Elizabeth I
Philosopher
...and after all that, I didn't even get to be a delegate to the state convention...
So last Saturday, March 29, I and about 1,300 of my fellow citizens in Texas State Senatorial District 25, all tried to get in to the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium at the same time. (There's more than enough room in the auditorium for that many people, just not room for everyone to come through the doors at once.) However, having cleverly volunteered to serve on a committee (the Rules Committee - there's a laugh), I was able to stroll in, go to my committee meeting, and pick up my credentials later on the strength of my - somewhat tenuous - political connections. Who says status doesn't swing any weight in the Democratic Party?
They opened the doors at 8:30 a.m., when the gavel to open the convention wasn't scheduled to fall until 2:00 p.m. (there was some thought that delegates would sign in, get their credentials, then go to the César Chávez march scheduled for that morning. Don't think it happened.) To add to the confusion, District 21, which has a much smaller reach in Bexar County, was holding its convention in the lower level of the Municipal Auditorium, so we periodically had bewildered District 21 delegates show up wondering where to go.
Of the hundred or so precincts in the district, the delegations from more than forty were contested, meaning that the long-suffering Credentials Committee had to consider every single one of those arguments and come to some decision about them.
At 2:00 p.m., registration was temporarily halted so that a temporary roll of delegates could be established. Establishment of the temporary roll of delegates allows the convention to elect a temporary chair and a temporary secretary, and set a temporary quorum so that those delegates whose places are not being contested can vote on the Credentials Committee's decisions on those that are. I have no idea what happened during that part of the convention, since it turned out that, even though the Rules Committee's work had been completed much earlier, we were pressed into service as ad-hoc, pro-tem Sergeants-at-Arms, and at that point sent out to block the registration lines so that no one could sign up until after the temporary roll had been established.
So, once we had a temporary roll, registration started back up again and the rest of us stood around, and sat around, and wandered around, waiting for the Credentials Committee to finish their work. Nothing can happen until the Credentials Committee has settled all the contests, at which point the permanent convention roll is established, a permanent quorum is set, and a permanent chair and secretary are elected.
When all the "permanents" have been settled, each delegation can then caucus and elect its delegate to the state convention.
There was a brief interesting spell when a small man with a large Napoleon complex - David Van Os, a previous unsuccessful candidate for something or other - proposed that all delegations that were not contested be allowed to go ahead and caucus to select their state delegates. That was roundly voted down. We were by God going to be sure that everyone suffered equally.
Finally - FINALLY! - the Credentials Committee began its report. A motion was made to accept the report (essentially all the Committee's decisions on the contested delegations) as a whole, but it turns out Texas Democratic convention rules don't allow for such a painless solution. So we had to listen to every single solitary decision and vote on it.
THEN - at 8:00 p.m., when the convention began at 2:00 p.m. - at last we had our permanent roll, and permanent quorum. You might have expected a Bedlam of celebration, but by that time we were all too stunned by sheer ennui.
There was an actual contest for the seat of permanent chair, but the poor man who had been temporary chair all this time won that. I'm not sure if it was reward for his dedication or punishment for his short-sightedness in accepting the temporary appointment.
After all that had been settled, the precinct delegations were allowed to caucus and elect their state delegates. This - the primary purpose of the convention - happened at about 9:00 p.m., seven hours after the opening gavel, and took approximately ten minutes.
With the delegates elected, we proceeded to vote on the report of the Resolutions Committee. I think (though I really don't remember) that there was a motion to accept the report of the Resolutions Committee as a whole, by acclamation, but that also went down and we voted on every resolution. There was a roll-call vote on whether or not to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations at the national convention, which - Hillaryites will no doubt be thrilled to hear - was won by a very narrow margin by the "ayes."
I stuck it out as long as I could, but since I had to get up early the next morning for a riding lesson, I left at about 11:00 p.m. I heard from a friend whose husband was his delegation's chair that he got home at 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Another friend, chair of her delegation in a different district, got home at 2:00 a.m.
A few observations:
So last Saturday, March 29, I and about 1,300 of my fellow citizens in Texas State Senatorial District 25, all tried to get in to the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium at the same time. (There's more than enough room in the auditorium for that many people, just not room for everyone to come through the doors at once.) However, having cleverly volunteered to serve on a committee (the Rules Committee - there's a laugh), I was able to stroll in, go to my committee meeting, and pick up my credentials later on the strength of my - somewhat tenuous - political connections. Who says status doesn't swing any weight in the Democratic Party?
They opened the doors at 8:30 a.m., when the gavel to open the convention wasn't scheduled to fall until 2:00 p.m. (there was some thought that delegates would sign in, get their credentials, then go to the César Chávez march scheduled for that morning. Don't think it happened.) To add to the confusion, District 21, which has a much smaller reach in Bexar County, was holding its convention in the lower level of the Municipal Auditorium, so we periodically had bewildered District 21 delegates show up wondering where to go.
Of the hundred or so precincts in the district, the delegations from more than forty were contested, meaning that the long-suffering Credentials Committee had to consider every single one of those arguments and come to some decision about them.
