make the process as transparent as possible. We encourage others to read through the resolutions here, share thoughts and concerns, and help everyone think through the best resolutions possible. Additionally, we encourage those from other Senate Districts to post similar posts for their Senate District. We're working on a "County Convention" box where we will help track everything. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
This post constitutes the report of the SD 26 Resolutions Committee. With the permission of the BOR staff, and as chair of the committee, I am posting the SD 26 resolutions here so that:
Everyone will have the opportunity to read and discuss the resolutions before the convention takes place.
Democrats outside of SD 26 are welcome to express their views on these issues of statewide significance. (Our party can withstand healthy discussions on important issues, even when there isn't a consensus of opinion!)
Democrats across Texas will recognize the potential of the resolutions process in amplifying the voice of the grassroots of the party, as we have this opportunity to express our views collectively only once every two years. Because delegates assembled in convention represent the highest level of authority within the Texas Democratic Party, we can expect our elected Democratic representatives in state and federal government to pay attention.
There should be transparency in the actions of our committee. Our intent is to allow good ideas to defy gravity and float to the top, even if they began with only a single precinct.
The precinct conventions are about to take place, so it is worth noting that the purpose of electing delegates and alternates is that they should represent their candidate at the county convention or senatorial district convention on Saturday, March 29 (time and location to be announced by your county Democratic Party). It is wise to ask people before electing them for this important duty whether they will be able to attend on March 29. If they don't, an alternate will be chosen in their place.
As the Rules of the Texas Democratic Party specify, delegates who will be absent should choose which alternate elected from their precinct convention will take their place. They should choose from the same presidential preference, if possible.
If the delegate fails to choose which alternate would take his or her place, then the entire delegation from that precinct will choose which of the elected alternates will take the delegate's place, choosing from the same presidential preference, if possible.
It's clearly in the best interest of the caucus that they elect delegates who will either attend the March 29 convention or fulfill their duty of choosing which alternate will replace them. Keep this in mind when you elect delegates at your precinct convention tonight!
With all the attention that Tuesday night's precinct convention (or caucus, or "Texas Two-Step" part 2) is getting, there's going to be an enormous turnout at polling places at 7:15 pm on March 4, because so much is at stake.
It is crucial that each convention be conducted properly, because 67 national convention delegates will be elected through the process that begins with the precinct conventions in Texas. Every precinct throughout the state is in need of a precinct convention chair who understands the rules and can run the convention properly.
This precinct convention chair doesn't have to be the "precinct chair" who was elected in 2006, or a candidate for precinct chair whose term, if elected, will begin this year on April 28. Any Democrat who participates in the precinct convention can be elected as the permanent convention chair. And, if you know what needs to be done, that could be you.
The Rules Committee of the Bexar County Democratic Party has created an online training session on precinct convention procedures. Check it out here.
(While I contributed to this training module, the principal creators were Zada True-Courage, Ian Straus, Larry Meads, Dick Waits, and Nancy Timmer-Froment. My congratulations to them on a job well done!)
