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Democratic National Convention
September 11, 2008
Former Hutchison hand revisits KBH not speaking at GOP confab
I focused in my column today on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s burst to national attention partly via the Republican National Convention.
Meanwhile today, Washington hand Rich Galen, who spent a spell this year as an adviser to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, describes Hutchison’s segue from having a starring role at the convention to having none.
In his post, Galen says two back-stage guys at the shortened GOP convention had to figure out how to cram four intended days of material into three after the convention was shortened in light of Hurricane Gustav.
All those hours, days, and weeks of moving speakers and videos around the rhetorical chess board went right out the windows of the Xcel Energy Center hockey arena and it was left to two guys to put Humpty Dumpty back together.
Galen then singles out the twists in Sen. Hutchison’s speaking plans:
The first whisper out of St. Paul (Mn.) had her speaking on Thursday. Later that was moved to Wednesday. According to (the two back-stage guys), after the Gustav cancellation her four-and-a-half minute speech was expanded to five then seven minutes. Then zero.
In the end, Galen writes, she “was dropped from the line-up which decision she took with the grace and understanding the people of Texas have come to expect from her.”
My recollection is that about the time the national convention folks were telling reporters that Hutchison was not going to be in Wednesday night’s program, her office was spreading the word that she had volunteered to make way—though a spokesman said she would be available to speak Thursday if desired.
Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak said today that the senator understood that the program was in flux due to the hurricane. She’d earlier delayed her arrival in St. Paul to tour a shelter for evacuees at the Dallas Convention Center.
Galen’s full take is here.
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August 29, 2008
The Obama view for Texans in Denver
Texans had a good view of Sen. Obama’s acceptance speech, though I hear the decent seating touched off some mild jockeying among the delegates over who would get which seat closest to the stage at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.
And the Texas delegates were wowed by the speech, which led Corpus Christi delegate Augustin Rivera Jr. to say: “Game on, game on. We’re ready.”
Like Rep. Mark Strama of Austin, Rivera liked the way Obama personalized his remarks.
“There should be no confusion or doubt about who he is as a person or what he stands for,” Rivera said.
Rivera, a father of four children ages 4 to 14, said Obama obviously loves his daughters.
“That means a lot,” Rivera said.
Here’s a pic of Molly Beth Malcolm of Texarkana, state Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston and U.S. Rep. Eddie Berniece Johnson of Dallas giving a cheer.
Look carefully here to spot Travis County Attorney David Escamilla in a crowd of flag-waving fans higher up in the stands, not far from the stadium floor. (There were so many flags at this convention, it felt like a perfect warm-up for the traditionally flag-rich GOP convention.)
This pic catches delegate Renee Edwards-Current of Dallas as Obama noted the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 speech below the Washington Monument.
Here’s a shot of Rep. Robert Alonzo of Dallas, standing on his chair, with his wife, Sylvana; they were the only husband-wife pair to be delegates from Texas (though Ian Davis of Austin was an alternate and was on the stadium floor; his wife, Amy Everhart, was a delegate.)
I’ve written already it was difficult to get into the stadium, which sits across a river from downtown.
Leaving was goofily treacherous.
Start with the seeming absence of anyone outside the stadium to give decent directions.
Many Denver volunteers had helpfully provided directions through the convention week; they weren’t visible Thursday night. Visitors were left to roam in the darkness on their own.
I was among hundreds, maybe thousands, of attendees who ended up wandering along a railroad track, hoping it led downtown. After about half an hour’s stroll—including a jog past Confluence Park—it did.
A bunch of convention-goers ended up walking down the tracks.
In this shot, the lights of a roller coaster are barely visible in the background. That a good metaphor for what’s to come in the fall campaigns?
I’ll be writing here from St. Paul, where the GOP convention begins Monday.
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August 28, 2008
Hellish entry to Invesco at Mile High
As I type, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter is exhorting the late-afternoon crowd at Invesco Field at Mile High stadium to embrace Obama’s promise of change. His voice is cracking and quavery—likely because he’s been yakking ‘round the clock. Sen. Obama is due up in a few hours.
It was hellish getting into the stadium. I’m sure I didn’t help myself by squirreling up in a very long line in hopes of divining the press entrance. An older fellow gave me a little shove and looked ready to provide another. Foolishly, I was smiling.
Never mind getting rid of the old, tired politics.
I want a new-fangled way of getting into big spaces—fast.
Punchline: I’m in and thousands of others are streaming in. Nearly all of them are patient, happy, anticipating the roars to come at nightfall. That guy had a right to give a little shove.
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Primacaucus hearings resume Sept. 6 in Harlingen
Sen. Royce West of Dallas insisted today that he remains undecided on whether Texas Democrats need to end the controversial method of choosing presidential delegates both by voting at the polls on primary day and through primary-night caucuses.
