The State Party Chair Election *update*

Is finally underway at two minutes to three p.m.

Boyd Richie is advanced from the Nominations committee; Roy Laverne Brooks and David Van Os are nominated from the floor. DVO's nominator does a one-minute bio, to a smattering of boos and some encouragement from the chair to "state your nomination". The three candidates are going to huddle together and determine a speaking order for their three-minute speeches. The Vice Chair race is skipped due to the nature of its demographic dependence on the chair's race, and the incumbent Secretary of the Texas Democratic Party, Ruby Jensen, is quickly nominated and elected by voice acclamation.

Treasurer candidate Amber Goodwin is elected in rapid and similar fashion. So is incumbent Vice Chair of Finance, Dennis Speight. Watson then proceeds quickly through the elections of DNC representatives John Patrick (labor), Betty Richie (non-urban), Rick Cofer (at-large youth), Bob Slagle (at-large male), and Yvonne Davis (at-large female). Sue Lovell's DNC slot draws a challenge from Roslyn Shorter from SD-13, nominated by Stan Merriman, which seems to slow only slightly the Watson Express. The election proceeds and the chair declares Lovell the winner on a voice vote. But the chair gets a parliamentary call for a division of the house, and Watson decides on a roll call vote.

It's 3:13.

Update (3:15 p.m. going forward): Watson has Shorter and Lovell move to the dais for speeches, checks on the chair candidates, does some housekeeping with the ratification of the SD-13 SDEC members overlooked earlier, and takes a pause.

When he resumes the time is 3:24, and Watson announces that the agreement among the chair candidates is to have Van Os speak first, Brooks second, and Richie third, each for ten minutes.

Van Os' nominator from the floor, Jo Embry, gives her nominating speech at the dais this time. She is followed by Christopher Jones, San Marcos city councilman, seconding DVO's nom ("he puts the 'Van Os' in 'awesome' "). A third seconder from Williamson County, sprinkling in a little Spanish, gives way to Van Os at 3:35 p.m. "We have to beat John McBush", "Texas is where the criminal roots must be dug up", "two million voters in the primary came out because Texas mattered", and a bit about his history as a Democrat. "I'm tired of hearing 'this is a rebuilding year', I'm tired of hearing 'we just want to win a few targeted races'. I want to win those five House races too, but I also want to sweep Texas!".

"The vision has to come from leadership, and the winning attitude". His message emphasizes carrying Texas for Barack Obama, and fighting to win every race across the state. Van Os closes with a disregard for the incrementalist strategy and a call to unity and action.

Roy Laverne Brooks has Bill Conover, Hillary delegate, nominate her. He references the "stagnant power stucture" and declares a "need for change". He closes with a "seize the day" exhortation. Charlie Urbina-Jones follows with a seconding speech: "no more top-down deals, only deals made from the bottom up". He mentions RLB's "being thrown under the bus" and openly asks for the Hillary female delegates' support. But Jones commits a Freudian slip, saying "Roy Laverne Jones" at the end. Following CU-J, another seconder who doesn't identify himself begins a speech ringing in the best cadences of the Sunday morning sermon. "Change" is mentioned frequently, as is "the great state of Denver". The PA has some DJ remix as Brooks takes the mic.

Jones "stands on the shoulders of so many": Barbara Jordan and others. But she runs out of time without giving her entire speech and cedes the lectern.

Boyd Richie's nominators are Leticia Van de Putte, who compliments Van Os and Brooks as "great Democrats". She emphasizes Richie's fighting Tom DeLay and the rest and closes somewhat abruptly. Ron Kirk follows and provides a seconding speech, saying "the future is too important not re-elect" Richie. Kirk, of course, is the head of Texans for Obama, so Boyd has summoned all of the heavyweights. Kirk makes a thoroughbred reference, mangling Preakness for Belmont, and uses the tired show horse/work horse analogy and not changing jockeys in the middle and so on. He closes with an exhortation to delegates to rise to their feet, and Boyd takes the mic.

Boyd says "thank you for believing, and thank you for participating in this process". He thanks his wife Betty, and the staff of the TDP. He describes the unique responsibility of chairman and notes that it requires the help of everyone. He says that the increases in fundraising and the e-mail lists are "because of you". Because of You becomes the theme, and a little Hillary shout-out: "We have found our voice." Richie references all the races, all the way to Noriega and Obama. He uses his "lean, mean, election-winning machine" again. And closes on "It's not about me, it's about 'we'.

