Posted on 08/26/2009 9:16:18 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
A federal three-judge panel this week delivered a major blow to the Texas Democratic Party's so-called “Texas Two Step” process for selecting convention delegates, paving the way for its review by the Justice Department.
Describing its claim as lacking merit, the 24-page unanimous ruling denied the state Democratic Party's motion for a summary judgment, or dismissal, of a lawsuit filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens of Texas, the Mexican American Bar Association of Houston and others.
LULAC's suit charges that the Texas Two Step dilutes the Latino vote by awarding more delegates to “white majority districts” at the expense of Latino Democrats.
Luis R. Vera Jr., representing LULAC of Texas, said the ruling is a clear victory.
“LULAC is excited and happy with this decision and will seek further relief immediately,” Vera said.
The opinion suggests the delegate selection process should be precleared by the Justice Department under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 “because it has the potential for discrimination.” The federal panel pressed the Texas Democratic Party “to seek pre-clearance of its delegate allocation rules instead of proceeding further in this litigation.”
Kirsten E. Gray of the Texas Democratic Party would not say whether they would appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a statement, the party said, “While the court denied summary judgment, it emphasized that they were not finding the Texas Democratic Party's delegate allocation plan discriminatory.”
In Texas, it’s a way of life for the DUMS.
It is really the dumbest thing ever, and a big reason why Obama was nominated.
Hillary beat him in the primary, but Obama won the stupid caucus because more people showed up and stood in the room for him. Caucuses are ridiculous.
So Obama ended up with more delagates from the state, even though more TX Dems voted for Hillary (my dad was an Operation Chaos voter in TX).
Democrats should make their process more transparent
Texas Two Step was and is part of the Mexicanization of Texas politics, wherein the beautiful state gradually adopts Mexican political standards and practices, including, of course, massive corruption.
I too was an Operation Chaos voter in the Texas Two Step. You’re correct that Obama won Texas by dominating the caucuses, but it wasn’t because more Obama voters showed up to caucus for him. He won the caucuses by overt fraud, cheating, overwhelming the process, intimidation, threats, violence, and flat out lying.
I’ve never seen or experienced anything like it in all my life!
I personally witnessed caucus leaders change voter selection for presidential preference on caucus sign-up sheets, allow people into the caucus who had not voted in the primary and had no ID, change the number of voters present for each candidate, send people home after signing them in telling them they didn’t need to stay to caucus, and so many, many other things. (Yes, I filed a legal affidavit about what I saw.)
Thus began my intense hatred of Obama’s thugs. Hillary Clinton was ROBBED of the nomination in broad daylight with the approval and help of the Texas Democratic Party and its chairman, Boyd Richie. I hope the courts stick it to the TDP and force a complete overhaul of the Democratic Party primary/caucus process.
Obama and his bots are a bunch of lying, cheating, bullying, criminals who deserve jail time.
They’re cute. The dums give rats a bad name.
I forgot one thing. In every single instance where Hillary won the primary but lost the caucus and therefore the delegates, Obama won the caucus by fraud, not by sheer numbers. Well-documented, proven fact.
To out-cheat the Clintons is quite a feat. Proves how shady he is.
No doubt.
No, the Texas Two Step was an effort by the Democrat Party Regulars to make sure that they, and not voters in the Democrat Primary, decided who received the bulk of the Texas delegates. It is designed to allow a relatively small number of highly dedicated, poltically savvy, insiders to determine the outcome of any close race.
The thing is, BO put together his own bands of internet and email educated insiders, and they swamped the old timers. It could not have happened to a nicer bunch.
I may be wrong,but I predict that Luis Vera will be persuaded to end this litigation in a way that leaves the process intact. Vera is miffed because the rank and file Mexican-American Democrats, who (in Texas) backed Hillary, saw their votes negated by Anglo Gen Y'ers, who showed up out of nowhere, so far as Democrat Caucuses go, to swing votes to BO.
If Hillary had been running against John Edwards, and won a larger percentage of the caucus selected delegates, than she did of the primary selected delegates, this lawsuit would not have happened. In the end, I predict that the party regulars will write 2008 off as a once in a lifetime event, and bet that they will be able to use the Texas Two Step to their advantage in the future.
See my post #7.
Indeed there was overwhelming attendance at the caucuses, but Obama won by fraud not by sheer numbers of voters turning out to caucus.
I agree absolutely with everything you say. You are on target. But any system that allows a relatively small number of motivated insiders to determine the outcome of a close race regardless of the wishes of the actual majority of voters is the epitome of Mexican political practices. That is how the PRI kept its grip on Mexico for 60 years. The Texas Two Step system was vintage PRI. In this case, it was the Mexican-Americans in Texas who got side-tracked. But the principle is the same. That is why I believe this is part of the Mexicanization of politics, not the fact that the Mexican-Americans were or were not snookered on this one. (And look how confident the Democrats were that they could do this and still get their votes in the general election. More PRI.) I fear our entire country is going that way, and the fact that BO was cleverer at getting elected than he has been at governing doesn’t make me feel any better. As far as this particular food-fight goes, a plague on both their houses.
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