The Texas Observer

The Obama campaign declared victory in the senatorial conventions held yesterday. This just in, the Clinton campaign has declared… something else. See below.

And of course, the counties are still counting.

Statement by Texas Campaign Chairman Garry Mauro

Austin, TX – Following the Democratic Party’s county conventions in Texas this weekend, Clinton Campaign Texas Chairman Garry Mauro issued the following statement.

“Our delegates came out to their county conventions in full force over the weekend, and as a result, we gained at least two delegates to the national convention, with the possibility of picking up two more. Barack Obama did not make threshold in at least 20 counties, and we out-performed in many areas throughout rural Texas, where Hillary Clinton’s support is strong.

“We continue to be grateful to the enthusiastic support Hillary continues to receive throughout the Lone Star state, and look forward to a strong showing at the Texas State Convention in June.”

This in from the Obama Campaign. It might be a bit premature. When we get something from the Clinton Campaign, we’ll post that as well.

Meanwhile, once again the national media is shaking its head at the bedlam produced by Texas Democrats…

Caucuses Guarantee Obama Win In Texas

AUSTIN - With more than 56% of the results tallied from today’s 284 Democratic district conventions across Texas, Senator Barack Obama currently is projected to earn a 38-29 pledged delegate win in the Texas caucuses, exactly as projected on the day after the March 4th precinct caucuses. The nine delegate margin in the caucuses means Obama will gain a net margin of five pledged delegates from Texas because Senator Clinton narrowly won the Texas primary by only four delegates, 65-61.

“Despite the Clinton campaign’s widespread attempts to prevent many Texans from participating in their district convention, the voters of Texas confirmed Senator Obama’s important delegate win in the Lone Star State,” said Obama spokesman Josh Earnest. “Today’s record-shattering turnout sends a clear message that the American people are ready for change in Washington and new leadership in the White House that will stand up for working families.”

The Obama campaign will release a more detailed tally of the results tomorrow.

Democracy Inaction at Senate District Six by Emily DePrang

Full results can be found at Burnt Orange Report

Over a thousand delegates and an unknown number of alternates converged today on the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston to wait for literally eight hours to begin voting. While an unexpectedly large number of delegates turned out, precinct chairs from several small precincts did not show up at all, and a quorum wasn’t declared until 1:15 p.m. That’s when officials in the Credentials committee started tabulating the registration paperwork to come up with a temporary delegate roll, which was needed before any voting could happen. Despite explicit instructions not to, several precincts decided on their delegates amongst themselves, turned in their ballots to their precinct captains, and went home.

By 5:00, the hall started to feel like the Breakfast Club, like the full spectrum of Democrats got sentenced to Saturday detention and hung out together for long enough that they learned they’re more alike than different.

The feeling lasted until someone actually took the podium and read the delegate count. “Of 1152 delegates, 513 went to Obama…” the speaker said to a deathly quiet room, because everyone knows that’s not enough. “And 637 to Clinton.” The Clinton camp exploded. The Obama camp was pissed. It’s 45 percent to 55 percent, with two delegates undecided.

(Update below)

The line outside the Memorial Auditorium in downtown San Antonio snaked around the auditorium and down the street. The historic auditorium was the meeting place for two Bexar County Democratic conventions, Senate Districts 21 and 25.Despite the chaos, confusion and party rules that could only have been written by a group of Democrats under the influence of some powerful fermented elixir, people were surprisingly upbeat.

“I waited in line for five hours for the caucus, so I’ll wait here as long as I have to,” said Maryann Blue, a delegate from District 25. “It’s important to be counted.”

Michael Stephens, a convention volunteer for District 21, summed up the convention in one word “chaotic.”

“A lot of people showed up whose names were not on the lists,” he said. “Their paperwork for the caucus was not turned in correctly.

“In Kansas we learn how to do this at school in civics class,” Stephens said. “This is a bit more chaotic.”

People milled around in the lobby looking for familiar faces as they tried to scout out their precincts. A woman complained loudly on her cell phone that she had gotten into the convention as a delegate but her husband was not allowed in. “He signed up as a delegate and he has witnesses,” she huffed into her phone.

More than 2,000 people showed up for the district 25 convention — the biggest turnout out in decades.

At 11:00 a.m., Laura Flores, 29, had been waiting in line for nearly two hours. She held a Hillary Clinton sign in her hand. The line wrapped around the outside of the auditorium and down the street. “I feel like I’ve been in the same spot for the past 2 hours. I came to the convention four years ago and we signed in met and it was over like that,” she said. “There were about 30 people here.”