Watson reclaims the dais and announces that Shorter and Lovell will speak and then the caucuses will tally the two contested elections.

Stan Merriman nominates Shorter "for progressive change". Quincy O'Neal seconds and introduces Ros Shorter, who asks "Do I look like the typical politician?" She ends fast and Sue Lovell takes the mic without nominating or seconding speeches. Lovell declares that she has delivered on a campaign promise, to stop taking Texas money out of Texas (with the reference being the DNC staffers who have been in state permanently for almost two years). She references her experience on the Houston city council, and says 'change' a few more times. She runs down her diversity endorsements and asks for the vote.

Watson directs each SD to caucus on the floor to vote for both offices, and to take ten minutes to do so. The strength of the caucus will be the measurement.

It's just after 4 p.m.

Tributes to Lady Bird Johnson and Ann Richards -- and Sen. Gallegos

Still shot compilations with musical accompaniment by Dolly Parton's "Wildflowers Don't Care Where They Grow" and Asleep at the Wheel's "Yellow Rose of Texas".

Shockingly absent was a tribute to Molly Ivins. That earns a great big WTF from me.

After a break in the action, Sen. Watson introduces a videotape on the Voter ID "fraud" non-issue. Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act, juxtaposed with Sen. Mario Gallegos on his bed in the hallway of the Capitol during the end of the last session. Continuing with an interview with him and a discussion of his liver transplant, the breakdown of the legislative battle first in the Texas House and then the Senate, the complicated matters behind the nature of the suppression and disenfranchisement, and more.

Videotaped legislative speeches are highlighted, bringing the non-issue into greater focus. Royal Masset, Harvey Kronberg, and others are quoted. The relevant statistic is a average of 3% of the voter turnout across the states suppressed.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's treachery -- bringing the bill up when Sen. Uresti fell ill -- is underscored. The Star-Telegram's editorial entitled "A Poll Tax?" gets a mention.

This video ought to be required viewing for everyone demonstrating any misunderstanding or confusion of the issue.

Finally one of the women whom AG Greg Abbott charged with voter "fraud" told her story, about carrying some mail ballots to the post office for some seniors who could not do so themselves. She introduced Gallegos, who made a few thank-yous and expressed his solidarity for continuing the fight.

One-legged man wins ass-kicking contest with GOP

Lloyd Doggett, bless his broken whatever:

(Doggett) hobbled onto the convention stage, slowed by a broken leg, to rail against the Republicans and the “Bush-Chicanery administration” to a very receptive crowd.

“Thanks to Tom DeLay I’ve had the opportunity to represent much of Texas, just not all at the same time,” Doggett quipped.

The “W” in George W. Bush must stand for “worse-ever” or “whopper”, Doggett said, referring to the book by former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan.

And he quashed the notion that John McCain would bring anything other than a redux of the Bush administration.

“Been there and done that, done that for eight painful years.”

I think Kate's sitting somewhere behind me. The media room has gotten really popular in the past few minutes because you don't have to work on your laptop off your lap, and because they brought in lunch about a half-hour ago.

My personal (dis)favorite of Doggett's remarks was: "John McCain as President means Phil Gramm as Secretary of the Treasury."

And that, ladies and gentlemen who have threatened to vote for McLame because Clinton won't be available to you, is just one more reason why no one can, or should, take you seriously.

Another historic moment

... in a truly historic presidential campaign. Mrs. Clinton's concession speech is broadcast to the floor for delegates and guests to watch. But the satellite feed goes down for a few minutes, a handful of times. If you know what "Searching for Signal" means, you know what's going on.

Those of us in the press room are watching the rest of it online while the delegates get entertained with some Springsteen.

I'll have some of the more emotional parts in a text update later.

=====================================

Update:

Thank you very, very much. Well, this isn't exactly the party I'd planned, but I sure like the company.

(APPLAUSE) And I want to start today by saying how grateful I am to all of you, to everyone who poured your hearts and your hopes into this campaign, who drove for miles and lined the streets waving homemade signs, who scrimped and saved to raise money, who knocked on doors and made calls, who talked, sometimes argued with your friends and neighbors...

(APPLAUSE)

... who e-mailed and contributed online, who invested so much in our common enterprise, to the moms and dads who came to our events, who lifted their little girls and little boys on their shoulders and whispered in their ears, "See, you can be anything you want to be."

