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Frustrated Democrats Vote for Their Presidential Choices •
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Barack Obama Handily Wins Dallas County District Conventions
By Gromer Jeffers
The Dallas Morning News
Sunday 30 March 2008
Barack Obama cruised to victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton in Dallas County's Senate district conventions Saturday, as Texas Democrats continued their arduous and sometimes frustrating process of choosing national convention delegates.
Mr. Obama had double-digit leads in all five of the county's Senate districts, mirroring his electoral power here in the March 4 primary. Statewide, the picture was less certain, though Mr. Obama started the day with a caucusing advantage because he won the first round, precinct conventions held the night of the primary.
That may mean he can win more overall delegates in Texas even though Mrs. Clinton won the initial primary vote, as Mr. Obama's campaign claimed in a triumphant statement late Saturday. The Clinton campaign scoffed at that and predicted a strong showing once all the results were counted.
The packed conventions cemented for some that the "two-step" system of having caucuses after a primary vote is probably not suited for such a large state. Thousands of Texans spent hours in school gyms and other venues Saturday, arguing at length about credentials and other matters - all for a handful of delegates among thousands to the convention that will nominate either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton for president.
Delegates alternated between boredom and frustration. At one district, police were summoned to keep the proceedings calm.
Many Democrats, though, saw great benefits for the party - particularly in the unprecedented numbers of participants.
"What you have is people who are energized by the process," said state Sen. Royce West, who led the convention in his 23rd District and at one point called the process a "nightmare."
"Ninety percent of our convention had first-time delegates. We are developing a farm system," he said.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie described the scene as "democracy at its finest." Visiting conventions in Dallas and Tarrant counties with his wife, Betty, he said he was floored by the amount of engagement - particularly newcomers.
"I've never seen anything like it," he said. If voters are this determined to be involved, he said, "November looks really good for us."
The delegates elected by Texas Democrats on Saturday are headed to the state party convention in June in Austin. There, 67 delegates will be selected to attend the national convention, in addition to those apportioned by the results of the primary.
Republicans also held county conventions, though only to select individual delegates, not to apportion them to candidates. Republican leaders have said they're confident likely GOP nominee John McCain will easily carry the state this fall.
"This Is Crazy"
With tens of thousands of participants, Saturday's conventions were expected to be chaotic - and they were.
The District 23 convention, one of the largest in the state, was stalled for hours because the credentials of thousands of delegates were either challenged or could not immediately be verified.
The tedious process included numerous precincts redoing the caucuses held March 4, an act repeated across the state.
"This is crazy," said Deanna Hammond, who was elected delegate at her precinct March 4 and didn't know why her credentials were challenged. "I'm going home and going to bed."
Clinton supporters prompted most of the disputes. Some would-be delegates were simply confused and complained that the Obama or Clinton campaigns told them to show up. The process allows for some political maneuvering, and the campaigns were thought to be looking for any advantage in an extraordinarily close race.
At the District 16 convention at SMU's Moody Coliseum, Nita Hooper and other delegates from her Garland precinct had to wait hours in line to have their credentials verified.
"We finally got signed in, but we're still missing some people. We don't know where they are," she said.
The Flaws
A weary Mr. West conceded that the process had flaws. In his convention, a computer system went down, a woman fainted and it was discovered that the delegates from some precincts were never recorded into the system.
"It's a nightmare," he said at one point. "The system wasn't designed for all these people. The process is a nightmare."
The senator - the only Democrat in the Dallas-area delegation - said he would seek changes when the Legislature meets next year. But he said he was happy with the turnout and the display of democracy.
Despite the confusion, delegates were not unruly, though extra police were called to the credentials committee when tempers ran hot.
For some, tedium and discomfort were the real problems. At the District 8 convention at Thomas Jefferson High School in northwest Dallas, participants waited in long lines or sat on uncushioned wooden chairs in a stuffy high school auditorium, where they talked and caucused and voted and talked some more. Lunch was hot dogs and hamburgers, and the line to get those was long, too.
