Steve’s Weblog

Burnt Orange Report has what looks like a final tally for the county conventions up on their site now, showing Obama taking the delegate lead in Texas by three pledged delegates. http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5492

Also, AP is reporting that Obama has the lead in the delegate race in Texas as well.

I just upgraded WordPress to version 2.5 here.

That was easy.

Nhut and I attended the Williamson County Democratic Party Convention yesterday at Stony Point High school in Round Rock. This was the next round in the Texas convention process where 88,000 precinct delegates statewide narrowed down the delegate field to 7,000 delegates to attend the state Democratic Party Convention in Austin on June 5, 6 and 7. Nhut and I were elected as state delegate and alternate from our combined precinct, so we’ll be going to the state convention in June to support Barack Obama. Cheryl, another delegate from our precinct was selected as an “At Large” delegate to attend the state convention as a Hillary supporter. JL from our precinct posted a bunch of pictures of the Williamson County Convention on Flickr. And of course, Nhut brought his camera, and I’ve posted his pictures in my gallery here.

We had attended a county convention training session last weekend, and were thinking the convention would be well organized and smoothly run, as compared to the precinct conventions, and considering that there were over 1600 delegates represented, the convention was pretty well organized, and fairly smooth, but not without it’s glitches.

The convention was set to open registration at 8:00 AM, and we were advised to arrive early, as the business of the convention was scheduled to start at 10:00 am, or as soon as registration was complete. Anyone in line at 10:00 would still be allowed to complete registration, and would be able to participate in the days activities.

Well, when we arrived at around 8:20 AM, the back parking lot was completely full, so we drove around front of the school, and found the larger lot still had a lot of available parking spaces. We grabbed a free donut and a couple of campaign signs on the way in, courtesy of one of the Obama precinct delegations, and got on line; the very end of the line. Which, after we joined, seemed to grow ever longer. There was a problem with the badge printer at some point before we got to the registration table, so that by the time we got there, all the badges were being hand written, rather than affixing a printed sticker. Yellow badges were issued to delegates, and white badges to alternates. I had written our precinct number on one of the campaign signs so that we could find our fellow precinct delegates while waiting in line, and that actually worked.

Once we had our badges, we headed into the convention room, only delegates were allowed on the convention floor, so Nhut waited in the alternate/guest area until our precinct delegation lead (that was me) could request that alternates be upgraded to delegate status to fill empty delegate slots. Since the credentials committee was not finished, we couldn’t start the business of the convention, and decided to break for lunch. The county party had broght in PokeJo’s, a local barbeque joint, and we had some brisket, turkey, potato salad, cole slaw… typical Texas BBQ lunch and chatted with a few other delegates while we enjoyed the food.

We had three empty delegate slots in our precinct, 2 Obama, and 1 Clinton, and were able to upgrade the status of our 3 Obama alternates after lunch to fill the slots and have a full precinct for convention business. By the time all of this wrangling was complete, and we were all back in our seats, I think it was after 3:00.

One of the first orders of business is to appoint a permanent convention chair and secretary. It’s customary to elect as permanent chair and secretary the temporary chair and secretary. The temporary chair is the head of the county party, and the secretary is the county party secretary. As an aside, in our precinct convention, Abigail and I were the temporary precinct chair and secretary and were elected as permanent chair and secretary. Permanent is a really misleading term in this context. You preside over the meeting till it is adjourned that day, there’s no power or glory associated with the job, it’s just a matter of knowing how to run a meeting according to Robert’s rules of order, and the Texas Democratic Party rules. So, when 5 people decided they wanted the position, and ran for it, the convention got all shades of out of whack over the process. In the end, the temporary chairperson was selected as the permanent chair, but a new permanent secretary was selected from one of the precinct delegations. What was funny about that, is that once the woman was elected, and announced, she had to be reminded that her position was effective immediately, and to please come up on stage and get to work!

