The Caucus Continues . . .

I am currently blogging live from the Harris County Delegate Convention taking place at the Geroge R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The hype about the Texas Primary and Caucus may be over but the this two-step continues. Unlike the Precinct Convention, this convention is a bit more organized which makes sense. Texans learned the hard way how democracy works during their Precinct Convention so most expected the next step to be a bit more brutal since it is larger That is not the case though. I would estimate that there are around 1000 delegates and it seems like they expected around 2000 with all the empty chairs visible.

Currently we are waiting for the event to take off at approximately 9 am CDT. I spoke to my girlfriend briefly who is a delegate out in Travis County aka Austin, Texas and she said parking and signing in was hectic. I understand why parking may have been an issue since their convention center provides free parking unlike Houston. I had to shell out about $15 but thats okay because I am contributing to the democratic process right? It is no secret that Obama won the caucus in Texas and I expect that to play out our convention since we are the largest urban city in the state. The Obama supporters and Clinton supporters are out in full force and it was pleasant to see a Rick Noriega volunteer informing fellow Democrats of this fellows run for the Senate in November.

[Update @ 10:25 am] So the convention had been at full swing for about 1 hour or so. I was surprised with the morning prayer that began the convention . . . so much for separation of church and state. Nonetheless, after the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, we heard several local politicians speak about the change in administration and policy expected in November. We currently voted for the delegates that will represent this Precinct at the State Convention. My Precinct was only allocated 2 delegates. Nonetheless, I am going to apply for an at-large position and hopefully make it out on the first weekend of June to Austin. I now understand why there are not as many people as I expected at this convention. Apparently, this is a Senatorial convention, unlike what is going on throughout the state in which there are county conventions. Houston and what I expect is going on at other large metropolitan areas is divided into conventions based on the Senate district. That explains why the process has been smooth so far.

[Update @ 3:50 pm] I am still at the Senate Convention and two cups of coffee later we have ordered pizza and expect to spend the next three hours here. Currently, we are approving and amending resolutions. Most of our precinct has left and only those that are going to be delegates are hanging around. I spoke to Becky and it seems that it is the same situation in Austin. There was a moment when there was a heated debate about recognizing same-sex marriages.

I left around 7:30 while resolutions were being read. I grew restless and tired after being there for over 10 hours. For about 15 minutes there was controversy as some Obama supporters failed to follow parliamentary procedure when nominating a secretary for the convention. That was laid to rest once their concerns were taken care off. Nonetheless, it went smoothly after that. The resolutions took a while since some people had opinions about certain ones such as tolls, same-sex marriages and medical marijuana to name a few.