Texas Dems Reject Clinton Effort To Delay Caucuses

McClatchy:

Texas Democratic leaders said Monday that they will not delay the March 29 conventions that will help determine how many delegates are awarded to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama or set up "unnecessary" verification processes to review those who already cast their votes.

Clinton's camp sent a letter Friday asking that the March 29 conventions at the senatorial district or county level -- the next step in the state's hybrid of a primary election and caucus -- be delayed until signatures from the conventions held March 4 could be verified.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[JoeLib]

Anyone else staring to think Samantha Power was right on the money with her comments regarding Senator Clinton and her campaign?

Ridiculous­... It seems that Senator Clinton truly values her victory over the Democratic Party, the Democratic process... even more than Democracy itself.

Sad.

[the964kid]

Hillary will do anything to win - thats obvious to anybody who has bothered to pay attention to this primary season.... There was a good piece on Hardball tonight showing how the Republicans voted to keep Hillary in the race. And it seems to be working (they show it cost Obama TX)... When will Hillary realize she cannot win in the general election??

[StephenS]

CBS News did exit polls in Texas. Obama got more cross-over Republican votes than Clinton. Obama lost the popular vote by 47% to 51%, so a higher percentage of his total vote was Repubs. I don't know who's trying to rewrite Texas history with this, but the facts say otherwise.

http://election.cbsnews.com/campaign2008/exitPoll.shtml?state=TX&race=P&jurisdiction=0&party=D

[StephenS]

Sorry, but I just watched the Hardball show, and it does not show that Republicans cost Obama Texas.

Around Super Tuesday, according to Hardball, Obama got 57% of cross-over Republicans, Clinton got 25%, and 18% went to other Democratic candidates still in the race. In Texas, according to exit polls, Obama still got his 56% of the Republican votes, and got a higher percentage of his votes from Republicans, but the remaining 44% of the Republican votes went to Clinton.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/

http://election.cbsnews.com/campaign2008/exitPoll.shtml?state=TX&race=P&jurisdiction=0&party=D

[imsosure]

Here's what you'd get with another tour of Clinton in the WH,

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173

fast forward to 1:07:20 thru to at least 1:22:00, it's unbelievable.

[Independent voter]

WTF is this?

hillary doesn't like the rules so it wants to play by it's own rules??


FY HRC. Rules is rules and that means your sorry behind too.

[mrJJ]

err .. forgot to give credit for my c&p to BOR Burnt Orange Report

[mrJJ]

The Texas Democratic Party and local Democratic Party organizations around our state are working to turn the enormous opportunity created by the record Democratic turnout experienced on March 4th into a positive outcome for Texas Democrats this fall and in 2010. We are proud of both our Presidential candidates who helped create that turnout. We ask now that the campaigns work with us rather than become an impediment to this extraordinary opportunity to build our party.
On March 4th, our Democratic precinct conventions experienced record turnout of roughly one million precinct convention attendees, a ten-fold increase from the previous high attendance mark. As expected in any record turnout involving hundreds of thousands of people, there were reports of problems caused by long lines and crowded facilities. These problems are not unique to Texas. Similar problems, in proportionately similar numbers, occurred in pure caucus states like Iowa and Nevada.

The overwhelming majority of problems reported in Texas do not affect the legitimacy of delegate allocation. It is important to remember that the precinct conventions are just the first of three steps where delegates and alternates are selected. "Final results" will not be determined until June 6-7 at the Texas Democratic State convention. And at each convention step, Texas Democratic Party rules provide a credentials process to address problems and provide an avenue to register complaints and make formal challenges

For that reason, the Texas Democratic Party will not do as suggested by one campaign and circumvent Party rules to set up an unnecessary, ad hoc "verification" process that could effectively disqualify delegates selected at their precinct conventions after the fact. The Party has never stated any intention to set up a verification process of this nature because Party rules already provide for "verification" through our credentials process. Candidates who wish to disqualify delegates must pursue formal challenges based on evidence filed appropriately in accordance with our party's rules.

The Texas Democratic Party plans to conduct our district and county conventions on March 29 and our June State Convention in accordance with procedures set forth in Texas law and party rules. Both campaigns have the opportunity and responsibility to do their jobs by documenting evidence, filing challenges if warranted, and turning out their delegates in a system that rewards such an effort when final delegate results are determined at the State Convention in June.

[Tariqahmed]

The Clintons are corrupt. They are PAID by other
country & its Lobbies that has caused US $$$ to plunge and Oil US $ 112.

OBAMA is UNCORRUPT paid by us not by others.
I pay his campaign out of my weely paycheck.

DEFEAT CORRUPT CLINTONS by using YOUR VOTE.

.

[eurydice]

That Hillary is just like a pit bull. She just won't stop snapping at Obama's heels. She will do ANYTHING to stifle the Democratic process and get her own way. This is pure Republican politics by the woman in the Red Jacket.

Her sense of entitlement has become sociopathic.

[foreffectivegovernment]

There were many cases of voter fraud during the Texas Caucus process. Hillary Clinton should sue the state of Texas so they will be forced to feret out these violations.