It was hardly most folks' idea of fun on a Saturday. But Bob Franklin, a precinct chair from North Dallas who served on the resolutions committee for the district convention, said there's no place he'd rather have been.
"I had a heck of a lot of fun," he said, grinning broadly at the end of the long day.
Extraordinary turnout was the theme countywide. In District 2 in southeastern Dallas, about 1,400 people attended - compared with about 150 in years past, said Steve Tillery, the convention chairman and executive director of the Dallas County Democratic Party.
"It shows you what can happen when you have two dynamic candidates running for president," Mr. Tillery said.
Party leaders sought to keep the machinery running and remind the crowd that, in the end, they're on the same side as Democrats.
"It's like asking if I like peanut butter and jelly or jelly and peanut butter," said Dan Woolery, a precinct chairman attending the District 9 convention at South Grand Prairie High School.
Staff writers Karen Brooks, Rudolph Bush, Dave Levinthal and Bruce Tomaso contributed to this report.
Dividing Delegates: Texas' Three-Step Process
Results from Saturday's county and Senate district conventions, the second step of a three-step process to allocate one-third of Texas' delegates to the Democratic National Convention:
Statewide
36 percent of about 7,300 delegates selected
Barack Obama: 57 percent
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 43 percent
Dallas County
Senate District 2
Obama: 73 percent
Clinton: 27 percent
Senate District 8
Obama: 59 percent
Clinton: 41 percent
Senate District 9
Obama: 61 percent
Clinton: 39 percent
Senate District 16
Obama: 59 percent
Clinton: 41 percent
Senate District 23
Obama: 82 percent
Clinton: 18 percent
Delegate Totals
Where the candidates stand in the race for the Democratic nomination nationwide, according to an Associated Press estimate:
Obama: 1,623
Clinton: 1,499
Needed to win nomination: 2,024
The Process in Texas
Texas Democrats allocate their convention delegates in two ways:
126 were determined by the popular vote in the March 4 primary in state Senate districts. Hillary Rodham Clinton won 65 delegates; Barack Obama got 61.
67 are determined by conventions, held at the precinct, county/Senate district, and state levels.
What's Next
Saturday's results were to select about 7,300 delegates to the state convention in June in Austin, where the final delegates to the Democratic National Convention will be chosen. If Mr. Obama's lead from the initial precinct conventions holds, he would do well enough to take more delegates from Texas, despite Mrs. Clinton's overall primary vote victory.
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Frustrated Democrats Vote for Their Presidential Choices
By Anna M. Tinsley, Aman Batheja and Sarah Bahari
Star-Telegram.com
Saturday 29 March 2008
Republicans also have strong turnout.
Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were neck and neck in the continuing fight for Texas delegates Saturday, after a chaotic day in which tens of thousands of Texans turned out to participate in the next step of the presidential delegate process.
Some delegates - confused and frustrated by hours-long delays and disorganization - eventually gaving up and leaving after eight or more hours, still not sure if their vote counted for Obama and Clinton.
"Please move a bit faster," urged delegate Whitney Larkins, who attended the largest senatorial district in Tarrant County gathered at the Will Rogers Coliseum. "Have some consideration. Think about those of us who took time out of our lives to participate in this."
Statewide, the candidates were running a close race in early results, with Obama winning 839 delegates going to the state convention and Clinton picking up 833, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That's out of about 7,300 delegates expected to be chosen statewide.
Large conventions statewide, such as those in Houston, Dallas and Austin, were expected to run late into the night. By 9 p.m., two of the Tarrant County conventions were still going.
Obama's campaign claimed victory Saturday night.
"The voters of Texas confirmed Sen. Obama's important delegate win in the Lone Star State," Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said. "The American people are ready for change in Washington and new leadership in the White House that will stand up for working families."
At stake are the 67 delegates that will be divvied up through the state's caucus system. In the March 4 primary, Clinton won Texas' popular vote 51-47 percent, giving her 65 delegates and Obama 61.
Supporters of both candidates made various challenges through the day at most conventions, contesting votes and delegates on the other side.
Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks urged delegates to be prepared to unite behind the candidate who wins the nomination.
