(You certainly can't complain about a shortage of things to do tonight in Austin as the State Convention delegates arrive. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
It's time for Texas Democrats to come together to defeat John McCain and take back the White House for the Democrats!
To help encourage party unity, Obama and Clinton suporters are teaming up to host a "Unity Pub Crawl" tonight to welcome statewide convention delegates to Austin. Both the Obama and Clinton campaigns are hosting parties at nearby bars on Red River Street, and the goal is to encourage Texas Democrats to intermingle and kick-start the unity process.
This Unity Pub Crawl is within walking distance of the Hilton Hotel, so come join us tonight as we "paint Red River Street blue"!
When:
8:00pm - midnight Thursday, June 5
Clinton Anchor Party:
Bull McCabes Irish Bar 714 Red River St Featuring Hillary Harp Pints and Irish Mules with a Clinton Kick
Obama Anchor Party:
Club de Ville 900 Red River St Ron Kirk will speak at 9:30pm Featuring Obama-rama Ritas and Barack Beers
2008 will be a Democratic year, and the unity process starts tonight!
Hey all you SD14 and SD25 Clinton and Obama delegates that want to get in front of some folks: You are more than welcome to come to the LFT meetup on Tuesday. Like at DFT meetup, we'll do a quick 'why vote for me' spiel, among other things.
Meet your fellow Democrats, and buy them a drink, why don't ya?
Tuesday,May 20, 7pm at El Mercado (1302 S 1st St, Austin 78704) join us for a few margaritas, a taco or two, and great political discussion with friends. This month's agenda includes:
Carlos Barrera. Latinos For Texas PAC will present the soon-to-be next Hispanic Judge to sit on a Travis County Court of Law, Carlos Barrera, with a donation to help him take the bench in County Court #8. LFT PAC will also be taking contributions to futher our mission.
Meet the National Delegate Candidates. There's an army of activists in SD-14 and SD-25, and we all want to do more for the Democrats. Meet those running at the State Convention for the SDEC, committees, national delegate, and even elector, so you can make an informed choice.
Travis County Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign. Working on the TCDP Coordinated Campaign is the #1 thing activists can do locally because we aren't just helping to elect down-ballot Democrats, we're also giving our state-wide candidates the margins they need to help put them into office. Meet Kate Murrow, Field Director for Rep. Valinda Bolton
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.
(This would be an appropriate step in getting the El Paso SD-29 delegation properly adjusted to the right delegate allocation and correct the incorrect at-large distribution there. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Obama supporter, Black Democrats of El Paso President and former Family Court Judge Don Williams and El Paso County Democratic Party Chair Danny Anchondo were guests on a local talk radio program Saturday morning to discuss the March 29 convention in SD29, during which Williams announced he intended to officially challenge the seating of the El Paso delegation to the State Democratic Party Convention.
Mr. Williams opened his remarks by stating that he is first and foremost a Democrat, that he would vote for the Democratic candidate in November, and that this dispute is, largely, a "family" dispute. As with any family that has disputes, we Democrats are, first and foremost, a family that unites in common purpose.
But he went on to say that as a 50-some odd old black man, he had some serious issues with oppression, and he characterized what went on at the Senate district caucus as "oppression."
He then stated he had filed and intended to pursue, an official challenge to the El Paso delegation with the Texas Democratic party. He gave Chairman Anchondo and the radio host a copy.
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
And away we go...on to the county/senate district conventions, whether we like it or not...
Here in Bastrop County, things went relatively well on March 4. The polls were well-staffed, and nearly all of the precinct conventions were conducted fairly and properly. I suppose we'll all know more as March 29 approaches and we see how many credentials challenges are lodged, but I believe we had a solid crop of trained caucus-goers and chairs and that should minimize problems for us as the process goes forward.
Nearly all of the problems I've seen cited, both here on BOR and elsewhere, seem directly tied to lack of preparation and leadership at the county and precinct level. With all the training sessions by county parties, SDEC folk, DFT and the like, I feel like I had adequate preparation for the process and a good background in the rules, but I understand this was not the case for a lot of those who wound up chairing PCs around the state. (I'm fortunate to live in a county that still has a relatively strong and active local party.)
Add to that the flurry of paranoid emails from the Clinton campaign to their caucus-goers (one Clinton supporter at my PC basically recited the most proliferated one line for line as we proceeded by the book), and some probably erroneous/rash instructions from Obama organizers to their ground troops about sign-in rules and order of business, etc., and there was bound to be trouble as the turnout went off the charts. By and large I think we had a lot of misunderstandings that were magnified by the contentiousness of this nomination process.
