Texas Sweats Out the Race

by Jim Lane

After a long day of campaigning for Obama and some local candidates endorsed by labor, we were beginning to wonder if we could endure a Texas precinct convention. But we had to.

Everybody was packed into a hallway at 7:15 PM. There were two precincts meeting at our station, and several people were so new to the electoral process that they didn’t know which precinct they were in. Then they told us to line up by last name, A-M on one side and N-Z on the other. Of course, we got it backward.

It took about an hour for everyone to get signed in. We later learned that about 130 out of 400 voters at that site had come to the precinct convention. Contrast that with the same precinct convention in 2004 and 2006, which had a high of 6 people attending. Most people signed in with theirs and their candidate’s name and then left. They knew enough about the Texas Democratic Party rules to know that signing in at the precinct convention constitutes their “second vote” for their candidate. It’s complicated, but only about 60% of Texas’ 228 Democratic National Convention delegates actually come from the popular vote. The next biggest percentage is rooted in which candidates get the most people to sign in at precinct conventions. Just to make it more complicated, Texas Democrats hold themselves to a strong affirmative action program in selecting delegates that “look just like Texas.”

The first order of business for the precinct convention is to elect a temporary chairperson and a recording secretary. Obama people, lined up against the East wall, nominated their candidates and Clinton people, on the West, nominated theirs. The Obama people had the voting strength and elected the leadership. We assumed that we had also prevailed in the number of people who signed in, but we didn’t.

Clinton people edged us by a percentage point, but we still split delegation evenly. It turned out that, based on the Democratic turnout in our precinct at the last Governor’s race, we were to get 14 delegates to the senatorial convention, which is the next step and leads to the state convention. Clinton supporters elected 7 delegates and 7 alternates, then went home. Obama supporters, who had a larger group, took another hour or so, but finally elected ours as well. Four of our progressive PWW supporters were elected delegates.

We then hurriedly passed an anti-war resolution, another one supporting House Resolution 676, one supporting rights of nurses, one supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, one favoring certain government employees’ access to Social Security, and one for public financing of elections. A brother made a speech about the environment, but presented no resolution.

At last, we were done with the precinct convention. But not with the election day. There was still a “victory” TV-watching party to attend. We endured it as long as we could. Our local candidates were doing well, but Obama had lost Ohio and was slipping behind in Texas when we packed it in."

The first order of business for the precinct convention is to elect a temporary chairperson and a recording secretary. Obama people, lined up against the East wall, nominated their candidates and Clinton people, on the West, nominated theirs. The Obama people had the voting strength and elected the leadership. We assumed that we had also prevailed in the number of people who signed in, but we didn’t. Clinton people edged us by a percentage point, but we still split delegation evenly. It turned out that, based on the Democratic turnout in our precinct at the last Governor’s race, we were to get 14 delegates to the senatorial convention, which is the next step and leads to the state convention. Clinton supporters elected 7 delegates and 7 alternates, then went home. Obama supporters, who had a larger group, took another hour or so, but finally elected ours as well. Four of our progressive PWW supporters were elected delegates.

We then hurriedly passed an anti-war resolution, another one supporting House Resolution 676, one supporting rights of nurses, one supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, one favoring certain government employees’ access to Social Security, and one for public financing of elections. A brother made a speech about the environment, but presented no resolution.

At last, we were done with the precinct convention. But not with the election day. There was still a “victory” TV-watching party to attend. We endured it as long as we could. Our local candidates were doing well, but Obama had lost Ohio and was slipping behind in Texas when we packed it in.

--Jim Lane

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