"The only way we can lose this November is if we kill each other off," he said. "If we let things, differences, tear us apart, there will be another Republican in the White House after November.
"Let's take charge of our own destiny," he said. "I'm tired of us, as a party, continuing to shoot ourselves in the foot."
District 9
By the end of the day, few people were not questioning the way Texas elects its delegates.
In Arlington, delegates were still signing in two hours after the convention was scheduled to begin. Confusion reigned. People didn't know which line to stand in, where to go or what to do.
Frenzied volunteers spent the day fielding questions and giving directions. Some delegates gave up and left. Others chugged coffee or water while expressing dismay at the state's electoral system.
"There's a definite learning curve," said Shauna Kirland, an Obama supporter who lives in Mansfield. "I wanted to make my vote count, but this is a very frustrating, unorganized process."
Just before 5 p.m., eight hours after people began arriving, precincts finally began meeting to elect delegates.
The air conditioning at Tarrant County College's Southeast campus automatically shut off at 5. A half-hour later, people were fanning themselves and taking off sweaters and suit jackets.
When people shouted and urged the organizers to move faster, Marvin Sutton, the District 9 chair, urged patience.
"We want the will of the voters to prevail," Sutton told delegates.
An Arlington woman, Detra G. Carmichael, walked to the podium during one of the several delays.
"What can we do to make sure this never happens again?" she asked. "We've been here since the early morning, and we're still waiting."
The crowd, exhausted, cheered.
Officials said Saturday night that they didn't know how many of the 59 delegates they'll send from the district to the state convention will be for Obama or Clinton. But final results from the district showed that 490 delegates were for Obama; 164 were for Clinton.
District 10
Thousands of delegates gathered at the Will Rogers Coliseum, where the arena floor was still covered in dirt from a cutting horse event.
Many waited for hours - listening to candidate speeches, standing in line for food, listening to music blaring through the loud speaker - as they waited to sign in, get credentials or vote on delegates.
By 6 p.m., less than half of those present in the morning still remained.
"This is a very frustrating process," said Al Wade, an Obama delegate. "You'd think it was designed by Republicans to irritate Democrats."
Through the day, officials urged delegates not to leave. After hours of delays, many increasingly frustrated delegates began speaking out.
"I make a motion that this nonsense end right now and we take this to the state," one unidentified man said to convention leaders.
After a while, delegates left in droves.
"It should have been this difficult," said Donna Domm, a Clinton delegate who left after 11 hours. "It's very disorganized."
Willa Morehouse, an Obama delegate, agreed.
"It was real tiresome - wait, sit, sit, wait, wait, sit, sit, wait," she said. "It was a hassle I could have done without."
Said Domm: "It's a once in a lifetime situation."
Results were not available by 10 p.m.
District 12
A shoddy sound system and widespread uncertainty about the process left many of the more than 2,000 delegates at the Gaylord Convention Center frustrated.
"I understand this is supposed to build community but I mean this is all kind of a joke if you ask me," said Tim Bialek, an Obama supporter from North Richland Hills. "It's like how many Democrats does it take to screw in a light bulb? That's what everyone is waiting in line for."
Tensions flared around noon over how to handle precinct caucus results that were challenged. There were 87 challenges to precinct caucus results from senate district 12. The majority of the challenges came from the Clinton campaign.
Rather than waiting for a credentials committee to make recommendations on each challenge, convention leaders suggested splitting the challenged precincts evenly for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The crowd roared a definitive "no" at the initial suggestion. A second vote on the idea failed. Organizers warned the caucus may go until midnight if each challenge has to be heard individually. Several Obama supporters suggested the effort was an attempt by the Clinton campaign to steal delegates.
"We will caucus until midnight to get our man in office," said Obama supporter Mindy Barton of Fort Worth.
Around 3 p.m., the delegates addressed all 87 challenges in one vote, accepting the recommendations of the credentials committee.
Despite the early drama, the convention appeared to go more smoothly than many other large conventions in North Texas. Most attendees left by 6 p.m. after they caucused for their candidate.
Results were not available by 9 p.m.
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