June is political convention time in Texas, and both major and minor state parties will be meeting in the next couple of weeks to complete party business, including confirming statewide candidates, adopting platforms, workshopping issues, and networking connections, as well as intensive hell-raising and the marketing of gobs of political paraphernalia. The state Republican party meets Thursday through Saturday this week in Dallas, where it will adopt its now-predictable hard-right platform — reflexively ignored by statewide GOP candidates publicly allergic to the fetal franchise and the gold standard. An additional intrigue this year is a platform move to demand the expected GOP House majority to select a new speaker in a closed-door private caucus — making it easier to put pressure on wavering moderates to endorse conservative favorite Tom Craddick, R-Midland, over incumbent moderate Pete Laney, D-Hale Center.

The Democrats will follow June 13-15 in El Paso, where the big advance controversy is over who gets to show their faces. El Paso Democrats were eager to showcase their hometown on a national stage, but the Austin party leadership complained that the national figures be lightning rods for the dread taint of “liberalism” (see above).

Simultaneously with the march of the Elephants, the Libertarians will hold their own convention nearby in Dallas, hoping to expand their reach among statewide offices. Political director Rock Howard told the Houston Chronicle that the party has about 180 candidates across the state this year, a 90% increase over the 2000 election.

Also this weekend, the state Green Party will meet at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, where it will be adopting a platform and nominating statewide candidates. Saturday morning will be devoted to reports from the county parties and brief speeches from the various statewide candidates, and Saturday afternoon delegates will select state executive committee officers and nominate delegates to the national coordinating committee. On Sunday morning, the convention will adopt a state platform.

Web sites for more info: www.texasgop.org; www.txdemocrats.org; www.tx.lp.org; and www.txgreens.org.

This article appears in June 7 • 2002.

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Contributing writer and former news editor Michael King has reported on city and state politics for the Chronicle since 2000. He was educated at Indiana University and Yale, and from 1977 to 1985 taught at UT-Austin. He has been the editor of the Houston Press and The Texas Observer, and has reported and written widely on education, politics, and cultural subjects.