Seems like the Texas Democratic Party might be thinking about severing one foot of the Texas two step. Today saw the first public meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Texas Democratic Party Convention/Caucus System, which seems to be heading towards ending the complicated presidential nomination system that’s currently in place.
After the weird “Clinton wins the day / Obama wins the night” split during the primary, there was a lot of rumblings that something had to change (including from several high-profile Clintonites who had actually been involved in writing the rules). Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, became point man on making the change, and has launched a consultation process. After all, the party has another four years before the next presidential primary, and a presidential election off-year state convention in 2010, to make the changes.
There was almost a minor insurrection at the Texas Democratic Party convention, when reformers lead by Austinite Scott Cobb tried to get the system overhauled on the floor by passing the Texas One-Step resolution. An obviously annoyed West got the move quashed, because he was spearheading the existing initiative, and it was tabled by an overwhelming 6,421.1 to 1,637.9 floor vote (meaning not even all the 30% of delegates that signed Cobb’s petition in favor of dismantling the system voted to do so. And don’t ask about the .1 votes, it’s another bizarre bit of TDP house keeping). So now the same failed conference rebels are back, demanding that the state goes primary only.
This article appears in July 4 • 2008.
