The Texas Observer

The results of the Texas presidential straw poll were just announced, and Congressman Duncan Hunter blew away the diminished field, receiving 41 percent of the vote. Perhaps more surprising was the strong showing of second-place finisher: former senator and “Law and Order” star Fred Thompson, who just announced his candidacy this week, kinda. He took 20 percent of the vote.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who had the most visible support this weekend, finished third with 16.7 percent. Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee each garnered 6 percent, and Mitt Romney received 4.7 percent.

And then there’s Ray McKinney — a Georgia Republican who on a whim decided to run for president during his vacation time and who during his speech today thanked delegates for “not taking this opportunity to go to the bathroom and listening to me” — received 2.2 percent. That placed him ahead of Sen. John McCain, Sen. Sam Brownback, and Congressman Tom Tancredo, who all tallied less than 1 percent.

A total of 1,300 delegates cast votes, far short of the number that party officials hoped would turn out and nowhere close to the turnout for even the most sparsely attended state conventions. It certainly didn’t help when all the major candidates opted not to participate. At the end of the day, the big loser at Texas’ first Republican presidential straw poll was the state party.

Today’s Republican presidential straw poll has been bizarre. And it wasn’t just the street theater surrounding the Fort Worth Convention Center. Inside, the event itself felt disjointed and oddly out of whack.

The straw poll had all the trappings of a typically well-organized, well-attended Texas GOP gathering: there were the delegates draped in red; the exhibit hall full of booths from myriad right-wing groups and candidates; some truly wing-nut positions slathered across bumper stickers and banners (one Tom Tancredo banner proclaimed: “Murder + Rape +Terrorists + Tax Burden=Illegal immigrants. Isn’t it time to secure America?”)

While it had the look of a mini state party convention, the energy that usually pulses through such gatherings of Texas Republican activists was missing. The grassroots of the party are not happy.

“There is so much apathy,” said delegate Ned Watkins, a senate district chair from Houston. “[Republicans] are angry with the governor and they’re angry with the president.” In fact, when Gov. Rick Perry appeared on a video message to the delegates this morning, there were scattered boos and hisses in the crowd.

Watkins said he’s had trouble enticing GOP precinct chairs in Houston to come to meetings. The grass roots are deeply frustrated with the performance of their elected officials, he said. Delegates here seemed less energized by the applause lines about national security and terrorism. When asked, most said they want officials to curb immigration and to cut government — two issues on which Republicans officeholders have not appeased the base lately.

Party leaders seem to sense the unrest. “I know it’s very easy to become dispirited when officials don’t live up to expectations,” Texas GOP Chair Tina Benkiser told delegates in her opening speech this morning. “But we cannot lose heart.”

The entire morning was consumed by fire-up-the-troops speeches from GOP officials, while images of Ronald Reagan and American soldiers flashed on large screens abutting the stage. (The actual straw poll voting didn’t begin until 12:30.) Every speaker tried to allay the grass-roots’ concerns. “We’re going to be flying into a stiff head wind in 2008,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said. “I believe there is one person who can unite all Republicans. Her name is Hillary Clinton.”

It was telling that the party’s rebel and longshot campaign, that of Ron Paul, has been the most visible presence here. Paul received tremendous ovations during his speech today (each candidate had 15 minutes to make his pitch for votes).

With the top candidates missing, the first-ever Texas presidential straw poll seems destined to be a one-day story. Whoever wins may benefit a bit. But by next week, it will likely be forgotten.

The true purpose of the event seemingly was to rally the party’s base. For the first time in a long while, party leaders weren’t making the sale. The GOP activists may well rediscover their energy in the 17 months before election day. But right now, the grassroots are feeling used and abused.

At one point this morning, while Cornyn droned on, one delegate leaned in to another and whispered, “I wish they would just let us vote and go home.”

Some good theater could be had this morning on the streets surrounding the Fort Worth Convention Center where the presidential straw poll was set to take place.

David Hall of Fort Worth rigged up a replica Liberty Bell on a trailer that he parked in front of the convention center. He claims it’s the nation’s only traveling replica Liberty Bell. All morning, delegates rang the bell in honor of fallen U.S. soldiers. The trailer was covered in Ron Paul signs, though Hall said he wasn’t endorsing any candidate.

