It appears that one of the campaigns, probably Clinton, has threatened the Texas Democratic Party with a possible lawsuit over our delegate election processes, prompting the Texas Denmocratic Party's general counsel to send the campaigns a letter urging them not to do such a thing.
We have had our combination primary and precinct convention system in Texas for a long time, at least since the 1970s. It is not complicated at all. Part of the national delegates are allocated proportionately by the popular vote in the primary election and part are allocated proportionately by how many attendees at the conventions sign in for each candidate. It is a very simple exercise but the national media are trying to make it sound complicated because they can make a story up about it to trash Texas as they have loved to do for many decades.
And Hillary Clinton is publicly trying to make it sound complicated because she wants to set up an excuse in advance - no surprise, that's the modus operandi of the Beltway consultantocracy that Bill and Hillary Clinton follow in all their decisions. The really laughable part of it is that Hillary Clinton's argument to Texas voters is her claimed familiarity with Texas people and Texas Democrats in particular.
Yet when it suits her purposes she now claims that the Texas Democratic primary process is completely new to her and is bizarre and incomprehensible. That is such bullshit. We have had basically the same process of precinct conventions as far back as when she and Bill were the Texas state campaign directors for the McGovern campaign in 1972. So Hillary, you are familiar with Texas Democrats when it suits you to claim you are one of us to get our votes, then you are unfamiliar with us when it suits you to trash our process. Just like your transparent duplicitousness about NAFTA.
There have been comments and postings about how our process supposedly lets Republicans vote in Democratic primaries. Again, such comments reflect misinformation about a very simple matter. Our primaries are not open primaries like they have in Louisiana. They are closed to members of each party. However, in Texas we do not register to vote by party. You simply register to vote as a citizen and Texas resident, period. The way you declare your membership in a political party is by voting in that party's primary. Whoever is voting in the Democratic Primary right now is by that action joining and declaring membership in the Democratic Party as a matter of public record.
The idea that we should keep our Democratic Party a private club and exclude newcomers from joining it is precisely one of the things that has caused our decline for the last 30 years. In case one can't count, you should be aware that the private-club attitude has not and does not build political majorities. Here on the ground in Texas, most of us long-time grassroots Democrats are excited as all getout to see so many people voting in the Democratic Primary and getting their voter registration certificate stamped "Democratic" by the election clerks. For too, too many dreary years the majority of Texas voters have been voting Republican by default as a social habit, not even necessarily because of ideology or philosophy. We love seeing so many voters breaking that social habit. We welcome the voters who are doing it. It can't do anything but help us build to take this state back.
We all know that lots of formerly 100% Republican voters are voting in the Democratic Primary right now because they are our neighbors, friends, and coworkers and we know they are just fed up past the point of tolerance with the Bushite neocon criminals who lied to them, tricked them and betrayed them. They know that John McCain is Bush 3 and they want something new.
You can count on it, Texas is "in play" not just in this Democratic primary but in November. We put Jimmy Carter in the White House in 1976 by carrying our state for his ticket and we will bring it back home and do it again in 2008. No scenario of electoral math can put McCain in the presidency if the Democratic ticket carries Texas.
Not only are many previous Republican voters casting their votes in the Texas Democratic Primary; but many previously disaffected Democrats are returning to vote for the first time in a long time. In demographics, socioeconomics and culture, this state is not "red"; it is "blue", deep blue, and has been for a long time. But the huge latent Democratic majority has not been voting because they haven't seen reasons to do so due to the national Democratic party writing them off in every presidential election beginning with 1980. This is not just conjecture, it is down-home reality that when large numbers of Democrats read in the newspapers that the Democratic party says we can't carry the state, they say to themselves, "Why should I bother to vote? My own party says it is a waste of my time." That is what has happened election after election since 1980 when the Beltway Democratic Punditburo announces every election, "Texas isn't in play."
Now our huge mass of latent and disaffected Democrats sees the national pundits and operatives saying we are a battleground in presidential politics, and they are saying to themselves, "Wow, my vote matters, this is the first time in such a long time, this is really exciting, where's the nearest polling place?" Literally this is the ground-level "man and woman on the street" conversation right now.
And similarly, lots of people who are really Democrats have been voting Republican for a long time because they want their votes to count and they saw the Democratic Party not caring about their votes. They are also part of the latent Democratic majority. Lots of them are returning home and voting in the Democratic Primary right now for the same reasons I discussed above.
If the 2008 Democratic Nominee writes off Texas again, this will all go down the drain and once again, the Republican Nominee will start the race already over 10% of the way to the 270 electoral votes goal. If the 2008 Democratic Nominee campaigns seriously for Texas and puts resources in here LIKE WE HAVEN'T SEEN SINCE 1976, we will carry this state and nationally the Republican ticket will be buried. And if Hillary Clinton takes the incredibly stupid and deplorable action of throwing cold water on the Texas primary and conventions, she will snuff all this out and go down in history as the sorriest, most low-down Democrat in history.
I know our Texas Democratic Party general counsel, Chad Dunn. He is a straight shooter. He would definitely not have written the letter he just wrote to the two campaigns if one of them had not made the threat that prompted his letter. All signs point to the Clinton campaign. Hillary should be ashamed of herself and she better put a stop to this bullshit right now if she cares about the future fate of our country.
David Van Os
San Antonio, Texas
(formerly Texas Democratic nominee for state attorney general, 2006)