Downstairs at the auditorium, the District 21 convention plugged along. Only one-quarter the size of the convention upstairs, it was like an oasis of calm compared to the craziness on the first floor.

All was not calm in the Credentials Committee room, however. This is where delegates are challenged for faulty paperwork, shoddy interpretations of the party rules and the like. In a side room, approximately 15 volunteers tried to decipher chicken scratch handwriting and the arcane Texas Democratic Party rules.

“This precinct paperwork is so screwed up we can’t even read it,” said Linda Allen, a precinct chair and part of the Credentials Committee. Allen said the precinct would have to re-caucus and nominate their delegates over again. The problem was no one could get into the convention downstairs unless they were already a delegate or an alternate. To make things more confusing, a parliamentarian from Austin said they would have to post notice for 10 days before they could have another caucus.

Throughout the day, people grumbled about not being on the list of delegates even though they had signed up. Other precincts were told they would have to re-caucus on the spot but they couldn’t find enough precinct members to form a quorum.

“This is pretty dismal,”said Michael Gordon, a member of the SD 21 Credential Committee. “You can’t enter the convention without a delegate or alternate badge, so the precincts can’t re-caucus if they need to.”

Gordon said a lady had sneaked down the fire escape to get into the convention, because they wouldn’t let her in. “There’s no way this will represent the actual will of the precincts,” he said.

There was no luck in trying to figure out the Credentials Committee for SD 25. It was total chaos with at least 57 precincts challenged. To make matters worse it was located next to the line for BBQ. Time after time hungry people got in line for a chopped beef sandwich and potato salad only to be asked which delegate they were challenging.

After about seven hours, the convention convened. Hillary Clinton sent a celebrity to speak to the masses — Sean Astin, otherwise known as the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings. Astin made an appearance at the Travis County conventions as well.

“I love you Samwise Gamgee,” someone shouted from the audience.

“I love you too,” replied Astin.

The love plummeted from there, however. And Astin probably would have preferred the Dark Lord Sauron to the amped up convention crowd. As Astin started to stump for Clinton and speak about her virtues as the first woman President, a chorus of boos erupted from Obama supporters.

“Let me just say something,” said the flustered hobbit. “Despite the way you are receiving me. Whichever candidate wins even if it’s not my candidate I will be a fierce campaigner for that candidate.” With that Astin quickly disappeared from the stage.

By 5:30 p.m. the District 25 convention was still waiting for the Credentials Committee to announce the challenged delegates. The convention chair asked his daughter and another woman to sing an a capella version of God Bless America to keep the crowd entertained. Finally, a preliminary count of delegates was announced: 559 for Clinton and 617 for Obama. The Obama supporters erupted into loud applause and celebration.

When the merrymaking finally settled, Ian Straus, the temporary chair of the convention, had some wise counsel for the convention delegates.

“We are Democrats because we have so much in common,” he said. “This delegate count is very close with 47.5 percent for Clinton and 52.5 percent for Obama. Only five percent divides us — don’t make enemies of your fellow Democrats.”

At 5:30 when we slipped out, delegates were still trying to figure out if they would need to re-caucus.

Update

Burnt Orange Report listed the District 25 results late last night as 57 delegates for Clinton and 62 delegates for Obama. Sunday, District 21 results were reported as 13 for Clinton and 27 delegates for Obama.

Update, (see below)

Democratic delegates for Senate Districts 14 and 25 started arriving at the Travis County Exposition Center by 7:30 a.m.

By 9:00, a traffic jam extended miles away from the expo center. Those who didn’t want to wait in their cars, parked on the side of the road and walked the rest of the way.

When delegates arrived, long lines to get their credentials greeted them. The official schedule had optimistically set the Call to Order to begin at 10. A volunteer told the crowd trudging in: “The check-in has been extended indefinitely.” It was still going on by noon.

Nonetheless, the Travis County Democratic convention could end up being one of the smoother major urban area conventions in Texas. Much of the credit should go to the credentials committees. The committees began meeting Tuesday night and worked steadily through the rest of the week. They were divided almost evenly and yet exhibited little partisan rancor.

SD 14 had 8 Obama members and 7 Clinton members. They decided all of the dozen or so challenges they heard unanimously. “There was no sign of anyone putting their thumbs on the scale,” said committee member Deece Eckstein.

