Political growing pains

While the interest in this year's presidential election has seen an amazing voter turnout and will likely have a good effect on the number of people involved in the process in future, all is not smooth sailing. Many first-timers are finding out the hard way what years of political inactivity do to the voice of the people. Those who are accustomed to playing the game and getting their way are usually allowed to do so without much argument or attention. So that now when the newbies who aren't even versed in parliamentary procedure try to raise a protest, they get bulldozed.

See the following case in my hometown, El Paso, Texas and its county convention as covered by Newspaper Tree, a relatively young and locally owned property of El Paso Media Group. (I posted a comment to the article--it's at the bottom of the following link and is also pasted below--that describes a little more of my own county convention experience.)

Delegate Decision Splits Democrats, and Could Threaten El Paso's Place at State Convention
by Sito Negron

The question is whether the Credentials Committee should have awarded the bulk of the 48 at-large delegates to Obama, to bring the overall El Paso state delegate number closer to the 3-1 ratio of delegates at the county convention.

Posted on April 1, 2008  •  read more »

My comment:

A native El Pasoan, I now live in Kyle, Texas just outside Austin and was a precinct 223 delegate for Clinton to the Hays County Convention. While I'm concerned for El Paso's place in the state convention, I certainly would support the party's decision to unseat delegates if process was indeed "hijacked" or otherwise circumvented.

In the case of Hays County, the majority of precincts went for Obama and therefore the delegates as well--approx 68%. However, the slate of at-large delegates that was presented by the nominating committee, and approved by the convention, was about 2/3 Clinton delegates. While this might seem disproportionate to the popular vote, the nominating committee took pains to ensure that the county delegation would mirror the make-up of the county population. This meant recommending a greater proportion of female and Hispanic delegates than other groups, hence the 2/3 of at-large delegates that were for Clinton. (This does not appear to have been the process followed in El Paso.)

When the nominating committee brought the slate of at-large delegates to the floor there was some dissent when the ratio of Clinton to Obama was announced. However, after the chairman explained the process, and it was also explained that the overall ratio of Clinton to Obama delegates was not drastically affected, the crowd quieted down and a few moments later called the question. We unanimously approved the at-large slate and completed seating our delegation.

I should mention that among the resolutions we passed, one in particular most accurately represented the overall spirit of the Hays County Democratic Convention and, I hope, the Democratic Party as well. We unanimously approved a resolution from the floor that in November we would support whichever candidate received the party nomination, regardless of who we were currently supporting.

I am sorry that El Paso was not able to work from a similar place of unity and instead appears to have allowed in-fighting and personal interpretations of process to mar the convention. As a Clinton supporter, I would consider losing the El Paso delegation a terrible blow, but perhaps--in the end--it will be an important lesson in the need for compromise at all levels of the political process and will spur El Pasoans to become ever more involved in future election cycles and to actively use, and protect, their political voice.