Scenes from a Convention

It went pretty smoothly, actually. Bearing in mind that "smoothly" for a Democratic convention means "no fist fights and nobody called the cops." For some strange reason, I was elected permanent convention chair. The county vote ended up being about 70% for Clinton and 30% for Obama. Bill Conover did an outstanding job as chair of the credentials committee and was presented with the Earl Pierce Award. Most of the delegates had never been to a convention before, and that was a truly wonderful sight to behold. And yes, I'm pretty much exhausted now.

UPDATE: As expected, Obama appears to have come out slightly ahead in the overall delegate count. And despite widespread MSM hair-pulling about "Chaos in Texas," nothing too terribly awful happened, other than long lines (a new phenomenon) and some frayed nerves (which ALWAYS happens at Democratic gatherings, even when only two people show up). I'm actually starting to like our bastardized hybrid system, since it forces presidential campaigns to concentrate on their ground game and enables local parties (like ours) to make new contacts thanks to a large fresh infusion of activists. Yes, it's a helluva lot of work, but I think the results may be worth it, providing the new folks (and here, they were predominantly Hillary supporters) actually stick with it.

Rally On!

Chris Bell, the next Governor of Texas, addresses the annual Johnson County Democratic Party Rally on Saturday. I unfortunately was not able to attend due to a death in the family, but I'm told Barbara Ann Radnofsky, David Van Os, Hank Gilbert (candidate for Agriculture Commissioner), and Dale Henry (candidate for Railroad Commissioner) were also there, along with local candidates Greg Kauffman (state representative), Janet Thomas (county commissioner), Ray Torres (justice of the peace), Michael Tomasic (justice of the peace) and Teresa Bolt Martinez (county clerk). Photo courtesy of Bill Conover, who tells me I was presented with the Earl Pierce Award, a wonderful and unexpected honor. Thanks to everyone who attended and worked hard to make this year's rally such a spectacular success.