A few major problems became apparent almost immediately. The largest concerned the caucus sign-in sheets from March 4. The tri-part forms included a space for whether the caucus-goer was elected a delegate or an alternate. The idea was that after everybody signed in, the caucus goers would vote to determine the delegates and alternates. After that, the precinct chair would write a D or an A next to the appropriate names.

But those who signed in thought the space was a place to indicate a preference–that they wanted to be a delegate. Many people put Ds beside their names. Precinct chairs then failed to cross them out if they were not in fact delegates. The sheet along with supplemental sheets from the actual delegate selection elections were then sent to the county party to be inputed into the master list. Those entering the data didn’t want to disenfranchise anyone so they just identified everybody who had a D by their name as a delegate. That list was then put on the Internet. The result was that many more delegates than a precinct had a right to showed up at the convention.

These overages have created chaos across the state. Additionally, it appears that many folks had trouble with the complicated mathematical formula the Party provided to determine the ratios of delegates. Finally, poor data entry created confusion when names were mangled. Deece Eckstein, for example, wore a delegate badge that identified him as Delbert Einstein.

In Travis County, the committees patiently worked through the problems. In precincts with too many delegates, members were told that they had decide who would get to stay, if they didn’t the committee would pick the names out of a hat.

“People get all heated and they want their candidate but if you kind of force them to be fair — they’re fair,” said Reggie James, who is on the credentials committee for SD 25.

Kudos particularly to Travis County District Attorney David Escamilla, SD 14 committee co-chair, who approached each case with a preternatural calm, offering Solomon-like solutions.

While the sign-in and credential challenge process worked itself out, a number of politicians, candidates, and guests served up red-meat speeches to the crowd. Congressman Lloyd Doggett went first since his district covers three counties and he had other conventions to attend.

He applauded delegates for working toward a future after the “unmitigated disaster that has been the presidency of George W. Bush.” And working to bring to an end “the dictatorship of Tom Craddick “and “the public embarrassment of Rick Perry.”

Doggett, who has endorsed Barack Obama, talked about receiving angry e-mails from supporters of both Democratic presidential candidates, with each camp claiming that they’d rather vote Republican than support their primary opponent. “That kind of short-sighted perspective is a formula for failure,” he said. “We will get to the White House together or we will not get there at all.”

It was a refrain that most speakers echoed. Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, also an Obama supporter, reminded the crowd of an African proverb he likes to recite. “Two people in a burning house don’t have time to argue.

“We are all in the same house,” said Kirk. “And the president doesn’t even know the smoke detector has gone off.”

By around 3:00 the actual delegate selection began, two-and-a-half hours later than expected. By and large the crowd stayed in good humor and took the problems in stride.

When first confronted with the line to sign-in, state Rep. Mark Strama remarked, “We learned in Florida, better to be accurate than quick.”

It wasn’t quick but in Travis County at least, it might well be accurate.

Update:

Burnt Orange Report has the final tally for Travis County: 313 for Obama, 144 for Clinton

Organizers at the Senate District 10 convention in Fort Worth have coaxed proceedings to move in the right direction — though the process is agonizingly slow. And more than a few delegates are reaching their wit’s end.

We reported earlier this afternoon that the SD 10 convention featured mass confusion. For half the day, it seemed, delegates milled around with little clue of what was transpiring or even what was supposed to transpire.

By 3:30, most delegates had signed in. But the drama didn’t end. The convention still had too many folks signing in as delegates — by several hundred. Organizers planned for each precinct to re-caucus to winnow down their delegates to the correct number. At the same time, the precincts would nominate their delegates for the state convention.

By 4 p.m., the credentials committee was under siege from delegates and precinct chairs demanding their paperwork so they could re-caucus, and by angry delegates with various credential issues. Tarrant Co. Sheriff deputies were called in to clear the room. Officers then stood guard to keep delegates out of the credential committee room — ostensibly so the committee volunteers could finish their work. (They also refused to allow this reporter in the room.)

Tarrant County Democratic officials say they’ve been doing the best they can under the strain of handling the crush of delegates. The county party had neither the money nor work force of its own to accommodate the size of the convention and all the attendant problems — without help from the state party. Some organizers here said the state party was little help at all.