So as the TDP attempts to take advantage of this golden opportunity while simultaneously trying to wriggle out of a huge mess and sort out all the problems and find missing results, I'm not sure I should trouble them for some clarification as to how we proceed to allocate delegates from county to state. But I'm on the Rules Committee, so I hereby seek input from the BOR braintrust and peanut gallery....
As I read the rules here:
(d) At the County or Senatorial District Conventions, precincts shall elect their Delegates in accordance with Party Rules, and At-Large Delegates shall be selected by the Convention according to the following procedure:
(1) Either a written poll of Delegates or a roll call poll of the Convention shall be conducted to determine political preferences. The method to be used shall be determined by the County or Senatorial District Committee in advance of the Convention or, if it fails to act, by the Permanent Convention Chair. The written poll of Delegates may be either by ballot or by sign-in sheet on forms prescribed by the County or Senatorial District Committee. These forms shall require the signature of each Delegate, attesting to the Delegate's political preference (in non-presidential years) or presidential preference or uncommitted status (in presidential years). No Delegate may sign more than once. Final establishment of the poll, either by roll call or in writing, shall be the first order of business immediately following the election of Permanent Convention Officers and before the Convention conducts any other business.
(2) Upon completing the poll, results shall be tabulated by a committee appointed by the Permanent Convention Chair and composed of at least one person for each known political or presidential preference. The Chair then shall announce the tabulation results to the convention by number and percentages of votes received by each political or presidential preference. The tabulation then shall be written into the permanent records of the Convention and shall be reported as part of the minutes. The poll records, including the ballots, sign-in sheets, or roll call poll, shall be retained by the County or Senatorial District Chair as part of the official files of the Convention for at least six months. Such records shall be open to public inspection at reasonable hours upon request.
(3) Any written forms used in conducting such poll, or the announced method of polling, if by roll call poll, shall include all known political preferences (in non-presidential years) or presidential preferences and uncommitted status (in presidential years) of Delegates, but shall not limit the right of any Delegate or group of Delegates to indicate their preference in any manner which they choose.
(4) 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. The threshold will be the lowest allowed by the National Committee (which at present is 15%).
It seems to confirm that regardless of who shows up at the county convention, the allocation of the county's delegates to state are basically set by the precinct caucus results - i.e., we do not 're-caucus' at the county convention - but that any at-large delegates can be allocated using the results of the county convention sign-in rolls
(subject to credentials challenges, I assume). In short, the at-large delegates are up for grabs to whichever candidate's supporters have the highest convention attendance - but it also sounds like this is entirely up to the county Nominations Committee.
Obviously I've been studying and ciphering, but I'm not a Rules Geek yet.
The following link takes you to a spreadsheet based on the numbers from the Secretary of State's website that shows the early vote totals for the 15 counties with the highest numbers of registered voters:
Follow those two links or look at the chart below (thanks to one of my teacher friends for putting these together for me) to get a broad view of the numbers:
TX Dem Primary Early Vote Through 6 Days (2-19 - 2-24)
County
Reg Voters
Total In-Person And Mail Voters
% Early Voting 2008
Total In- Person And Mail Voters 2004
% Early Voting 2004
Increase 2008 over 2004
Harris
1,804,641
66,756
3.70%
5,779
0.32%
60,977
Dallas
1,114,002
49,485
4.44%
4,442
0.39%
45,043
Tarrant
890,412
35,144
3.95%
3,926
0.46%
31,218
Bexar
867,084
42,198
4.87%
6,161
0.72%
36,037
Travis
541,315
36,890
6.81%
6,540
1.23%
30,350
Collin
378,730
15,155
4.00%
870
0.26%
14,285
El Paso
368,579
23,794
6.46%
7,253
2.06%
16,541
Denton
329,099
11,180
3.40%
761
0.26%
10,419
Hidalgo
287,988
25,564
8.88%
13,071
5.08%
12,493
FortBend
267,583
13,581
5.08%
568
0.25%
13,013
Montgomery
224,321
5,265
2.35%
432
0.22%
4,833
Williamson
206,334
8,708
4.22%
832
0.46%
7,876
Nueces
189,534
9,106
4.80%
3,697
1.93%
5,409
Galveston
180,288
7,563
4.19%
1,060
0.60%
6,503
Total
7,815,906
360,259
4.61%
55,392
0.72%
304,867
Here are the highlights:
360,259 Democrats have voted in the primary through Sunday -- 304,867 more than this point in time in the 2004 primary election. That is absolutely phenomenal.
In 2004, about 71,000 votes were cast in Harris County -- including the early vote and Election Day totals. Through Sunday, over 64,000 voters had voted early in Harris County -- I expect that they broke last year's mark today.