At 2:00 p.m., registration was temporarily halted so that a temporary roll of delegates could be established. Establishment of the temporary roll of delegates allows the convention to elect a temporary chair and a temporary secretary, and set a temporary quorum so that those delegates whose places are not being contested can vote on the Credentials Committee's decisions on those that are. I have no idea what happened during that part of the convention, since it turned out that, even though the Rules Committee's work had been completed much earlier, we were pressed into service as ad-hoc, pro-tem Sergeants-at-Arms, and at that point sent out to block the registration lines so that no one could sign up until after the temporary roll had been established.
So, once we had a temporary roll, registration started back up again and the rest of us stood around, and sat around, and wandered around, waiting for the Credentials Committee to finish their work. Nothing can happen until the Credentials Committee has settled all the contests, at which point the permanent convention roll is established, a permanent quorum is set, and a permanent chair and secretary are elected.
When all the "permanents" have been settled, each delegation can then caucus and elect its delegate to the state convention.
There was a brief interesting spell when a small man with a large Napoleon complex - David Van Os, a previous unsuccessful candidate for something or other - proposed that all delegations that were not contested be allowed to go ahead and caucus to select their state delegates. That was roundly voted down. We were by God going to be sure that everyone suffered equally.
Finally - FINALLY! - the Credentials Committee began its report. A motion was made to accept the report (essentially all the Committee's decisions on the contested delegations) as a whole, but it turns out Texas Democratic convention rules don't allow for such a painless solution. So we had to listen to every single solitary decision and vote on it.
THEN - at 8:00 p.m., when the convention began at 2:00 p.m. - at last we had our permanent roll, and permanent quorum. You might have expected a Bedlam of celebration, but by that time we were all too stunned by sheer ennui.
There was an actual contest for the seat of permanent chair, but the poor man who had been temporary chair all this time won that. I'm not sure if it was reward for his dedication or punishment for his short-sightedness in accepting the temporary appointment.
After all that had been settled, the precinct delegations were allowed to caucus and elect their state delegates. This - the primary purpose of the convention - happened at about 9:00 p.m., seven hours after the opening gavel, and took approximately ten minutes.
With the delegates elected, we proceeded to vote on the report of the Resolutions Committee. I think (though I really don't remember) that there was a motion to accept the report of the Resolutions Committee as a whole, by acclamation, but that also went down and we voted on every resolution. There was a roll-call vote on whether or not to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations at the national convention, which - Hillaryites will no doubt be thrilled to hear - was won by a very narrow margin by the "ayes."
I stuck it out as long as I could, but since I had to get up early the next morning for a riding lesson, I left at about 11:00 p.m. I heard from a friend whose husband was his delegation's chair that he got home at 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Another friend, chair of her delegation in a different district, got home at 2:00 a.m.
A few observations:
- As plumb crazy as our convention was, we could have been worse off. One of the other districts held their convention in a warehouse, and almost had the whole thing shut down when the Fire Marshal came by and determined that the occupancy load had exceeded that allowable for the building. I also heard that Austin has two districts and has traditionally held their conventions together as a Travis County convention, a system which worked well when both districts' delegations totaled about 300 people. However, they were determined to continue business as usual this year even though attendance was predicted to be 13,000.
- Any time a race is hotly contested and rouses great public interest, as this one is and has, there will be a huge influx of new, inexperienced participants into the system. The system needs to plan for this.
- The women Clinton delegates - not so much the men - are bone-deep, cold, mean angry. Their demeanor displays the combination of incredulity and fury you would expect from someone who has just been told that a treasured family heirloom has been wantonly destroyed for the sheer malicious joy of the vandalism. Their girl's march to the coronation has been interrupted, perhaps permanently, and they may never recover. One, a woman I had never seen before and devoutly hope never to meet again, screamed at me for no reason. (A precinct delegation had attempted to elect a temporary chair, since their regular chair had been unable to attend. Some question had come up in that connection and as a member of the Rules Committee I had been asked to help settle it. This woman shoved herself into the middle of our conversation and screamed, "NO! We are NOT going to move Obama alternates into empty Clinton seats. I am on the Credentials Committee and that is not going to happen." Aside from the fact that her shriek had nothing to do with the issue in question, the convention was going to move Obama alternates into empty Clinton seats, if, and only if, there were no Clinton alternates available. Since I was a member of the Rules Committee, I was able to set her straight about that.)
- The on-the-ground Obama workers still have a lot to learn. Clinton supporters had a table set up inside the seating area and were selling buttons, caps, T-shirts and bumper stickers. I found a couple of Obama organizers and asked if there would be a sales area for Obama and was told, "Well, our fund-raising is going pretty well, so we don't need to do that." Can you say "missed the point entirely," boys and girls?
- Obama's folks also need to learn a lot about fighting dirty, not so much so they can fight dirty too, as so they can protect against it. They flat got outmaneuvered on two votes, one of which resulted in a Clinton-leaning delegation's being seated from a contested precinct.
- I had so much fun that I applied to be an at-large delegate from the district (after the precinct delegates are elected, a number of at-large delegates are selected to make up the necessary percentages of Presidential preference, ethnicity, gender, etc.) but didn't make it. I would have thought never having supported a Democrat for President before in my entire life would have carried some weight, but apparently not.
- The whole day, two old sayings ran through my head: Will Rogers' "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat," and the Iron Chancellor's "Laws are like sausages. You should never see them made." In this case it was candidates, but the principle applies.