By the time we got to electing state delegates, we had lost two of the people in our precinct delegation, it had to be after 5 at that point and a couple folks had to go home. We were supposed to be done with this part by 1:00 PM. There were three of us running for the one delegate and one alternate spot in Austin, and as it turns out, all three of us will be going. Nhut and I were selected as delegate/alternate from the precinct vote, and Cheryl was selected as an “At Large” delegate. At Large delegates are selected in an effort to balance the convention delegation so that the numbers of delegates going to the state convention matches the percentages in the presidential preference poll of the county convention. For Williamson County, the numbers were 64.88% for Obama, 34.12% for Clinton.

After we turned in our packet, we wanted to stick around to see the rest of the convention business be conducted, and find out about the At Large delegates. Well, apparently the nominations committee had to sift through 750 At Large applications to narrow down to 28 delegates and 30 alternates. Once that was done, they would report back to the convention, and their results, as well as the results of the precinct elections would have to be approved by the convention. Since the nominations committee was going to take a while to complete it’s work, the convention took a one hour dinner break around 8:30 PM, and would come back to finish up at 9:30 PM.

We took a quick ride out to a Jack in the Box around the corner from the school and got something to eat. After dinner, we heard the reports of the credentials committee on challenges and resolutions, and approved the actions of the committee for all of the issues that they had to deal with. One of the items had to do with our precinct delegation because some of the detailed sheets with delegation sign in information got lost between Austin and Georgetown. The credentials committee had contacted Abigail and me last week, and we were able to provide them with the information they needed to satisfy the challenge and make sure all of our delegates were seated. The convention approved the committee’s resolution of our precinct problem.

We also sat through the report of the resolutions committee and finally got everything approved. One resolution was submitted from the floor, but defeated. The idea was to eliminate the caucus process and go with a straight primary. The idea being that caucuses disenfranchise people who can’t make it and limit voter access. The one positive thing about the convention process that people don’t understand unless they participate in them, is that regardless of which candidate you’re supporting, you are coming together as a group of like minded party members at an event that enables you to socialize and better understand who your neighbors are and what they’re thinking is important to them. We waited in the lunch line with Cheryl, one of the Clinton delegates from our precinct, and had a really nice chat. Then we sat down at a table of women from both sides and got to talking about different stuff. It was funny, as we were getting up to leave from lunch, the one woman we talked to says to me; “It was nice chatting with you…”, and says to Nhut; “It was nice watching you listen to us!”.

We finally adjourned the convention somewhere just after midnight, and got home around 12:30 or so, it was a long day, but really interesting to be involved and part of the process. Nhut says we’ll be living in a state that doesn’t have a caucus/convention system for the next election… we’ll see.

By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 6 minutes ago

DALLAS – Four Texas metropolitan areas were among the biggest population gainers as Americans continued their trend of moving to the Sun Belt in 2006 and 2007, according to Census Bureau estimates to be released Thursday.

Dallas-Fort Worth added more than 162,000 residents between July 2006 and July 2007, more than any other metro area. Three other Texas areas — Houston, Austin and San Antonio — also cracked the top 10.

Yahoo!

We were feeling kinda lazy tonight with nothing at home to cook, and all the grocery stores closed for the Easter holiday, so we get into the usual discussion trying to figure out where to go for dinner. Nhut wanted some kind of buffet, he needs his variety, and he suggested we go to Thomas Super Buffet, by Fry’s. But we had just been to Buffet Palace on Friday, and I wasn’t up for more of the same kind of Asian buffet again so soon.

So I suggested we drive by Dimassi’s Mediteranean Buffet, at 12636 Research Blvd., between Oak Knoll & Spicewood Springs (click here for map) just to see if they were open yet. Turns out today was their first day open, so we decided to give it a shot. They had a nice variety of food on the buffet and a lot more room than customers tonight. It was really good, and we left there stuffed.