In 2004, about 51,000 votes were cast in Dallas County -- including the early vote and Election Day totals. Through Sunday, over 47,600 voters had voted early in Dallas County -- if they didn't break last year's mark today, they'll break it tomorrow.
The entire statewide turnout in the Democratic primary (early vote and Election Day) in 2004 was around 800,000. There's a chance -- not a certainty, but a chance -- that we will see more voters cast their ballots early this cycle than in all of 2004.
Texas Democrats are celebrating the election of a lifetime.
According to a release that was just forwarded to me from CNN:
7.6 million viewers tuned in to the CNN/Univision Democratic primary debate from the University of Texas at Austin last night, making it the second highest-rated primary debate in cable news history.
The debate drew:
7,576,000 total viewers 1,257,000 18-34 viewers;
2,812,000 18-49 viewers, and
2,986,000 25-54 viewers.
CNN.com had more than 764,000 live video streams yesterday, the site’s highest on record
We've done a lot of reporting here at Burnt Orange Report over the past few days, especially on the Texas primary and Texas delegate process. To help you keep up, we've created this FAQ -- which you can find later as a permanent link in the "TX Primary Resources" box on the top-right hand corner of the site. If you have any more questions, please submit them below, and we'll answer them as best we can.
How Do I Know Where to Vote?
Early voting started today, February 19, and ends on February 29. Texas' primary day is March 4. If you need to find your polling place, the Texas Secretary of State will help you figure that out. Also, if you are out of the county, disabled, or over 65, you can vote by mail. Learn how here:
Texas will send 228 delegates to the national convention. Of those, 193 are "pledged" delegates chosen through our hybrid primary/caucus "primacaucus" system, and 35 are "superdelegates."
It is being called the "Texas Two-Step" and it goes like this:
Voters vote early or go to the polls and cast their ballots as they would any normal election. This is the "primary" portion -- and this method will select 126 of the state's delegates.
Fifteen minutes after the polls close, those who voted in the primary may also caucus -- much like you've read is done in Iowa. This is the "caucus" portion -- and this method will select 67 of the state's delegates.
We have created -- with the terrific help of our friends at 2008 Democratic Convention Watch -- a page to track how each of Texas' 35 superdelegates intend to vote at the National Convention. We wil continue updating this page throughout and following the Texas primary season.
Sort of. We will know who won the "primary" portion of the Texas primary on election day. Delegates are awarded by Senate Districts (not Congressional Districts, like in other states). The Secretary of State will report voting totals by Senate District, so we will know who won that portion -- but we may not have a good idea of the "caucus" portion for some time.
To learn more about the makeup of the Senate Districts, follow this link:
How Many Votes Does a Candidate Need to Win a Senate District?
It depends on the size of the Senate District. In order to win a Senate District with 4 delegates, for example, a candidate must receive 62.51% of the vote in order to gain a 3-1 delegate "win." Otherwise, the delegates will be evenly split. An interesting note: 15 of Texas' 31 Senate Districts have 4 delegates, including most of the South and East Texas Senate Districts.
Additionally, the Lone Star Project has created a delegate calculator, to help you make predictions for how the primary portion will shake out. To see a breakdown of the voting strength of all of Texas' Senate Districts, follow these links:
What do the Latest Poll Numbers Look Like in Texas?
There are many different polls out there, with many more to come. The best advice we have is to check back with our site regularly for updates. BOR commissioned IVR polls to be done last year on the Presidential primary race, and they are the only "historical" numbers on the candiates. They will have another poll out soon; in the mean time, there is one website -- Pollster -- that aggregates most all of the polls done in TX, and we regularly check their site for the best reporting on poll numbers.
We're so glad you asked! Numerous other important elections will be on the ballot on March 4. You'll need to visit your own county's website to view your ballot specifically, but the Secretary of State's page gives an overview of the races on the ballot.
Additionally, if you want to bring a resolution to the state convention in June, then you should bring it to your precinct caucus. A list of some proposed resolutions can be found below:
We at Burnt Orange Report are, first and foremost, thrilled to see so many Democrats get involved in the process. The more we learn about our democratic systems and the more active of an electorate, the stronger our democracy becomes.
That being said, we endorsed Senator Barack Obama, and we believe -- given the way the Texas primary process works -- that he will be the winner of the Texas primary once everything is all said and done.
Where Can I Learn More About Senator Clinton and Senator Obama?
If you absolutely must learn more than what we are reporting here on BOR (why would you?), then here are some potential places to learn more about their Texas campaigns:
There's always more to learn and more to find out. We would be wrong to make you think that all the answers you can find are here on this page. To learn more about the process, the Texas Democratic Party has terrific resources that can help you out:
