The End of the Beginning?

7:23pm: The process has now got into the platform and the final stages of the nomination committee, which could still go for hours. Meanwhile, Senate District 11 hopeful Joe Jaworski's party is calling.

6:27pm: The Texas One-Step Resolution is officially tabled (6,421.1 to 1,637.9) and effectively dead. Only SD-21 and SD-5 went nay on tabling: SD-24 was closer than most (154-151) but it was conclusively chucked out, by 100-plus margins in most senate districts. And now the press corps back in the meat locker is giggling over the fact that one senate district spokesman sounds just like Cleveland from Family Guy. It has been a long convention.

6:13pm: The rollcall vote in process unsurprisingly echoes exactly what the earlier vote said: that this was not the time to settle the Two-Step problem. Considering this was already in the works, the resolution seems like mis-informed grand-standing.

6:11pm: And the evacuation has been ended, and MC Kirk Watson is back on the mic. "It's been pointed that we evacuated in an organized way. We were unified in how we left the hall. Ah, Unity at its best."

6pm: And it could not be more perfect. Someone pulled the fire alarm, so the back-end of the hall has been evacuated. Before. The. Vote. Boo-yah!

5:44pm: West's motion to table the Texas One Step resolution was carried, meaning it's dead and gives his taskforce time to actually deal with it. However, some 'nays' are now complaining that maybe people didn't understand the issue, and that maybe just the 'ayes' had bigger lungs. So now there will be a roll-call vote in five minutes. Oi.

5:28pm: If there was one big item left in the mix, this was it: the Texas One-Step Resolution. Watson has just picked up the resolution to get rid of the caucus component of the presidential nomination process for the 2012 election. Which, considering what a mess it has been this time around, it seems unlikely there will be too much of a spirited argument. That said, Royce West is posing a series of parliamentary inquiries asking whether the One Step Resolution could be tabled, since he's heading up a task force to deal with exactly this issue in a more reasoned environment.

5:22pm: Roy LaVerne Brooks has taken to the stage to explain her failed run. "You have people in 254 counties who want to be involved in the process, who want a seat at the table," she said. She wanted a 254-county strategy, not the selective targeting that Boyd has proposed: but the argument that seems to have swayed the voters is that Richie handed them Dallas County last time around, and Harris is in their sights this time.

5:03pm: We can only hope. Boyd Richie hauled home with a 63% win in the challenge, losing only two senate districts, both currently held by Republicans: SD-7 (Dan Patrick) and SD-24 (Troy Fraser). Richie said he was overwhelmed by the results, and knew he'd lose those districts to Van Os. His intro speech from former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk had talked about not swapping horses mid-race, and Richie echoed that. "I'm standing here with my brother who is a former jockey, so I think it was a very apt speech." Final result:

Boyd Richie: 63.24%
Roy LaVerne Brooks: 16.83%
David van Os: 19.93%