Meanwhile, out in the arena, delegates — some of whom had waited for six and seven hours — were staging a mini-revolt. They grabbed microphones and peppered the convention chair — who was reading proposed convention resolutions — with angry comments and parliamentary inquiries. “A lot of us are getting fed up with the lack of organization of this thing,” shouted one delegate into a mic. Eventually, the chair had to stop recognizing speakers, though pissed off delegates kept shouting into microphones set up around the arena … until the mics were turned off.

(Such hostility must have been slightly unnerving for party officials considering the Fort Worth Gun Show was taking place in an adjacent building.)

As evening approached, the process was at least moving along and there was an end in sight, though the convention was likely to last late into the night.

And not everyone had lost their patience. “I think it’s going just fine,” said first-time delegate Eric Green as he stood at the rail of the arena’s second deck watching the reading of resolutions (all 56 of them). He said that given the huge number of delegates, the delays weren’t surprising. “From everything I was hearing, I had everything in order so that I could be here all day. We knew how it was when we went to the primary election. There is really no reason to expect anything different. [Delegates] should have had it already in their minds that, at the convention, patience was really going to be a virtue….I’m just enjoying it. It’s a trip.”

Things aren’t exactly running smoothly at today’s convention for Democratic delegates in Tarrant County’s Senate District 10.

The convention is being held in the rodeo arena at the Will Rogers Coliseum in downtown Fort Worth. Nearly 4,000 Democrats have piled into the stands rimming the dirt rodeo floor. The setting seems rather appropriate: party officials and convention volunteers — in bopping around trying to deal with a dizzying number of problems — remind one of bull riders holding on for dear life.

The convention — the second in a three-step process to select the remaining 67 delegates in the Democratic Party presidential primary-caucus hybrid — was supposed to begin at 9:30 this morning. As of 1:30, the actual convention still hadn’t started, and frustrated delegates were wedged into a narrow hallway still trying to sign in.

The breakdowns are almost too numerous to list. The first major issue was limited parking. The Will Rogers complex is also hosting a horse show and a gun show today. So Democratic delegates in Volvos with Hillary and Obama bumper stickers had to compete for parking spaces with heavy duty pickups with gun racks.

Once inside, delegates waited all morning listening to time-killing speeches while the credentials committee tried to sort through the various logistical messes and some of the delegate challenges. As we reported yesterday, Tarrant County party officials have been struggling with their delegate list all week. Senate District 10 has hundreds of delegates more than it should. The challenge was compiling an accurate list of delegates. There seems to have been major confusion about whether local officials or the state party would create the delegate list used to check people when they sign in.

County Party Chair Art Brender said the list he got from the state party was unusable — it mistakenly listed many Clinton supporters for Obama and vice-versa. After that list was tossed, local officials have been organizing on the fly. The results have been predictable: delegates unable to sign in because their names aren’t on the list or their paperwork is missing, and, for some precincts, sign-in lists disappeared and had to be redone.

In the arena’s front hallway, delegates crowded together, waiting to sign in at make-shift tables. No one seemed to know what was going on.

By mid-morning, hours after the convention was supposed to start, Brender sat at a table in the frenetic, cacophonous hallway discussing the problems, hoping the sign in would begin soon. Before he could explain to the Observer what was happening, he was told that some tables had started signing in delegates from certain precincts prematurely (and without convention credentials to hand out) and wouldn’t stop when asked. “OK,” Brender sighed and was off to deal wit that issue. Brender is retiring as county party chair in two months. On this day, that probably can’t come soon enough.

The palpable excitement among delegates this morning at the sight of such a large gathering of Democrats — perhaps the biggest in Tarrant County in decades — was soon replaced by growing anger and frustration.

In a back room on the arena’s second floor, the credentials committee members (all volunteers) dashed around, stacks of paper in hand, trying to answer questions from many first-time delegates and solve one mini-problem after another. Eventually, a make-shift table was set up in the hall outside the credential committee room to catalog complaints and challenges. Delegates soon crowded the hall and pressed against the table.

The biggest challenge was generating an accurate list of delegates so each precinct could sign in. The sign-in is the most important aspect of the convention because the percentages of Obama and Clinton supporters who sign in will determine the number of delegates each candidate sends to the state convention in June (the third and final step in the process).

The sign in finally began at 11:30 and is expected to continue for hours. Meanwhile, party leaders and elected officials pleaded with delegates not to leave. By mid-afternoon, it appeared that many were sticking it out.

Ain’t democracy grand?

“This is embarrassing,” said one frustrated Obama delegate. “This is embarrassing for Tarrant County.”

More to come…