There’s been quite a bit of preparation going on in Texas for the County/Senate District conventions, and the full results won’t be known until they’re over. This is the next step in the Texas caucus process, the so-called Texas two-step, which is more like 5 steps. Anyway, the County/Senate District conventions will be held on Saturday March 29th. I was elected a delegate in my small precinct, so I’ll be attending, and working with the other delegates in my precinct at the Williamson County convention to elect Delegates to the Texas Democratic Party State Convention in Austin. There’s still the possibility for results to shift as the delegates elected on March 4th in the precinct conventions show up (or not) at the county level to vote their presidential preference. There’s more information about this step in the process at the TDP web site.

and the new convertible.

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Texas Dems deny Clinton request

By KELLEY SHANNON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 29 minutes ago

AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Democratic Party said Monday it had denied a request by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign that it take extra steps to verify the signatures of election night caucus-goers before party conventions being held at the end of the month.

State chairman Boyd Richie said Texas Democrats will not “set up an unnecessary, ad hoc ‘verification’ process that could effectively disqualify delegates selected at their precinct conventions after the fact.”

Yahoo!

We’re getting a 2008 BMW 335i convertible

Nhut’s new convertible

Daschle: First lady experience doesn’t count for Clinton

By Aaron Blake
Posted: 03/09/08 01:41 PM [ET]
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on Sunday questioned Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) pitching of herself as the most experienced candidate in the Democratic presidential race, suggesting her years as first lady do not add much to her foreign policy credentials.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Daschle, a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), pointed out that Obama has served in elective office longer than Clinton and suggested her time as first lady does not have much relevance to the office she seeks.

From The Hill

Never mind.

From http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGB2C5

Obama Wins Delegate Fight in Texas
By Sam Graham-Felsen – Mar 5th, 2008 at 4:29 pm EST

AUSTIN — Obama Texas State Director Adrian Saenz issued a statement on the projected primary and caucus results that show Senator Obama won more Texas delegates than Senator Clinton.

“By fighting the primary to a near-draw and earning a resounding victory in the caucus, the people of Texas have moved Barack Obama one step closer to claiming the Democratic nomination for president,” said Adrian Saenz. “Texans in both parties and of all ages sent a clear message that the American people are ready for the kind of change that Barack Obama will bring to Washington, DC as our 44th President.”

Because of the close finish, Senator Clinton will likely net only two delegates up-for-grabs in the Texas Primary. Based on a large sample of caucus results in all 31 state senate districts, Senator Obama is projected to post a substantial victory in the Texas caucus and, thereby, net at least seven delegates. This means that Senator Obama will win at least five more pledged delegates from Texas than Senator Clinton.

from http://www.williamson-county.org/elections/pct.html

PRECINCT REPORT            STATISTICS
RUN DATE:03/05/08 01:11 AM

          0189 189
                                                      VOTES  PERCENT

           REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL .  .  .  .  .  .  1353
           BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   585
           VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          43.24

                          ********** (DEMOCRAT) **********

          PRESIDENT
          VOTE FOR  1
           BARACK OBAMA  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   258    62.32
           CHRISTOPHER J. DODD .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     0
           JOE BIDEN  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     0
           JOHN EDWARDS  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     0
           HILLARY CLINTON  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   156    37.68
           BILL RICHARDSON  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     0

          UNITED STATES SENATOR
          VOTE FOR  1
           RAY MCMURREY  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    43    14.83
           RICHARD J. (RICK) NORIEGA .  .  .  .  .  .   177    61.03
           GENE KELLY .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    56    19.31
           RHETT R. SMITH.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    14     4.83

          UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE, DIST 31
          US REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 31
          VOTE FOR  1
           BRIAN P. RUIZ .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   250   100.00

          RAILROAD COMMISSIONER
          VOTE FOR  1
           MARK THOMPSON .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   144    54.34
           DALE HENRY .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    64    24.15
           ART HALL.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    57    21.51

          CHIEF JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
          VOTE FOR  1
           JIM JORDAN .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   258   100.00

          JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT, PLACE 7
          VOTE FOR  1
           SAM HOUSTON.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   166    62.64
           BALTASAR D. CRUZ .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    99    37.36

          JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT, PLACE 8
          VOTE FOR  1
           SUSAN CRISS.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   156    58.43
           LINDA REYNA YANEZ.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   111    41.57

          JUDGE, COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS, PL 3
          VOTE FOR  1
           SUSAN STRAWN  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   264   100.00

          JUDGE, COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS, PL 4
          VOTE FOR  1
           J. R. MOLINA  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   265   100.00

          STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 52
          STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 52
          VOTE FOR  1
           DIANA MALDONADO  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   263   100.00

          CHIEF JUSTICE, 3rd COURT OF APP, PL 1
          VOTE FOR  1
           WOODIE JONES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   252   100.00

          COUNTY ATTORNEY
          VOTE FOR  1
           JAIME M. LYNN .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   259   100.00

          COUNTY COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT 1 COMMISSIONER PRECINCT 1
          VOTE FOR  1
           MIKE GRIMES.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   250   100.00

          WILLIAMSON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR
          VOTE FOR  1
           RICHARD TORRES.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   268   100.00

So far, Clinton may have picked up only 2 delegates more than Obama yesterday

From Daily Kos:

So total for the night, thus far, is Clinton 185 and Obama 184. Not all votes are in, so things will change a bit. But at this point, we have a ridiculously tiny one-delegate lead for Clinton for the night, which could either produce her first delegate victory of the election, or be erased by the rest of the still-not-reported Texas caucuses.

Now according to both the Clinton and Obama campaigns, Obama entered the race with a 159 pledged delegate lead. So with some luck, Clinton ends the night about … 158 157 delegates behind.

More problematic for Clinton, is that today’s 370 delegates were about 38 percent of the just-shy of 1,000 remaining delegates before Tuesday’s contests. That means we just had over 1/3rd of the remaining delegates allocated, with only marginal-to-none gains in the count for Clinton.

So Clinton is running out of states, and even her “big” victory Tuesday is proving little more than a pyrrhic victory.

See also: UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Texas Democratic Party Precinct Conventions

I participated in running my local precinct caucus and convention as Secretary here in NW Austin. The President of the convention and I were both Obama supporters, and our small precinct went for Obama, 3 to 1. (56 to 24) It seems to me like based on the results, that probably a good chunk of Hillary’s support in the primary came from crossover voting. Looking at 186/189 as an example, both precincts which we know are primarily Republican and then seeing a 4:1 ratio of Democratic to Republican voter turnout? That’s curious, and I’d like to see the results of the 186/189 polling to see if it bears out my assumption. The caucus went Obama’s way, and maybe that’s why we have a mixed system of primary and caucus voting. Because of the open nature of the primary voting, and the possibility of crossover voting which seems to enable the Republicans to rig the Democratic primary in their favor, the caucus results should swing the final delegate count back to Obama’s favor. Guess we’ll see by the weekend as the caucus totals are published.

The caucus worked like this: First everyone signed in to support Clinton or Obama, and one guy signed in to support Huckabee (wtf?). We then counted the number of people signing in and apportioned the delegates based on those written preferences. Most people had already left by this point. The remaining people split into Clinton and Obama camps. Each group selected delegates and alternates to the county convention. Then we voted on way too many individual resolutions that will go up the chain of conventions to become planks in the party platform. Filled out the paperwork, and headed home. Our precinct president was set to call in the results by the time we left, around 9:00 or so.

Nhut took some pictures of the convention and caucus, posted on my gallery.

I talked with my mom this morning, I’m flying out to Pennsylvania to pick her up and travel with her to Denver, but I had to change my travel date from Tuesday to Wednesday so that I can vote here in Texas tomorrow. Anyway, I was calling to let her know the change in plans this morning, and she asks if I’m going to vote for Obama… which I told her that was my plan. She went on to tell me how impressed she was with him and that she was planning to vote for him too. She says the other candidates all seem like phonies or crooks.

Quite a change from this post in late 2005.