More Cowtown Craziness
March 29th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
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.”
March 29th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
is disarray not to be expected when the convention is held at the Will Rogers Memorial Center?
“I belong to no organized political party, I’m a Democrat”
March 29th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
The convention for Senate district 10 was an definition of insanity. We were told that registration would start at 8:00 am only to find when everyone arrived that the paperwork had only just arrived to the coliseum. Actually, many people we told to arrive early, around 7 am, but yours truly was running late. It took another hour for the Tarrant County Democratic Party (TCDP) to handle the paperwork, while the line of people grew around the building.
At 9 am, the TCDP decided to let everyone in and gather inside, according to precinct number. I found my precinct 2307 (which wasn’t that easy as the posted precinct numbers didn’t seem to appear in any numerical order) and we waited until around noon, when it was decided that every precinct could go to the registration tables to sign in and register. Our precinct district is rather large, I’ve been told it’s the 9th largest district, so there was 21 Obama delegates and 12 Clinton delegates and alternates, which is why I believe our convention ranrather smoothly campared to others there. The Clinton delegates challeged 6 delegates (Obama) so we signed and they reviewed our challenges. It was around 1:30 pm when we got back to our seating.
I tried to listen to the resolutions as we reviewed our voting strategy. We had lost a delegate from the credenials committee because some of the caucus attendees that were Obama supporters had mistaken our caucus for theirs and attended the wrong caucus by mistake.
Another seeming crises arose while waiting for the packets with the voting material in it. Our five alternates, filling in for delegates who couldn’t attend, were called back to the upstairs “administrative area” where our signing in and credentials room was held. They had be “certified” as delegates or something. I kept hearing announcements from the podium area saying that many delegates were over credited to one campaign or the other and I was stricken with a fear that our delegation would cut again to only 15. I found and hugged our Obama field organizer who said the TCDP had decided the alternates should be credentialed as delegates as an additional step and said our alternates should be allowed to vote for a delegate to the state convention. We returned to our seats to continue the wait for the packets.
Around resolution…, I can’t remember, but it about 3:30 pm, we were told to send one member from our precincts to the registration tables to retreive the packets. Our runner, a 18 year old high school student named Jared, waited in line there for a half hour, before returning with news that packets were going to be delivered to each precinct as they were prepared. I’m not sure what actually hapened; one of the Clinton delegates managed to get our packet about 4:00.
At 6:00 pm, we were done voting and were packing up to leave. we were taking pictures and thanking each other for all the hard work everyone put in. A middle-aged woman with grayish-blond short hair, a blue Obama t-shirt and stickers and her arm walked up to our group.
“You can’t leave,” she said. “There are Clinton lawyers who are here. I’m not an Obama supporter. I’ve met them. They arew downstairs right now. One of them was at the election office last night. They are planning to challenge the convention if the Obama people leave. You need to stay, they are aggressive.”
I didn’t know what to think. I wanted to leave and I knew several people from the Fort Worth campaign office and I didn’t know her. I also didn’t know what to think about a woman who says she’s not an Obama supporter, but is wearing his t-shirt. I went to find someone I knew that would know what the story was.
I tracked down well-known and well-connected Obama supporter in the crendentials office. There were police officers standing at the door and a lot of people in line at the packats table. This is what I remember him saying. “I don’t want any Obama suppoters leaving. I would say it like this: We have been waiting a long time for this moment. They need to wait a little longer. Pass the word.”
I did and we waited. And ordered pizza. And listened at least 55 or 56 resolutions. And to a lot of tired and upset people. We finally left at around 8:00 pm. The convention wasn’t over, but we were too tired to stay. We did our best and I hope that the thousands of people who spent 12 or hours will get their vote and their voices heard. AND THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE VOLUNTEERRS!
March 31st, 2008 at 8:02 am
I just wanted to state when the Tarrant SD 10 convention finished after the selection of At Large delegates: 3:30 AM.