(Amarillo) It was about the point at which I was on the verge of abandoning and ignoring parliamentary procedure in favor of a violent screaming hissy fit directed directly at the face of another good Democrat whom I last faced Sunday morning at church—and before that over a beer…it was about that point, at which my wife tugged at my shirt sleeve, telling me that this particular battle was lost, and I’d just have to write about it later (“your weapon is your pen,” she said; I was so enraged that I didn’t tell her that she meant “pixels” or “keyboard” or something more tech)…this screaming and this tugging, that was the point that I realized that the Potter County convention had degenerated into exactly what intelligent disinterested observers would have predicted all along: complete chaos.
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In a speech about fundraising by Tim Hoffman (the previous Potter County Chair), the fact that the last county convention involved far fewer people, and that everyone who wanted to go to state as a delegate got to go, was cast in a soft-focus, look-at-how-far-we’ve-come, light. And there is much that is wonderful about these increased Democratic numbers. But these numbers tonight weren’t prepared for.
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Case in point: Abel Bosquez, current Potter County Chair—the cliché is “a deer caught in headlights”—called for the election of a permanent convention chair. This should have been the simplest item on the agenda. The position is ceremonial and requires nothing but an ability to follow parliamentary procedure.
It should go something like this…
(dream sequence)But back in the world we got stuck with, it went down more like this:
VOICE FROM FLOOR: I nominate Abel Bosquez.
ANOTHER VOICE FROM FLOOR: I second the motion.
(pause)
ANOTHER VOICE FROM FLOOR: I motion that nominations be closed.
YET ANOTHER VOICE FROM FLOOR: I second the motion.
BOSQUEZ: All in favor say “aye.”
ALL: AYE!
BOSQUEZ: All in favor of electing Abel Bosquez permanent convention chair, say “aye”
ALL: AYE!
ABEL BOSQUEZ: We, um, need to, um, elect a permanent convention ch—___________________________________________________________
VOICE FROM FLOOR: I nominate Tim Hoffman!
ANOTHER VOICE FROM FLOOR: I nominate Fransetta Crow!
ANOTHER VOICE FROM FLOOR: I nominate Kerry Knorpp!
ABEL BOSQUEZ: Um, does anyone have a pen?
I'm yelling at a friend: Two of our delegates have not shown up and we’ve already used the one alternate that we were able to elect. The Clinton delegation from our precinct is also missing a delegate. Two alternates who originally voted for Clinton have shown up; both were called on the phone and told to come to the convention by “someone”. One of these delegates has changed her preference prior to the convention—as is allowed—and has signed in as an Obama delegate. Both delegates have stated that they were called as alternates to replace a no-show, and were given yellow cards indicating that they were alternates, but were told they would be able to vote. It should have worked out fine. We’d take the newly-converted Obama delegate to replace our no-show; the Clinton supporters would take the other alternate. It wouldn’t affect much, but it would be fair and would follow the rules.
Our Delegation Chair—a Clinton partisan—is also on the Credentials Committee and is busy signing delegates in. She doesn’t show up on the floor until the proceedings start.
At several points, I am assured that alternates will be allowed to replace missing delegates.
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When the time came to vote for state delegates, our grouped precincts (we couldn’t elect a delegate on our own, so were grouped with another) split into a Clinton caucus and an Obama caucus to make our nominations. As we split, one of the Clinton delegates approached me to say that he was going to vote with us and that he was going to try to get his wife to vote with him. He indicated that he agreed that the delegate on whose behalf I’d had the screaming fit had been unfairly excluded. He said he thought our nominee was a really nice person.
I still don’t fully understand his reasons, but he was within his rights, and within the rules, to vote for whomever he chose. Some from the Clinton delegation accused him of being “unethical.” (UPDATE: ...and also our delegation. See comments.)(UPDATE 3: The delegate who switched and his wife both voted for Obama in the primary and then went to the precinct convention. They were the only Obama delegates in their precinct and were unable to seat a delegate to the county convention. The Clinton voters at the precinct convention did not have enough delegates who were able to go and so asked him and his wife to help them fill out their delegation. None of these Clinton delegates showed up to the County convention. He felt that he had no obligation to vote for the candidate's delegate whom he did not support as a favor to people who didn't themselves care enough to show up. His wife believed that she did have such an obligation and voted for the Clinton delegate.)
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The Clinton delegation won our precinct by one vote and their nominee will go to the state convention. As we walked the results to the front of the auditorium our Delegation Chair told me pointedly, “I don’t cheat.”
“I don’t either,” I said, and she harrumphed...(UPDATE 2: ...Our Delegation Chair clarifies in comments below that she wasn't accusing me or the Obama delegates as a whole of cheating)
...Later, she told me what her plan had been. She had calculated that she had enough Clinton delegates against our four measly Obama delegates to elect both a state delegate and an alternate. But she was going to be oh-so-nice and suggest that the Clinton supporters allow our nominee to go as an alternate. But her plan had been blown out of the water by the fact that some Clinton delegates no-showed and one—in her words—was a “turncoat”.
I wasn’t impressed. I didn’t want charity. I’d come to fight hard and win or lose within the rules.
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I'm yelling at a friend: when the time for the roll call of presidential preference comes, we are told that only those holding blue cards—delegates—will be allowed to state candidate preference. Several people object. I speak to various committee members, am assured that the situation is being taken care of. I tell our Delegation Chair that both Clinton and Obama delegations are missing one delegate and that we have an alternate for each. The Delegation Chair says it doesn’t matter. I say it does. She disappears.
When she returns, she tells me that a motion is going to be made to accept everyone who has been duly signed in and is needed as a delegate to vote. That seems fair, since both of our alternates have been signed in as delegates and are needed to replace no-shows.
However, when the motion is made, it is not indicated which group will be allowed to vote—blues, yellows, or both. I ask for clarification and am told that only blue cards will vote. That’s when I stand up and start yelling.
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I’ve learned something though this process, though. Around the time of the Nevada and South Carolina caucuses, I wrote that the Clinton campaign seemed to be actively swiftboating Obama in a manner more suited to Karl Rove. I stated that “if this was what it looked like” I wouldn’t be able to support Clinton in any election.
I made that statement rashly; it wasn’t what it looked like.
Since that time, I’ve seen firsthand how poorly many people serve their candidates. There are Obama supporters in this county for whom I wouldn’t vote for dogcatcher. But I’m not supporting them, I’m supporting Obama.
So I’m going to assume for now that independent Clinton supporters—and not Clinton herself—promoted fearmongering about Obama’s alleged religious views. I’m going to assume that independent, and overzealous, Clinton supporters—and not Clinton herself— bought robocalls that stressed the HUSSEIN in “Barack Hussein Obama”.
And if you’re a Democrat supporting Clinton, I hope you won’t judge us by the Obama supporter in a Potter County district who acted like she was in charge at her precinct convention, announced that she was a delegate to the county convention, and bullied people into dropping out of contention by misleading them into believing that, if they attending the county convention, they might have to go to state, and that the state convention would cost them $5000 to attend.
I hope—whoever you are and whomever you support—you’ll smudge your fingerprint across the Democratic side of the touchscreen in November, no matter who the eventual nominee may be. Because, as ugly as Potter County looks tonight, a McCain presidency would look far uglier.
spacedark
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