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Manifestor_of_Light

(21,046 posts)
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 01:37 AM Mar 2016

Who else is going to their County or Senate District Convention today?



Two warm bodies at this house going to the county courthouse in the morning to pick delegates to the state convention in San Antonio, Party Central!! Woohoo!! The fun part of the convention is being in the High rise Marriott hotel in San Antonio across the street from the convention center, and some Yankee on a candidate's staff asks you, "Where's the Alamo?" and you point, "DOWN THERE" and they flip out over the fact that the Alamo is in the middle of downtown. They've seen too many westerns where the Alamo is in the middle of nowhere. Great fun.

There's nothing sadder than a drunk Democrat at 2 am riding up and down the elevators after all the booze has run out and the locusts have hit all the hospitality suites and wiped out everything but some sad looking lettuce leaves.


My husband has gone with me to the convention before in 2000 in Fort Worth but was not a delegate. I told him it doesn't take a lot of brains to be a delegate. You listen to lots of speeches about how wonderful the Democratic Party is and raise your hand when they ask you to vote on stuff.

I've been a state delegate three times in the past: 1980, 1992, and 2000. They don't have the precinct caucus at 7:15 the night the polls close after the primary anymore. So I will have a few things to learn.

We had 464 votes for Hillary, 101 votes for Bernie in our county. So it was 80% to 17%. This is El Pais del Nada as I call it. The Country of Nothing. Very very Republican. This is Houston County (no this is not where Houston is, that is in Harris County--nice and confusing) and it's a very small county. I think the county seat, Crockett, only has about 6,000 people.

I hope to meet some of the Texas delegation of DU at the State Convention. So many of you I have not met in person but you're interesting online!

EXCELSIOR!! (Onward and upward!)



My folks told me about going to the state convention in 1958. They were campaigning for Henry B. Gonzalez, long time San Antonio Congressman, to be nominated for governor. They said they had fist fights, walk outs, rump conventions outside, and some old lady hit Dad over the head with her purse!!!

The good old days of conviction!!

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Who else is going to their County or Senate District Convention today? (Original Post) Manifestor_of_Light Mar 2016 OP
I went to my county convention last Saturday as a delegate CoffeeCat Mar 2016 #1
I will be at my couty/senate district convention Gothmog Mar 2016 #2
I'm such an introvert that I just get really depressed at events like the conventions so I JDPriestly Mar 2016 #3
I'll be at the tarrant county convention...nt BlueCollar Mar 2016 #4
Couple of my friends are delegates for Bernie hobbit709 Mar 2016 #5
Me! vintx Mar 2016 #6
Webb County checking in WolverineDG Mar 2016 #7
Our county chair said anyone who's Bernie or Bust (or Hillary or the hell with it - haven't heard vintx Mar 2016 #9
We had some young kids who felt that way WolverineDG Mar 2016 #10
It just made me sad. vintx Mar 2016 #11
We got 4 delegates for Hillary and 1 for Bernie. Manifestor_of_Light Mar 2016 #8

CoffeeCat

(24,411 posts)
1. I went to my county convention last Saturday as a delegate
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 02:18 AM
Mar 2016

I was a delegate for Bernie to our county convention in Polk County, Iowa.

Interesting to note that Hillary won our county by 60 delegates the night of the caucuses.

However, the day of the County Convention (last Saturday) 100 of HRC's delegates never showed/

After 11 hours of counting/waiting--the end result was a tie. Both Bernie and Hillary received 114 delegates from Polk County that will go on to the district and state conventions.

Will be interesting to hear what you experience.

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
3. I'm such an introvert that I just get really depressed at events like the conventions so I
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 04:11 AM
Mar 2016

do not like to and do not go. It's really hard for me to be in crowds like that.

I'm great in small groups or just talking to one person or a few people. But in big crowds I just cannot stand being there.

WolverineDG

(22,298 posts)
7. Webb County checking in
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 06:23 PM
Mar 2016

Webb can send 103 delegates. 49 showed for Hillary, 47 for Bernie (!!!). The Hillary people who control the local party were not expecting that. End result, HRC gets 53 delegates out of Webb, & Bernie gets 50.

This doesn't change the outcome of the delegates that get sent to National, though (but I think it should).

99.9% of the convention was civil, until someone made one of those "loyalty oath"-type resolutions that said "because Hillary has a bajillion votes & Bernie has none, the Bernie supporters should support Hillary in the fall." (paraphrase) Let's just say that went over like a lead balloon. Everyone is playing nice & smiling (in stark contrast to 2008 in which the Obama delegates were treated like shit & ended up walking out of the convention to hold their own rump caucus in the parking lot) & someone has to do this.

We fought back & got it amended to say that the Democratic Party will urge members of the Democratic Party to vote for the Democratic candidate in November. No names, no bogus stats. Some Bernie folks still objected to the resolution as being "unnecessary," & I can kind of see their point but at least we got the condescending, objectionable language out of it.

 

vintx

(1,748 posts)
9. Our county chair said anyone who's Bernie or Bust (or Hillary or the hell with it - haven't heard
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 02:34 AM
Mar 2016

of them before) should leave now.

I didn't but I will certainly take his advice should she get the nod.

It's sad how willing the Dem party is to chase people off.

WolverineDG

(22,298 posts)
10. We had some young kids who felt that way
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 12:23 PM
Mar 2016

and one who said he could not vote for Hillary if she won the nomination. But what got me was the unnecessary resolution in the first place. Several of us stood up & pointed out that we didn't need our noses rubbed in it, we were passing everyone's resolutions anyway (except for the electronic voting one that got unanimously voted down), why even stir the pot? Another pointed out that "Bernie or Bust" is a reaction to the constant "inevitablity" message that's getting shoved down our throats. I said I personally have always reacted negatively when someone tells me that I "have" to vote for someone. No, I don't "have" to vote for anyone, I don't even have to vote at all.

However, everyone was in agreement that we can't have an R win the presidency in 2016.

 

vintx

(1,748 posts)
11. It just made me sad.
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 12:41 PM
Mar 2016

I almost just walked out right then, but there's still a chance.

It did help cement my resolve though. That's for sure.

 

Manifestor_of_Light

(21,046 posts)
8. We got 4 delegates for Hillary and 1 for Bernie.
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 12:43 AM
Mar 2016

Another woman wanted to be the Bernie delegate. I asked her how many times she had been to the state convention. She said once. I had been three times before, so I thought it would be only fair to let her go. So she is going, unless something comes up, and I'm the alternate.

There was a resolution we voted on about nuclear waste being transported to Sierra Blanca, outside of El Paso, and condemning using I-10 or I-20 to transport nuclear waste out there. We agreed that was a bad idea and voted in favor of that resolution. The lady who had worked on it a lot said she had lived in El Paso, and after the convention broke up she told my husband and me that Bernie had voted in favor of shipping radioactive waste out there. I thanked her for the information. Everyone was real friendly, and I got the feeling that since only 3 people there wanted to be Bernie delegates, there was no serious rancor. We all agreed that there was no way in hell any of us would vote R in the general election.

The outgoing county chairman said he thought they might prop up Mitt and run him as a third-party spoiler on the R side. I told him I suspected the Rs might prop him up inside the party due to the dangerousness of Trump and Cruz .

We had 19 people show up for the county convention, so at least there are some other Ds in the county, although I don't know if anyone but my hubby and me are Ds in our town, since we don't live in the county seat.


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