The Paul supporters swarmed all over the convention; Ron Paul t-shirts and posters are everywhere you look. How many of these folks are actually voting delegates is anyone’s guess. One wonders, if Paul, an anti-war candidate, wins the Texas straw poll by a wide-majority, which would it worry more, the GOP or the pundits?

Meanwhile, the anti-war rally was a washout, literally. Rain began to fall about half an hour before the planned mid-day “peace rally.” Several hundred bedraggled activists gathered across the street from the convention center listening to reggae music.

Despite the poor turnout, there were a few golden moments of interaction between the anti-war activists and the GOP delegates. A group of the “peace police” — decked out in bright pink police uniforms and dragging around a person in prison garb and a President Bush mask — marched around downtown. They stopped for lunch at a Corner Bakery, and their entrance elicited looks of horror from the business-attired Republicans eating sandwiches.

The first day of the Texas Republican presidential straw poll in Fort Worth had the feel of an accountants’ convention. The protesters haven’t shown up yet, and apparently neither have many of the delegates. Party officials say they expect 2,000 voting delegates, and 3,000 attendees altogether (guests of delegates can attend for a reduced price). Maybe that many will show, but the halls of the Fort Worth Convention Center were quiet and mostly deserted this evening.

Talk show host Hugh Hewitt, broadcasting his show live from a ballroom here, had an audience of mostly empty chairs. Roughly 700 guests turned out in their Republican red for tonight’s banquet barbecue dinner. While delegates ate, presidential candidates Duncan Hunter and John Cox worked reporters in the back of the room in hopes of ginning up some positive press attention — scratch that — any press attention.

Hunter, a Republican congressman from California, you may have heard of. He’s made immigration the central issue of his campaign. He helped pass legislation through Congress allowing a border fence. “Everyone here wants that 400-mile border fence that I wrote into the law,” he told reporters at the banquet. “I’ve gotten a good response. The activists are excited.” He dismissed talk that some of the GOP’s harsher immigration proposals are alienating Latinos. “The Hispanics community in the U.S. does not support an open border,” he said.

Immigration is undoubtedly a hot topic among the grassroots activists here, but, contrary to Duncan’s rhetoric, more than a few folks are, um, on the fence about a border fence. Cox is skeptical. “Talk about a boondoggle,” he said of the fence. He supports barriers in major urban areas such as Laredo, El Paso and San Diego, but says that erecting a fence along the enitre border is a colossal waste of money. “I don’t want to spend billions building a wall in a desert.”

You’ve probably never heard of Cox. He has been kept out of the GOP presidential debates so far. He’s a businessman and former congressional candidate from Chicago who’s self-financing his own presidential campaign in 20 states. Cox describes himself as the only “true conservative” in the race. He despises the likes of Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, who he says aren’t true conservatives and who the grassroots Republicans are deeply suspicious of. “Election-year conversions are legendary,” he said. Apparently, Cox is also a big Rocky Balboa fan.

The assembled die-hards gave U.S. Sen. John Cornyn a tepid response when he addressed the banquet tonight. In their defense, his speech was supremely dull — full of bland assertions and bereft of specifics. He delivered it like he was giving a tax seminar. He did say that President Bush’s controversial recent comparison of Iraq to Vietnam was “absolutely right…we know unless we get the job done, they will follow us here.” After he said that, the crowd remained silent. In fact, the only true ovation came when he asked the crowd to honor the troops serving in Iraq.

The presidential candidates will get their chance to fire up the troops tomorrow morning.

If the Republican Party organizes a presidential straw poll and no candidates show up, does it actually take place?

We will answer that question for you later today, after the inaugural Texas Republican presidential straw poll gets going in Fort Worth.

And yes, we’re exaggerating slightly. It’s not that no candidates will show up, just not the ones that most pundits believe matter. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain all bowed out weeks ago. Earlier this week, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee took a pass as well. That leaves Texas’ own Ron Paul, California Congressman Duncan Hunter, and a few guys most folks have never heard of.

