Dig Deeper Texas

Star-Telegram.com: | 02/10/2008 | Texas primary combines traditional vote, caucus

As a result, Democrats who show up at the polls election night for precinct conventions will be choosing which delegates move forward to senatorial conventions.

But they’ll also be choosing which presidential candidate those delegates will be voting for, based on turnout in support for each candidate.

When people first show up, they’ll sign in, listing their name and presidential preference.

If a precinct has 10 delegates and 50 people show up — with 30 for Clinton and 20 for Barack Obama — then six delegates for Clinton and four for Obama will move on to the senatorial convention.

That’s why volunteers for Clinton and Obama will not only be pushing locals to vote — but also to show up for the caucus on election night.

“There are thousands of precinct conventions that will elect 25 percent of the delegates without respect to the primary results,” said Jason Smith, a Clinton volunteer in Tarrant County.

So volunteers will be working not only to get people to show up for the precinct conventions, but also to make sure that those chosen go on to the senatorial conventions and the state convention.

“Once the primary is over March 4, there still will be one to two people for Hillary left in the state, and their job will be to round up people for the caucuses,” Smith said.

I am not sure how they could make it any more convoluted here in Texas than it is now. Since our primary didn’t matter for so many years most of us haven’t been paying attention to the rules of delegate selection here in Texas. To have a say in the primary you not only need to vote but you need to get out to the caucuses that night. 25% of the delegates are chosen through the caucuses and not by the votes so if you love your candidate you have to make it a priority to get out there.

I tend to think that when the primary is done there will still not be a clear cut winner and Howard Dean and company will have to sit down with the contenders and strike a compromise because I just can’t imagine going into the convention without a clear cut candidate. I do think if we make it to the convention without a candidate that the convention will be relevant for the first time in a long time and we might see alot more people tuning in, but I am truly not feeling that it is worth the loss of campaign time the real nominee will need to beat the republicans in November.

Here we are 11 days from the primary and I still haven’t chosen who to back but I will and I will get out there and vote and caucus that night, come join me.

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Filed under: 2008 election, Texas Primary