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Tuesday, March 04, 2008
(Updated) Two New Mexicans On the Ground in Dallas for Obama
Obama greets supporters after Carrollton town hall (AP/Rick Bowmer)
UPDATE: Check out the comments thread for Laura Sanchez's report on her experience in Dallas.
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Check back later. I'll be posting updates from Albuquerque's Mario Benevidez and Laura Sanchez, who are on the ground in Dallas for the Obama campaign. That's IF and WHEN they can find the time! Also, I learned that Maggie over at m-pyre is hosting the duo at her place in Dallas so check over there for tidbits too.
Albuquerque Obama supporters Mario Benevidez and Laura E. Sanchez traveled all the way to Dallas to be a part of today's much anticipated Dem primary and caucus in Texas. Late yesterday afternoon, they hooked up with former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and progressive rising star State Rep. Raphael Anchia (D-Dallas) to attend a packed Obama event for students and parents at the Newman Smith High School auditorium in Carrollton, just north of Dallas. Snow was falling but spirits were high.
A crowd of more than 2000 got to hear Obama urge students to get involved with politics and government, take responsibility for their actions and be a part of the solution (click for video). Obama also answered their questions about the environment, global warming, the Iraq war and immigration and spoke to them about the future.
Working for Obama's Voter Protection Team
Mario and Laura called me today to say they'll be working all day and into the night for the Obama campaign's voter protection team in Dallas. Attorneys and law students from around the nation have traveled to Texas to help monitor voting sites and respond to any reported problems concerning voter suppression or other irregularities. The two New Mexicans will be stationed outside a polling place at Robert Thornton Elementary School, in a primarily African-American precinct, and holding signs indicating they're available to help voters who run into obstacles or technicalities, or who need information.
Texas Two-Step
Polls opened in Texas at 7:00 AM this morning. There will be two shifts covered by Obama's voter protection team at the Thornton Elementary polling place -- with only a few minutes of respite in beween -- until the polls close at 7:00 PM. Like other voting sites, their precinct will reopen at 7:15 PM sharp for the evening caucus, part of the so-called Texas Two-Step. After casting their primary ballots during early voting or on election day in a voting booth, voters can return to the same polling place for their caucus and support their candidate a second time -- this time publicly.
The results in the primary portion of the voting will determine who gets about 65% of the delegates, with the caucus participants deciding the remainder according to a complex formula.
Texas Early Voting Turnout Has Been Huge
Mario reported there were voters in line when the precinct site opened, and voting was steady as of about 8:00 AM our time. Turnouts have been recordbreaking at early voting sites all over the state. According to Texas blog Burnt Orange Report, a total of about 800,000 people voted in the Texas primary-caucus in '04. This year, more than a million have already voted early. In Dallas County, about 13,000 Democrats voted early in 2004. This year, more than 123,000 have participated in early voting there.
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Nobody knows how many will vote in the Texas primary today or who will take the time to return to attend a caucus tonight. Mario and Laura will be checking in with me when they can today to report how things are going at the precinct they're monitoring. They believe they're the only New Mexicans who traveled to Texas to be a part of the Obama voter protection team.
It's great to be getting their on-the-ground reports from one of the biggest states where votes are up for grabs on one of the most critical primary days in the '08 cycle. Are you fired up? You'd better be. I have a feeling it's gonna be a long, long night before we know the final results from the four states where Dems are voting today: Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island.
March 4, 2008 at 11:00 AM in 2008 Presidential Primary | Permalink
Comments
Way to be out there on the ground, guarding over the sacred right to vote, Mario and Laura! What a HOPEFUL contrast to what's going on in the Republican party here in NM, as discussed in the previous post!
Posted by: | Mar 4, 2008 12:49:16 PM
I'd also like to add that in addition to being great volunteers for progressive causes, Laura and Mario are also excellent houseguests. ;-)
Posted by: | Mar 4, 2008 1:12:06 PM
Maggie: I didn't realize you were hosting the dynamic Obama duo in Dallas. I was behind in my blog reading and where they were staying wasn't discussed when I talked to Mario. Ah, the blogosphere-political circles can be a surprise.
Very cool you are putting them up and glad they are being good houseguests. I bet they'll be bone tired tonight, but I'm HOPING they'll be exhilarated by the results as well. HOPE I will too!
Hey readers: Be sure to check this post by Maggie, along with its comment thread, for more news on the Dallas scene and the two New Mexico travelers as the day and night wear on.
I haven't heard from them since early this morning so I know they're no doubt very busy keeping up with the large turnout.
| Mar 4, 2008 4:48:05 PMThanks, Barb, for staying plugged in on the Texas Two-Step (Primary + Caucus). It was an interesting day (a long one) and an even more interesting and at times surreal night! Mario did a great job at holding down precinct 3541 at Thornton Elementary School while I 'wo-manned' the poll at precinct 3540 at St. Luke's Presbyterian. Both were in a predominatly African-American area in South Dallas. Luckily, my poll went fine except for some confusion resulting from huge turnout when 350+ folks showed up at 7pm to Caucus. The whole process took about 3 hours, but was largely without incident. It was an overwhelmingly Obama crowd but there were a few Clinton supporters too. Everyone was excited and positive! The convention/caucus went fine and Chairman Jay Dunn was really nice and welcomed clarification on the procedures at times. He ran a great convention! Everyone was very cooperative and it was a good experience!
In contrast, Mario had some problems early on at his assigned precinct when they ran out of ballots and he had to convince people not to leave and ask the Judge not to turn people away until more ballots arrived. Later at Caucus, the Chair refused to follow the procedures for registration even though Mario and the Clinton legal observers were urging them to follow procedures. But then Mario really got into the thick of it when he was called to Singing Hills Rec Center, precinct 3549, where I later joined him, to deal with a renegade Precinct Chair who was refusing to follow any rules or acknowledge the masses of people who had shown up to caucus for Obama. I believe she started by remarking that this whole idea of 'change and hope' with Obama was nonsense and she was going to conduct things her way. She literally dismissed about 500 Obama supporters right off the bat! Of course, this is all hearsay, Mario will have to clarify as he was the one who was actually there for that part.
I was there, however, when she refused to answer my procedural questions and told me that I was not going to come into her state to tell her what to do! I tried to reason with her (and was very polite but firm about it) by explaining it wasn't about me but about the 30-40 others who were still standing there at that late hour (10:30pm) waiting for her to be open about the registration list and delegates.
She got angry and said she was leaving and taking all reg lists with her and refused to answer questions. We followed her for 3 blocks on foot before a truck rolled up and she jumped in and left! It was unbelievable.
Turns out the woman is a former City Council member with a troubling past. It was really quite an experience! Unfortunately, almost 435 people who did stick around after she had dismissed 500 of the original 900+, and the 30-40 who were there 'til the very end will not know what she did with those lists nor who will be seated as delegates to the Senate District Convention on March 29th (the next step in TX's delegate selection process).
The whole thing was really troubling and I hope the Texas Democratic Party will help empower these voters (many of them first timers) so their voices will be heard!!
More info on this renegade Precinct Chair can be found at https://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2008/03/05/precinct-3549-sandra-crenshaw-goes-berserk/ thanks to Maggie's commitment to sharing the truth!
Also, special thanks to Maggie & Trevor for opening up their lovely home to us for the cause! They are great and I'm now a die-hard m-pyre reader! :)
Laura
Posted by: Laura | Mar 5, 2008 12:06:52 PM
