My partner and I attended the Democratic Precinct Convention for our neighborhood Tuesday night. Here in Texas we have a convoluted system of selecting delegates for the national convention and the Precinct Conventions which the press has been erroneously calling caucuses play a part in the process.
I had never attended one of these before since Texas rarely mattered in the nomination process. In prior elections the Presidential candidates had already been anointed by the time Texans got to vote. Now our vote counted!
To say the Precinct Convention was well attended would be an understatement. In the past our precinct had little or no attendance at these affairs. In fact we did not even have a precinct chair for the Democratic Party in our neighborhood, so everyone was surprised when 103 people showed up for the meeting.
I have heard stories of chaos and confusion, and we had our share of confusion, but things settled down and we all got a chance to meet our fellow Democrats in the neighborhood. Most of our area votes Republican so a visible Democrat is a beautiful thing! It was cordial and really felt like democracy in action.
As far as the vote went, we had slightly more folks caucusing for Clinton than Obama, but the total delegates to the state convention were split 8 for Clinton and 7 for Obama. I am proud to say I am one of those for Obama and this will be my first experience as a delegate, albeit to a local senatorial convention. I am looking forward to the experience.
The experience was a bit drawn out, but overall everyone was good natured and excited. I left with a feeling that democracy can actually work, even in a state like Texas.
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Congratulations! I've been a delegate or an alternate to every SD conventions since I moved in to my Condo (every two years back to 2000). I'll also be at the 16th SD Convention at Thomas Jefferson HS on the 29th, albeit a Clinton delegate. After all, she won MY precintc (3006) by TWO to ONE! So our precincts 49 Delegates (and an equal number of Alternates) are split 16 for Obama and 33 for Clinton! See you there!!!
I think you'll enjoy the Senatorial District Convention a lot! It's like a big ol' Pep Rally with a bit of party business thrown in. Unless of course you get put on a committee, and those folks really do have to do quite a lot of work. But for newbies to the whole convention process, just attending can be LOTS of FUN! You'll also get to hear lots of rousing speeches by candidates and elected officials, and if there are any run-offs still in play (as there ALWAYS are), you'll hear speakers (usually) for both candidates in the race as well. Fortunately both Noriega AND Lupe got out without a runoff!
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