I don't know where you live but I live in TEXAS. The rules say that a person had to vote in the Democratic Primary and return at 7:15 OR after the polls closed.
Poll workers were supposed to check voter's registration cards that were stamped with the word "Democratic" when a person voted in the Primary.

Those who were marked "Republican" were not supposed to caucus.

At some polls, depending on who the poll workers were, some votes were taken by headcount and not signed in.

The local papers have many cases documented where the rules were not followed and there is a possibility of delaying the March 29 County Conventions so sign-in sheets can be compared to the vote count.

That is why the results are not in on the Precinct Conventions but will be Mar. 29 or later. NOBODY HAS WON THE TEXAS CAUSUS YET, but Hillary Clinton has won the Primary portion.

[gomonkeygo]

There's only one reason why the Senator from NY wants this done - to delay the count until after Pennsylvania. The last thing she wants is for Obama to come out of Texas with even more delegates than he's already trumped her with before she "wins" in PA. A few voters, a few thousand thoughtful ones, will look at those results and say "Hey, wait a minute..." and vote their hearts and minds instead of their fears.

[TheRealMacDaddy]

Well she said she was going to win the nomination 'by hook or by crook'.

Someone must have just informed her she really didn't win in Tx. Like little Fiddler crabs watch them scurrying around trying to find something to hang onto as the tide comes in...

[SeekerOne]

Speaking of crooks...

[drmavis]

Why don't the Clintons sue Texas and make them verify all of the PRIMARY voters' names and legal status? Oh wait -- that's because she won. She only sues, contests, or ridicules contests that she loses in (which is the vast majority of states and contests so far).

[NoSillyName]

Someone help us; she's worse than Bush!

[eurydice]

Notice she's always in those red jackets?
She is the Woman in Red spoken of in the Book of Revelations. The Scarlet Woman, the Wh*re of Babylon, the Abominatio­n...

[enoughalready13]

I do not see how these caucuses are democratic. Why can't all people have the opportunity to vote for a candidate in the privacy of a voting booth? This is a fundamental right of citizens in this country. To do so in any other manner is unconstiutional in my mind.

[SeekerOne]

Unfortunately, our voting booths are potentially far less democratic than any caucus. As long as partisans oversee the process, as long as the accuracy of voting machine are in question, and as long as anyone strongarms constituents (such as governors do with their mayors, and political "machines"), it's is likely a corrupt process. If we're serious about democracy, we need to overhaul our system.

Oh, and then there's the way that money limits what candidates we ever get to see, to vote for...

[MicahBrwn]

Because people aren't "voting for a candidate.­" They're choosing the candidate that will have the most pledged state delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.

Huge difference.

[StephenS]

In Texas, all people got to vote in the privacy of a voting booth for 65% of the delegates, and selected Clinton over Obama by 51% to 47% and > 100,000 votes.

Then a portion of those who had already voted went to the Tuesday night caucuses and got to vote in a public forum for a 2nd time to select 35% of the delegates. If CNN delegate projections are right, Clinton lost the caucuses 42% to 58%, which is the same as about 430,000 (29%) of her primary votes being tossed out by the caucuses. Obama did a SUPERB job of getting his supporters to the less democratic caucuses.

[PrdAmerican]

Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. The caucus is as old as America, it is one of the very last vestiges of American history that we have the honor to participate in besides the vote. My state still conducts the caucus and this past election was an incredible experience. There we met, face to face, voice to voice to discuss our candidates. Ironically, the Clinton supporters were dumbfounded when asked to give voice on their candidate. Many could only suggest that she would be best because of who she is bringing with her, Bill Clinton. We debated the healthcare issue, we debated the economy, and who we felt best able to handle foreign policy. As we debated, minds were changed, some walked away feeling completely PART of the process and better for it. There is a reason Obama does well in the caucus's..­it's not for the lack of Clinton supporters, it's the ability of Obama supporters to support their candidate with facts and pure debate.

[snowcat]

thank you SO much for posting pieces like this that show some of what is going on behind the scenes. This has NOT been on Cable news!

[NvMe]

I participated in the Clark County, Nevada caucus audit...it hasn't been covered by the media either. If our convention REDO on April 12 ends up in favor of Obama just watch the fur fly here too. Texas you are not alone. Glad you aren't allowing the Clinton Machine to dictate or rewrite the rules in their favor. It will be nice to see that WE THE PEOPLE are finally putting a stop to business as usual politics this election season. We are so done with mud slinging, race baiting, kitchen sink, scorched earth politics that even the media barrage of incendiary tactics won't stop us. YES WE CAN people - we can change the face of America...­Obama 08.

[billrott]

So not seating the delegates in Florida and Michigan is wrong, yet not seating the delegates in Texas is right. Hillary please explain this logic?

[Tariqahmed]

FL is DEAD ON ARRIVAL as they played before the referees said yes.
Did not play by the rule you are OUT!!!!

FLORIDANS ARE DRUNK.

DELEGATES ARE SUNK.

[mrJJ]

DNC Strips Florida Of 2008 Delegates
No Convention Slots Unless Later Primary Is Set

Sunday, August 26, 2007; Page A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/25/AR2007082500275.html?hpid=topnews

Judge OKs DNC sanctions over Fla. primary

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-05-florida-primary_N.htm