{"id":14744,"date":"2008-02-29T16:30:41","date_gmt":"2008-02-29T21:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14744.html"},"modified":"2008-02-29T16:30:41","modified_gmt":"2008-02-29T21:30:41","slug":"clinton-prepared-to-sue-over-texas-caucuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/clinton-prepared-to-sue-over-texas-caucuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinton prepared to sue over Texas caucuses?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Democrats will go to the polls on Tuesday in a key contest, but it won’t be as easy as simply watching a primary or a caucus. Texas, just to keep things interesting, has a hybrid<\/i> system<\/a> that includes both a primary and<\/i> a caucus.<\/p>\n

It’s complicated, confusing, and frustrating, but those are the rules, and they’ve been in place for years. The candidates knew what they were getting into long before now; it’s not like Texas’ odd system just snuck up on anyone.<\/p>\n

It’s surprising, then, that the Clinton campaign is reportedly contemplating<\/a> an 11th-hour lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The Texas Democratic Party warned Thursday that election night caucuses scheduled for next Tuesday could be delayed or disrupted after aides to Hillary Clinton threatened to sue over the party’s complicated delegate selection process.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent out late Thursday to both the Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, Texas Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn warned a lawsuit could ruin the Democrats’ effort to re-energize voters just as they are turning out in record numbers. […]<\/p>\n

“Both campaigns have made it clear that they would go there if they had to, but I think the imminent threat is coming from one campaign,” said one top Democratic official, referring to the Clinton campaign. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Another Democratic official who was privvy to the discussions confirmed that Clinton representatives made veiled threats in a telephone call this week…. The source, who asked not to identified by name because he did not have authorization to speak about the matter, said Clinton’s political director, Guy Cecil, had forcefully raised the possibility of a courtroom battle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not exactly clear what a lawsuit, if it occurs, would seek to do exactly, or what behind-the-scenes discussions might hope to accomplish.
\n<\/p>\n

…Adrienne Elrod, Clinton’s top Texas spokeswoman, said campaign and party officials had merely discussed election night procedures and that the campaign was merely seeking a written agreement in advance. She could not elaborate on the details of the agreement the Clinton campaign is seeking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m afraid I’m at a bit of a loss on this one. The campaign sought some kind of agreement? That they don’t want to talk about? If anyone can explain this, I’m all ears.<\/p>\n

Either way, the state party seems concerned.<\/p>\n

“If it is true that litigation is imminent between one or both of your campaigns and the (Democratic Party), such action could prove to be a tragedy for a reinvigorated democratic process that is involving a record number of participants here in Texas and across the nation,” Dunn, the state party lawyer, wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess we’ll know more soon enough, but especially after the Florida and Michigan controversies, it’s my sincere hope the Clinton campaign wouldn’t try to change the rules in the middle of the game.<\/p>\n

That said, if everyone can agree that the current process of picking a nominee is a mess, in serious need of systemic reform, that’d be great, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Democrats will go to the polls on Tuesday in a key contest, but it won’t be as easy as simply watching a primary or a caucus. Texas, just to keep things interesting, has a hybrid system that includes both a primary and a caucus. It’s complicated, confusing, and frustrating, but those are the rules, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}