A party-appointed advisory panel studying the “primacaucus” system has set its schedule of upcoming hearings, which will wrap up in Austin on Nov. 14. (Mark the date if you want to speak directly to the party leaders considering changes.)
The hearing dates and cities:
Sept. 6: Harlingen
Sept. 12: Houston
Oct. 17: Arlington
Oct. 18: Nacogdoches
Nov. 8: Lubbock
Nov. 14: Austin
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The condom lady
Clarine Souza of Sacramento, California, was passing out anti-McCain condoms wrapped like pink matchbooks at the women’s caucus of the convention Tuesday. I mentioned her in today’s column.
Here’s her pic and a closer look at the condom package:
A reader reacted quickly to the column, writing: “I can’t think of anything that is more appropriate than handing out condoms by the Democrats. It should be nationwide. Considering how out of touch with reality Obama’s spending plans are, every taxpayer in this country is going to get screwed outrageously.”
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Jackson Lee predicts tears, warns of voter suppression
Closing out four days of breakfasts attended by Texas delegates to the convention, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston gave what was surely intended by the party to be an encouraging stemwinder.
Lee, who’d been among Hillary Clinton’s prominent supporters, made it clear she’s aboard with Barack Obama, saying that she’d bought out two local drug stores’ supplies of tissues in advance of the nominee’s acceptance speech tonight. It comes on the 44th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall in Washington.
“I don’t know how many of us will be swimming in our own tears,” she said of tonight’s history-making speech.
She segued, though, to a sermon on what she believes is the likelihood of authorities to suppress minority voting. Urging delegates to bring the U.S. Constitution and state and local voting laws with them to the polls, Jackson Lee harkened back to charges that black votes were suppressed in Ohio in 2004.
“This is going to happen to you,” Lee told delegates. “Unbeknownst to you, this is going to happen to you.”
Hear Jackson Lee’s remarks on Clinton and Obama in the sound file that follows:
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It's O Day in Denver
It’s O Day in Denver — a chance for activists, such as Obama delegate Renee Edwards-Current and her friend, Ramona Fite of Dallas, below, to cheer the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, amid hopes that his acceptance speech catapults him into a strong lead on the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
As high as excitement may prove to be, this will also be a day of tedium as thousands of people line up to pass through security into Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium — and then wait for the main event.
Funny thing: There won’t be a balloon drop. Obama fans will find other ways to show their glee, and their resolve.
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CORRECTED: Delegates to see LBJ video Thursday
CORRECTED: A brief video looking back at Lyndon B. Johnson’s life the day after his birthday will be shown Thursday afternoon by delegates who are moving from the Pepsi Center to Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. Showtime is 3:45 pm local time, or 4:45 pm Texas time. (Separately, state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, who takes her turn chairing the convention tonight, is expected to plant a tree in LBJ’s honor in Denver.)
Larry Temple, president of the LBJ Foundation, says the video tells the story of the Great Society and about the impact of civil rights laws, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and other legislative achievements on President Johnson’s watch.
Peek here or drop by the LBJ library soon to see a longer version of “The Great Society.”
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August 27, 2008
The Texas tally: Obama by a wide margin
The Texas Democratic Party said Wednesday night that Texas delegates and superdelegates (party officials and U.S. House members) voted 124-96 with Obama beating Clinton in the paper balloting that took place during the day.
Seven superdelegates didn’t vote; all of them are House members.
Spokesman Hector Nieto didn’t immediately know the names of the non-voting members.
Obama entered the convention with a 99-94 edge on Clinton in pledged delegates from Texas. My back-of-the-hand calculation is that he picked up 24 super-delegates by the time of the paper balloting, with Clinton snagging three of them.
The twist: Nieto said he knows of at least one Clinton delegate who switched to Obama for the first (and, it turns out, last) paper balloting. He didn’t recall the person’s name.
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Gallegos votes from a hospital bed in Denver
State Sen. Mario Gallegos of Houston, a Clinton delegate to the convention, landed in a Denver hospital Tuesday with a skin infection — missing his chance to hear Sen. Clinton’s evening speech.
Gallegos, 57, memorably rose from his sick bed last year to cast a decisive vote against the Texas Senate taking up a measure requiring voters to present photo identification. A portable hospital bed was rolled into the Capitol for him at the time.
On Wednesday morning, Gallegos didn’t miss his chance to mark down his delegate vote for Clinton.
The state party chairman, Boyd Richie, brought a paper ballot to Gallegos in his room at the University of Colorado Hospital.
“Make sure and give thanks to the chairman,” Gallegos said in a telephone interview later. A TV broadcast of the convention proceedings could be heard in the background.
Gallegos said his skin infection should clear with antibiotics overnight, enabling him to check out Thursday.