(APPLAUSE)

To the young people...

(APPLAUSE)

... like 13-year-old Anne Riddell (ph) from Mayfield, Ohio, who had been saving for two years to go to Disney World and decided to use her savings instead to travel to Pennsylvania with her mom and volunteer there, as well.

To the veterans, to the childhood friends, to New Yorkers and Arkansans...

(APPLAUSE)

... who traveled across the country, telling anyone who would listen why you supported me. And to all of those women in their 80s and their 90s...

(APPLAUSE)

... born before women could vote, who cast their votes for our campaign. I've told you before about Florence Stein (ph) of South Dakota who was 88 years old and insisted that her daughter bring an absentee ballot to her hospice bedside. Her daughter and a friend put an American flag behind her bed and helped her fill out the ballot.

She passed away soon after and, under state law, her ballot didn't count, but her daughter later told a reporter, "My dad's an ornery, old cowboy, and he didn't like it when he heard Mom's vote wouldn't be counted. I don't think he had voted in 20 years, but he voted in place of my mom."

(APPLAUSE)

============================

Trailblazers asks some tough questions. I don't have the same disagreement; I'm feeling the unity this afternoon.

Seven thousand two hundred and thirty-nine

That's the number of Texans signed in as delegates to the 2008 state party convention, and each indicated a presidential preference.

Those numbers were 4,144 for Obama, 3,088 for Clinton, and seven undecided (you gotta love it).

The percentages are 57.3% Obama, 42.7% Clinton. That translates into 24 Obama delegates to the national convention, in Denver in August, and 18 for Hillary. Each camp gets three alternates.

Update: Trailblazers has the full and final tally... Obama 99, Clinton 94.

More entertainment, less offense

-- Susan "Juanita's/Big Blue Butt" Bankston's maiden effort for the Texas Observer finds her in agreement with those of us who loved the Texas Four-Step Primacaucus:

We like to fight in Texas. Philadelphia has Independence Hall; we have the Alamo. Oregon has Lewis and Clark; we have William B. Travis and Sam Houston. It is common knowledge that honky-tonks were created so people could fight to music.

In Texas, the hybrid system suits us fine because we Texans like a little of this and a little of that. Why opt for just voting or for just a caucus when you can have both? We like to sample a little of each, which, in case you were wondering, explains the popularity of Mexican food and barbecue in Texas. Any Mexican restaurant that doesn’t have a different combination platter named for every city on both sides of the border and a couple of suburbs of San Antonio isn’t going to stay open for more than a month. If you order barbecue in North Carolina, you get a plate heaped with a gray mound of something horrible they did to pork. Then, as if to rectify it, they pour pure, unadulterated vinegar all over it. In Texas, you get a choice of at least six meats and seven sides, not to mention four kinds of cobbler and three pies for desert. The best barbecue joints in Texas have two sauces, for those fool enough to ruin perfectly good meat with ’em—the sweet one and the other one.

We are a fighting, hybrid bunch of people.

Folks who complain that Democrats won’t win if we keep fighting just might have caught themselves some memory problems. Texas Democrats are at our most powerful when we fight like the dickens. There were bitter, name-calling, biting, and hair-pulling battles between Lloyd Bentsen and Ralph Yarborough. Ann Richards and Jim Mattox fought each other mean and propelled us to the governor’s mansion. Compared with those battles, this is vacation Bible school.

-- A slideshow from Somervell County is worth going all the way through (just to see if you can find a picture of yourself).

More sneers, snubs, shuns, and dirty looks ahead

for your intrepid reporter...

-- That dress. Dear God, is that the spinnaker from the HMS Pinafore?

-- "Oh gosh! Oh gosh! Oh gosh! I'm used to ... much smaller (ones). You give new meaning to the phrase 'Everything's bigger in Texas!' "

And she said that while still clothed in the draperies from the funeral home.

--Burnt Orange Report has reported on the Lapel Sticker Primary, that David Van Os didn't file the necessary paperwork with the Texas Election Commission (dutifully following the breathless accounts of Ye Olde Texas Blue), and then by golly, that he had done so.

Today we can expect postings from either one of those two fine shops indicating that Barack Obama has endorsed DVO to spite Boyd Richie for his snubbing of the Obama campaign two weeks ago, that the Van Os campaign took over the Flower Mound Democrats booth in the exhibit hall and Molly Beth Malcomb had to run over and try to stop them -- and failed when her red outfit suddenly ripped at the seam, and finally, that Bill White has entered the race for state party chair in order to unify the fractured convention.

