Clinton the clear favorite at Hidalgo County Democratic convention

McALLEN - The confusion that plagued Democratic precinct caucuses across Hidalgo County after polls closed for the March 4 primary election spilled over on Saturday to the county Democratic convention.

"It's chaotic," 18-year-old Jordan Gould said. "It's highly disorganized. They are not really informing us when it comes to where we need to go within the convention itself."

Most counties across the state had a single Democratic county convention Saturday. Among the relatively few counties that contain more than one state Senate district, some counties had separate conventions for each district. Others - like Hidalgo County, which includes portions of District 20 and District 27 - had just one convention.

About 90 percent of the caucus-based delegates up for grabs in Hidalgo County on Saturday went for Hillary Clinton, whose decades-long ties to the Rio Grande Valley may have given her an edge.

Statewide, however, results tallied by The Associated Press showed rival Barack Obama had 1,858 delegates, or 59 percent, selected to go to the state convention, compared with Hillary Clinton's 1,270 delegates, or 41 percent. That's out of about 7,300 delegates that were expected to be selected at the regional meetings across the state.

Hidalgo County precinct delegates chosen earlier this month started lining up at 7 a.m. Saturday outside the McAllen Convention Center - where the convention took place - and grew restless over the course of 14 hours as the event wore on into the late evening.

Officials finally announced results at 9 p.m. Clinton will have 100 Hidalgo County delegates at the state Democratic convention June 5-7 in Austin. Sen. Obama will have 12 delegates from the county.

Hidalgo County can send a total of 113 delegates to the state convention: 62 for Senate District 20, which includes the northern and western parts of the county, and 51 for Senate District 27, which includes the southeast portion of the county. Hidalgo's current delegate count sits at 112 while officials try to verify the creditials of the last remaining delegate.

Juan Maldonado, the outgoing Hidalgo County Democratic Party chair, said he expected to have the last delegate finalized on Monday.

The county and state Senate district delegates across the state will help to determine Texas' delegates to the Democratic National Convention, where the party's presidential nominee will finally be chosen.

Attendees at the Hidalgo County convention Saturday spoke at the microphone for almost an hour, expressing their frustration with the seemingly endless process, before the officials announced the results.

The delay was largely blamed on the time it took to verify that everyone who participated actually was eligible to do so. More than 1,000 people showed up to take part in the process, and party staff had to manually flip through documents to check that everyone's credentials were legitimate.

Maldonado vowed before Saturday to ensure the convention would run smoother than the caucusing at the precinct conventions earlier this month. But the atmosphere of confusion Saturday was much the same as then.

"We were expecting it and we thought we would be ready," Maldonado said.

The record number of people who packed the Democratic convention here mirrored the strong turnout at other regional political conventions across Texas as party members took the next step toward nominating a presidential candidate to face Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, in the November general election.

Voter turnout nationwide has shattered records, fueled by the close Democratic presidential race between Obama and Clinton.

In McAllen on Saturday, the GOP convention down the street from the Democrats' convention also reported record turnout - roughly 200 people.

Sandra Cararas, the State Republican Executive Committee member for the Rio Grande Valley portion of Senate District 20, attributed the strong participation to recent news coverage of the process.

"I think that the media pushing the caucus idea, particularly in the Democratic Party, created a lot more interest," she said. "We are really glad that that happened."

Obama entered Saturday's Texas conventions leading the national race for delegates, 1,623 to 1,499, according to the latest AP count. It will take 2,024 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination. Those totals could change after this round of the Texas caucuses.

Clinton won 57 percent of the primary vote in Texas, compared to 47 percent for Obama, giving her 65 national convention delegates to his 61. In Hidalgo County, Clinton won 73 percent of the primary vote to Obama's 26 percent.
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Jackie Leatherman covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments at The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4424.