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Devil, angel in league with Austin political blogger
At the “big tent” bloggery fest near the Pepsi Center, Austin’s peripatetic Democratic political blogger, Matt Glazer, sat in this afternoon with the devil and the angel to discuss national plans to have crews of costumed activists knock on doors to encourage voter turnout.
When? On Halloween, of course, five days before the November elections. The non-partisan dealie is called “Trick or Vote.”
Organizers say they’re doing the deed in 25 cities in 12 states on the premise of a Yale University study suggesting that voters are more likely to go to the polls if they’re asked to do so face to face — rather than, say, over the telephone.
Dallas and Houston are likely locales, according to this map. Austin isn’t targeted.
Glazer, who participated in the New Voters Project in 2004, said participants found voters all too frequently declaring they were registered to vote out of shame, rather than being willing to admit they hadn’t filled out the registration form.
“People get terrified by the process,” Glazer said, which he described as plain ol’ stupid on account of the presidential primary leading to primary-night caucuses accounting for a third of the state’s delegates to the national convention.
Toby Crittenden of Seattle, carrying a plastic cigar, portrayed the devil in the big-tent confab.
Carrie Jackson of Boulder, Colorado played Angelica, the angel. “I’m an angel straight from heaven trying to clean up his act,” she said.
I kidded Crittenden on the amount of bubbly beverages that went into dreaming up the trick-or-vote idea.
“Just the right amount,” he said.
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Noriega assails Cornyn; aide says money not crucial
Rick Noriega, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn, hit his marks in a speech to Texas delegates at breakfast on the third morning of the convention.
Noriega, a fifth-term Texas House member from Houston, called Cornyn out of touch with Texas families and insensitive to the plight of people unable to obtain health insurance or adequate health care.
And he promised to stump to every corner of the state — or send family members to do so.
“We have to get the state back on the right track,” Noriega said. “We have to stand up and fight. We have got to take it back. It is not going to be given to us.”
Noriega opened his speech with a sure sign that President Bush is unpopular, even back home. He said he feels compelled to apologize to non-Texans for what’s happened in Washington the past six to eight years.
Separately, Noriega’s spokesman, Martine Apodaca, said that it’s not critical that Noriega pick up the financial support of the Washington-based Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is separately holding an event in Denver celebrating other Democratic Senate aspirants.
Noriega has already courted the DSCC in hopes of a late-campaign infusion of money that could be spent on turning out voters and TV advertising. So far, the committee has not committed.
Regarding the DSCC, Apodaca told me: “We’d like to have all the help we can get. I don’t think that we need it. We’re not expecting it.”
His contention: Noriega can overtake Cornyn regardless of the fundraising gulf between them. Unease over the Iraq war and concern over access to health care will be driving issues, Apodaca said.
“Texans aren’t stupid,” he said. “They remember the last six years.”
“Once voters meet Rick, they’ll take him over John Cornyn.”
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Eddie Bernice Johnson: If McCain wins, I'm out
U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, elected to Congress in 1992, told Democratic delegates over breakfast today that if Sen. John McCain wins in November, she’ll plan to get the hey out of Washington.
“If McCain gets elected,” she said, “you can be sure I’ll retire.”
Johnson, who heads the state’s Democratic congressional delegation, said later that if McCain prevails, she’ll stick out the session of Congress starting in January, but then she’s retiring. “The next session will be my last — for sure,” Johnson said.
If Obama wins, well then, she said, she’s intending to hang around.
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After Hillary speech, a Texas commitment and fuss
Hillary Clinton’s appeal to Democratic delegates on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama did the trick for Tory Lauterbach of Austin.
The third-year University of Texas School of Law student (a Chicago native) worked this spring coordinating Clinton’s outreach in Travis County. She said today that after Clinton’s speech Tuesday, she told Texans for Obama operatives that she’s ready to pitch in.
“We’re going forward on reaching out to Clinton supporters in Travis County,” she said, predicting pro-Obama rallies and more.
But there was still a kerfuffle in the Texas delegation breakfast today as a clutch of delegates demanded that paper balloting in advance of this evening’s roll-call vote on the convention floor include an observer on behalf of Clinton’s campaign.
Boyd Richie, the party chairman, didn’t look happy about the turn, though he declined to comment.
Logistics: Delegates will have until noon to turn in a paper ballot for president at the delegation hotel. They can still vote at the Pepsi Center, via paper ballot, until later this afternoon.
State Rep. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, wasn’t part of the kerfuffle.
But Moreno, a Clinton supporter, suggested that not all wounds have healed between the C and O camps.
“There’s unified here,” he said, scrawling in the air with his fingers as if marking a ballot for Obama, “but not unification here,” pointing to his heart.
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Texas delegate gets a Longoria hug
Eva Longoria, one of the stars of ABC-TV’s “Desperate Housewives,” stopped by the convention’s women’s caucus on Tuesday, telling tambourine-banging participants that she’s supportive of higher voter turnout.
