Texans
Are Laughing
By Jim Lane
DALLAS -- Anti-Bush progressives in Texas are still giggling over our giant
turnout in the primary election on March 4. The turnout set records and was
easily 5 times as large as the 2004 presidential primary. Democrats more than
doubled the Republican turnout. In fact, the Texas AFL-CIO reported that both
Clinton and Obama each earned more votes than all Republicans combined.
Even though Hillary
Clinton took the popular vote in Texas with solid support in rural and suburban
areas, the peculiar system of selecting some of the delegates through the precinct
conventions awarded a slight majority of pledged delegates to Barack Obama.
Apparently, Obama's legions of volunteer supporters were either more numerous,
more inspired, or better-trained than Clinton's, because they flooded the precinct
conventions. There are approximately 35 unpledged Texas "superdelegates"
who will ultimately decide "who won Texas" at the State Convention
in Austin. Even the so-called "pledged" delegates can switch candidates
almost at will, so the State Convention promises high drama.
Almost everybody is swapping stories about their amazing experiences at the
precinct conventions. In one of Dallas' largest African-American precincts,
a long-time political figure who supported Clinton absconded with the sign-in
sheets that are used to determine the numbers of delegates. According to the
Dallas paper, Obama supporters literally chased her into a local police station!
Texas unions had no access to the exit-poll information they had in Ohio, where
the AFL-CIO reports that 33% of all voters came from union households, but we
are very happy with the results of our efforts. The Texas AFL-CIO reports that
four union-endorsed candidates for the State Legislature were defeated while
most of labor's candidates won. Very big money came into play in some races,
and it has not yet become known how much the primary race affected the biggest
question in state politics, "Will Tom Craddick be able to continue his
iron-fisted rule of the State House?"
The
number one labor candidate in the state, Rick Noriega for the U.S. Senate seat
held by ultra-rightwing Republican conservative John Cornyn, squeaked a 51%
no-runoff victory over two Democratic opponents. His vote was substantially
larger than Cornyn's, but Cornyn is reported to have oceans of campaign money
for November.
In Dallas, Sheriff Lupe Valdez also took a victory without a runoff over several
Democratic contenders. The Dallas AFL-CIO endorsed candidates all won their
races handily, with only one runoff still in the works.
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