DALLAS - Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Texas. But voters will have to wait until the June state convention to see who won the caucus.
Local media reports say the party has been overwhelmed by the estimated 1 million voters who showed up to caucus on March 4 under the state party’s complex system, a hybrid caucus-primary. Dubbed the “Texas Two-Step,” the process actually involves three, the state party says.
The party also says the system is supposed to be a long one anyway with the next step decided at its county and senatorial district conventions on March 29th. But the final allocation of the 67 delegates awarded by the convoluted convention/caucus process will not be alloted before the state convention on June 6/7.
Of the state party’s 228 national convention delegates, 126 are determined by the primary while the Lone Star state also has 35 super-delegates.
For what it’s worth, with about 41 percent of precints reporting, Sen. Barack Obama has narrow lead over Clinton among caucus goers. But just to make things more confusing, delegates can change their mind along the way.
Calling for the process to be reformed, The Dallas Morning News said in an editorial on Wednesday that the state’s influence had been undercut on the national political stage by the confusion, which it said has “left the rest of the country wondering: What on earth is Texas doing?”
It said there were reports of missing results and general disorder.
The state’s party spokesman Hector Nieto says the process was designed in 1988 to accomodate around 100,000 voters, not a million, but insists that nothing is supposed to be set in stone anyway until June.
“Those delegates don’t get allocated and awarded until the state convention,” he told Reuters.
One thing about the convoluted process is clear: These 67 delegates are in play until early June. And in a close Democratic presidential contest that could make a big difference.
For more coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign, click here
Trackback
9 comments so far
Just one more thing to tear the Democratic party apart. Mr. Dean get off your arse and do something, or you’ll be looking for work come Nov.
- Posted by Martha DavidsonIt is amazingly ignorant to imply that African American people are only voting for Obama because he is African American/ bi-racial. That is just as ignorant as saying that white women only voted for Clinton because she is a white woman. It is very sad and disappointing to think that individuals in 2008 have this mind set. There have been plenty of African Americans who have chosen to support Clinton, Congress woman Maxine Waters, for one. People of color are intelligent enough to vote for Obama on the basis that he is a brilliant individual with the necessary capabilities to run this country during these tumultuous times. He has the intelligence, the voice, the mind-set, decision making abilities, the integrity, and the ideas that interest, not just the African American community, but the majority of American as a whole (which is evident by his lead in delegates, and the number of states won to date).
The comments noted by Jodi really lets me know that some really don’t know others within their American community as well as they think they do!!!
- Posted by DBMI don’t think it is amazing at all to say that African Americans are voting for Obama because he is black. Nine out of ten Black Americans support Obama – not a distribution one would expect given the nearly 50 / 50 split between Hillary and Obama. And it is perfectly understandable that they would support him.
I also do not see this ‘brilliance’ in Obama. The man makes a nice speech, I’ll give you that. But what else has he actually done? He has hardly distinguished himself in the Senate. And he objection to the Iraqi war prior to his election to the Senate means nothing. I objected to the war also – does that qualify me to run for President? And who knows how he would have voted if he had been in the Senate and had access to what we now know was ‘doctored’ intelligence? Obama is a politician like all of them; he will say and do whatever is necessary to win, like all of them.
No, I am sorry, I cannot support Obama and will not vote for him should the super-delegates give him the nomination (and he cannot get to 2025 by primary or caucus committed delegates; neither can Hillary). It is Hillary, or for the first Presidential election in over 40 years for me, I vote for McCain or stay home. I have suffered through two terms of a man not ready for the presidency, someone else who promised change. I cannot take the chance on another.
- Posted by Will K.** Calling for the process to be reformed, The Dallas Morning News said in an editorial on Wednesday that the state’s influence had been undercut on the national political stage by the confusion, which it said has “left the rest of the country wondering: What on earth is Texas doing?”**
It was unhelpful not to link directly to the editorial.
- Posted by kevin whitedWill,
It’s a two way street with big signs posted. If you cannot see it, it’s nobody’s fault.
- Posted by BienAimeNeither will win. McCain in 2008!
- Posted by Mary ScottsBienAime,
I am not at all sure what it is you are trying to tell me. Perhaps I am too literal a person. Could you tell me what it is I cannot see? Specific examples would be appreciated.
- Posted by Will K.McCain is too old to win. He’ll have a heart-attack or stroke or something. Picture a 74 year old you know and ask yourself how he would be doing mid-way through his first presidential term.
- Posted by BurritoManFor heavens sake what kind of democratic caucus process is
- Posted by Landon Younggoing on in Texas? I realize they had many more people who
caucused than were expected, but to be able to delay in this fashion, change your vote along the way and not come up with a delegate tally until JUNE??? Idiotic, incomprehensible regardless of how the “original” vote might have turned.
How is it that these people can change their vote like super delegates, (whose job description as a delegate differs from regular state caucusers as I understand it)?