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Remember that ol' Texas Two Step? Well, aside from the caucus after the primary, we also have to go represent at our county convention and then at the state convention to declare our vote. THAT is why it is so important to educate Texas voters about the process... if not enough delegates show up, we could lose delegates. We had 10 of our 12 Obama delegates show up for my precinct, and then three alternates showed up and were elevated. The 4 Clinton delegates showed up, but because we had 12 to their 4, they knew they were outnumbered and it would be an Obama delegate and alternate elected to go on to state.
Important news first... My county went for Obama 60% to 40%! :woohoo:
The Clinton delegates in my precinct were very nice folks, and my friend on the nominations committee promised to support her request to be an at large delegate. At large comes in like this... As all the delegates from the precinct come in, we put our ballot in the box for our precinct. THAT is what decides how many delegates from our convention will go to the state convention. Caucusing within our precinct during the county convention determines which delegates from each precinct go to state. Then once the balloting is complete, the at-large spaces are used to make the entire delegation match what the ballot results were. So if most precincts had Obama people, and the Clinton folks lacked delegates compared to the overall vote, they might get more at large seats.
I do hope she gets her at large spot because lets face it, it would be better to have relationships with people who are cordial and cooperative when the time comes to unite, and honestly, I have mostly been met with suspicion and antagonism so far by Clinton supporters. For that reason, I was thrilled to meet the nice folks who caucused in my precinct. For example, I was a county volunteer, so I helped open and set up this morning. We were not allowing anyone in other than volunteers for the county party or people on committees who were meeting. When I tried to explain this to 2 Clinton supporters at 7:15am, I was met with instant attitude, and a demand that she had the right to be there. I kept a smile on my face the whole time, and I told her that I would find a volunteer who was also a Clinton supporter who she could talk to. Of course, she heard the exact thing from them, but had no attitude with them at all. It;s just so frustrating to me that it has come to this between neighbors :-( I blame the press and the Clinton campaign. Emails that were sent implying that we would try to deny folks their rights, along with the press salivating about the political food fight have resulted in bad blood, and I just don't know if it will subside for the GE. But folks like the 4 in my precinct's Clinton delegation do make me a bit hopeful.
Two more anecdotes...
I worked the entrance for the 45 minutes prior to opening for registration, and had to decide who would come in and who would not, purely based on asking people if they were working/volunteering and hoping they answered truthfully. Because i was wearing an Obama shirt, I honestly felt like the majority of Hillary supports I asked to wait for registration flat out did not trust me, and many of them would actually hover around me, watching to see if I said the same things to Obama supporters who came up. Of course I did, but man it felt really awful knowing that 40% of the people there thought I was a cheat in some way. It really put a damper on what I was expecting to be a lot more fun.
The other thing.... of course many of our Obama delegates are new to the process. I totally get it, because I was a brand-spankin-newbie 4 years ago for Dean. But we had our own little meeting before voting on our one delegate and one alternate to explain the vote. The Hillary folks would get their 4 votes, and our delegates would get 12, so if we only ran 2 people, and we agreed beforehand how to allot our votes, we would have both seats filled with Obama folks for our precinct, come the state convention. Everyone agreed to vote for our tireless volunteer/precinct chair Johnny for delegate,and me for alternate.... then when it was time to vote, 3 of our Obama delegates raised their hand to ask to be nominated. That would mean NONE of us would likely go with the vote split 5 ways! we quickly reminded them of the agreement we came to earlier, and they said OK, but when all was said and done, we had some hurt feelings because they wanted to go to state too, and I felt really regretful about that. I know what it is like to be new, and hoping and praying to be a delegate. I know this is history in the making, and I would never want anyone to feel they were unfairly excluded. But then part of me really feels like I deserved that seat.... I started volunteering for Obama before there was a local office, and the others in our delegation didn't get involved until the caucus. I am thrilled they are involved, but I think my work should count for something as well. Still.... if they had strongly protested during the vote, I would have stepped down and let someone else go.
I talked a lot about going to state as an observer or volunteer. I hope that they will if not selected at large.
It really was different being at the county convention with so much interest, as opposed to 4 years ago when it was all decided by now. It is much more exciting for sure, but it was also a lot more difficult.
All in all, I think our convention went very well. I hope that many of the new faces will stick around and stay involved.
Oh, one more thing... they reminded us that in Tom DeLay's county, the Democratic primary had a 1600% increase!!!! DAYUM!!!! :wow: :woohoo:
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