Straw polls are non-binding. They’re traditionally more useful as campaign PR than anything else. Though the missing front runners will undoubtedly receive votes from the gathered GOP faithful, their absence provides an opportunity for the lower-tier candidates to earn some much-needed pub. The poll will only be open to delegates who have attended at least one Republican state or national convention since 2000. Expect those who do come to be hardcore GOPers.

The actual straw poll — slated for Saturday morning — is only part of the allure this weekend. More anti-war protesters may turn up at the Fort Worth Convention Center than GOP delegates. It appears the most passionate from both ends of the spectrum will be converging on Cowtown. We’ll post dispatches from Fort Worth tonight and tomorrow.

Today we celebrate our country’s birthday by trying to ignore the sad, but predictable, abuse of power by our Texan president and instead look to who Texas Democratic lawmakers would like to take his place. Observer intern Jeff Benzing did a lot of legwork and tracked down endorsements from many of the Texas D’s from the progressive wing of the party, although not all are publicly backing a candidate yet.

Here’s a list of confirmed endorsements from Texas House Dems:

Hillary Clinton
Abel Herrero

John Edwards
Trey Martinez Fisher
Garnet Coleman (Garnet believes that Clinton and Obama won’t be able to hurt enough red states and could hurt the chances of local Democrats.)

Dennis Kucinich
Lon Burnam (as long as DK’s in any race, he’s my man, Burnam said)

Barack Obama
Mark Strama
Sylvester Turner (The two went to school together at Harvard.)

Bill Richardson
Rick Noriega
Pete Gallego
Paul Moreno

No endorsement (yet, in some cases)
Elliott Naishtat (leans toward Edwards, but likes others)
Marc Veasey
Jessica Farrar
Valinda Bolton
Senfronia Thompson
Alma Allen

Among confirmed Senate endorsements, Carlos Uresti came out for Clinton, Kirk Watson is on board the Edwards’ train, and Juan Hinojosa declined to endorse anyone.

We’ll update the blog as we gather more endorsements.

Stay tuned for who Republican legislators are supporting.

This morning I went to a soul food restaurant in Austin for breakfast and found myself in the middle of a Texans for Obama meeting. Apparently today is a nationwide canvassing day for the campaign, with volunteers going door to door to spread the hope of Obama, perhaps audaciously. Inside the restaurant* assorted groups of people gathered at tables and introduced themselves. With Glen Maxey already in attendance, the MC announced that Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin) was on his way to deliver a pep talk.

Sure enough, minutes later Strama arrived, with baby on his shoulder. (Infants became a theme: there were so many strollers and drool bibs in the place that the Rep. later joked it was a “Babies for Obama” meeting.)

Strama busted out some old campaign material to explain his Obama endorsement. He was won over months ago when 20,000 people rallied in Austin. The huge, diverse turnout reminded Strama of his first campaign for the statehouse. Back in 2004, his aggressive efforts to reach out to potential voters who had become disengaged from politics led to thousands of votes by those who had never voted or hadn’t voted in years. It made the difference in a super-tight election. He pulled off the upset by 500 votes in a district “gerrymandered” for the Republicans.

Republican Jack Stick challenged the results, Strama told the audience, alleging that the Democrats’ campaign efforts were “part of a pattern of conduct designed to alter the outcome of the election.” He allowed for a humorous pause. A few chuckles went up from the crowd, and a deep voice at one of the tables shouted, “Yeah, baby!”

Strama raised his hand and, with a big grin, said, “Guilty.”

It’s Obama’s ability to change the outcome of elections by attracting new voters that got Strama on board, and it’s why he was there this morning encouraging the grassroots effort.

But, at the same time, this isn’t the ‘roots of the dirty Dean days. The #1 goal for the morning, organizers told their troops, was to talk to as many people as possible — and then e-mail their canvassing numbers to the national campaign quickly to make the evening press release as impressive as possible.

*The restaurant was Austin original Hoover’s, which is gracious enough to put some of their recipes online. Try the smothered pork chops, I beg you. Good for the soul.