“I’m just representing all the desperate housewives that are in this room,” Longoria said.
Texas delegate Fran Valenzuela cadged a hug from the actress. The retired teacher told me her family knows Longoria’s family from way back. The star is from Corpus Christi and Valenzuela, a retired teacher who’s vice president of the Bay Area Association of Democratic Women, hails from sort-of-nearby Alice.
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August 26, 2008
Strama not vice president, but a rising star
State Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, had fun the other day e-mailing supporters with his grief at not being tapped as Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate. But he’s going to be named a rising star in politics tonight.
Strama wrote:
When I heard Barack Obama was considering a relatively unknown Representative from Texas, I was sure it had to be me. Obama-Strama 2008! What a great ring it had to it. But no, Obama went the cautious, safe route you might expect of a guy who I have endorsed to become leader of the free world for the next four years. Congratulations to Sen. Joe Biden. Here’s what I really think happened: as they searched for negative things they could find on the candidates on their short list, one of those enterprising Obama staffers uncovered this old picture of me from the mid-90’s when I was with Rock the Vote:
Strama pointed his supporters to this pic.
Tonight, Strama is due to be named a rising star at a party at the 5 Degrees Lounge in Denver. I told state Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio about the pending honor — and he quickly played it down.
Absolutely nothing against Strama, he said, but Castro got the same designation at the 2004 national confab and nothing changed in his life.
Still, could be a swell party.
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Cecile Richards rouses women before convention speech this afternoon
Cecile Richards spoke at the raucously happy women’s caucus of the convention this morning, warning that Sen. John McCain has never voted to support a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
Richards, whose late mother, Ann Richards, was elected governor of Texas after surging to national acclaim in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention, got a lump in her throat watching a snippet of Ann Richards’ speech from that convention. The snippet was part of Richards’ presentation to the caucus.
Cecile’s brief speech to the full convention takes place later this afternoon. She told me the backstage speech team didn’t take out anything; instead, they gave her a joke to tell.
I took the photo below of Cecile at the caucus; that’s Ann Richards with her little granddaughter, Lilly, in the video in the background. Lilly, by the way, is entering her senior year at Brandeis University. She’s majoring in… political science.
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Denver scene: Anarchists and a stop light
Austin lawyer Chuck Herring was among the Texas delegates caught up in a swirl of self-described anarchist demonstrators on a main downtown street in Denver on Sunday, though he was struck by what happened next.
With police officers keeping a very close eye, two groups of anarchists came together as one, by Herring’s recollection, and started marching down the street. And when they got to a stop light, which was red, they all stopped.
For that moment, public safety trumped anarchy.
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Noriega surfaces after taking his son to middle school
Rick Noriega, the Democratic U.S. Senate challenger to GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, surfaced at the Texas delegation’s breakfast on Tuesday, saying he expects to hang around Denver at least until sometime Thursday.
He had a proud-papa reason for not being at the convention when it started Monday.
Noriega, a 10-year state representative, said he and his wife took their 11-year-old son, Ricky, to his first day in a Houston middle school on Monday.
The prospective senator poses below with state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, and delegate Edna Hornsby of Beaumont.
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August 25, 2008
Three (John) Sharp moments in Denver
So I thought I was maybe onto something Sunday when two delegates independently told me former Texas State Comptroller John Sharp intends to run for governor — not U.S. senator, not lieutenant governor — in 2010. One delegate hails from the Rio Grande Valley, the other from Houston.
That was my first John Sharp moment.
Moment No. 2: I found Sharp at a party Monday afternoon thrown by Union Pacific on a snazzy collection of railroad cars not all that close to the security-wrapped Pepsi Center, the convention site. After I alerted him to the delegates’ forecasts, Sharp smiled and said: “Really?”
“Were you drinking?” Sharp said. (No.) “Were they?” (Not hardly.)
“This (convention) is a time for celebration,” Sharp said. “It’s Obama’s moment and Joe Biden’s moment.”
I pushed one more time: What’s his intent in 2010?
“I want to be the CEO of Union Pacific,” Sharp said, laughing.
Then came what amounts to Sharp Moment No. 3.
Turns out that Sharp is staying in a town at least an hour away from Denver. This morning, I learned, he stepped outside of a cabin he’s sharing with Texas lobbyist Bill Messer and spotted what Sharp says was a five-point elk.
Here’s a photo of Sharp taking a pic of the elk:
I expect I’m done with Sharp moments at the Democratic convention.
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Mattox has a birthday moment
Speakers tried to fire up Texas delegates to the Democratic National Convention at a Monday breakfast. Essential message: It’s time for common ground.
Yet the happiest moment o’ breakfast at a Denver hotel may have been when former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox fielded a birthday cake. He’s 65 today, I believe.
Biggest surprise: He beamed, but didn’t say a word.
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