Tensions high at Texas Democratic regional conventions
Drudge headline for this article:
‘Caucuses Guarantee Obama Win In Texas’
Here is the apportionment so far of presidential caucus delegates to the Texas Democratic state convention based on reports from Saturday’s county and senate district conventions. A total of about 7,300 delegates were expected to be selected in this stage of the caucus process, according to the Texas Democratic Party. Results are from 123 of about 280 conventions.
• Clinton: 933, or 50 percent*
• Obama: 937, or 50 percent*
*Results are not official
Traffic jams, long lines, crowds, confusion and chaos marked Texas Democratic regional conventions Saturday as an unprecedented number of political activists turned out to help elect presidential nominating delegates for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
There are 67 at-large delegates at stake, depending largely on the results of the state senatorial district and county conventions.
Obama was the caucus winner on primary night, but an Associated Press delegate count showed Obama might lose ground. However, Obama’s campaign late Saturday said he would win, claiming he would receive 38 delegates to Clinton’s 29. If accurate, that would give Obama a total five-delegate advantage over Clinton in the Texas primary/caucus contest.
Houston-area conventions often were marked by exasperation as thousands of people who had never participated in the process before gathered to show support for their candidate and try to win a slot to attend the state party convention in June.
“It’s going very good,” state Senate District 17 Chairman Bert Anson said in the midst of the convention in the Alief Elsik High School gymnasium. “I’ve only been yelled at and cursed twice. I’ve only lost my temper once. No. I’ve lost my temper twice.”
Delegates statewide also had to suffer through long sign-in lines to declare their allegiance to a candidate. Some arrived at 7 a.m. and did not make it into their convention halls for hours. The delegates were elected at the March 4 precinct caucuses.[…]