-- I saw Pink Lady's toes at the Bloggers' Caucus too, and I'm not sure whether Charles is foot-fetishing or what. (Me, I thought she'd had a boobjob since I last saw her. I could be mistaken, though...)

All at once, from the left of the Texas blogosphere comes a low "SSSSShhhhuuunnnnnnnn"...

Don't forget that I still love all of you.

Tim Kaine and Chelsea Clinton?

That is some serious third-string disrespect.

You don't suppose that Obama may be, you know, conceding Texas to McCain in the fall, do you? And if he is, it couldn't be because of this, could it?

One of the things about the media room is that you get some of the real scoop. Boyd Richie's entry music apparently is going to be that obnoxious country-western anthem "I'm a Hard-Workin' Man" that is heard on Ford pickup truck commercials of late. Leticia Van de Putte's music might be "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder. Various other intros/intro music are being rehearsed for tonight's session.

Update: Philip and Matt collected power strips to take over to the general session, to some grumbling. So I packed up, drove back to my luxurious Habitat Suite and had a beer and some nachos in order to finish this.

Here's a couple more of those troubling questions ....

-- Why does Paint Texas Blue, the latest PAC set up to win five Texas House seats, only list four on their flyer distributed at the convention? And don't say that's all they had room on the page for. These guys claim to be raising two million bucks; they can't hire a designer for an 8 1/2 x 11 flyer that can communicate their message effectively?

Diana Maldonado, Sherrie Matula, Ginny McDavid, and Joe Moody. Great Democrats and good races to help, every one, but what about Kristi Thibaut? Or Larry Hunter? Or Joel Redmond? Or Donnie Dippel? Or Robert Miklos? Or Carol Kent? Or Sandra VuLe? Hell, there are five Democratic seats we have to defend -- can't some PAC pick Juan Garcia, Valinda Bolton, Allen Vaught, Dan Barrett, or Joe Heflin? How about helping Chris Turner, who's taking on one of the worst Republican idealogues in the House? There's great detail about all those races at the Texas Observer's blog.

And why is it necessary to have another PAC for Texas House races anyway? Can't somebody start a PAC for the three Texas Senate races? Or help Rick Noriega with fundraising, for God's fucking sake?

-- Tim Kaine and Chelsea Clinton?!? Kaine has facial tics and a receding hairline back to his neck, with the remaining strip dyed Kiwi boot black. I know he was Kos' darling a few years back, but that was when winning the lieutenant governorship of Virginia was a big deal.

This is really the best Boyd could do?

I'm going to dinner and then to bed early. Tomorrow: the state chair race, in the afternoon.

Update: Boadicea posted the YouTube. Jihole.

Hard at work in the press room

I am the media. No, really. I'm right next to Wayne Slater and Gromer Jeffers and RG Ratcliffe. They don't give a shit who I am, and I don't care that they don't care. However I did overhear a gracious compliment --not from any of those I just named -- paid to Rick Noriega about having his press avail being early enough to make the evening news and early editions of the papers.

There's that damned liberal media again.


Your intrepid double-chinned reporter and a delegate from my precinct by the name of Cris Feldman. Yes, that Cris Feldman.

Hispanic Caucus goes Pohlman for Vice Chair

Lenora Sorola-Pohlman of Houston, former secretary of the Harris County Democratic Party and an SDEC member from SD-15, defeated Bexar County Chair Carla Vela for the position of vice chair of the Texas Democratic Party earlier today in a relatively close vote of the members of the Hispanic Caucus, 511-383.

The significance here is that the HC, probably the state's largest and predominantly comprised of Clinton supporters, believes that a white male -- either Boyd Richie or David Van Os -- is going to be elected state party chair, and they want to dictate the choice of vice chair (this position is one of those "legacy" slots; it is currently held by A-A female Roy Laverne Brooks, who is also challenging Richie).

Charlie Urbina-Jones, the chairman of the Progressive Populist Caucus, is a contender for vice chair on a unity ticket with Brooks. The vote for state party chair between Richie, Van Os, and Brooks -- all Obama supporters or declared superdelegates -- will go to the full convention floor tomorrow afternoon. So the key to that election rests in the hands of the Clinton bloc -- again, predominantly Hispanic, but with a strong contingent of Caucasian female delegates as well.

David Mauro has some of the play-by-play.