Did TX Democrats get DeLay nominated?

[jedicord]

I've been trying to get my mind around 25,000 people actually voting for this criminal. Think there's a chance that the Dems pulled the old Repub trick and voted for him to make sure he got the nomination? Remember, about 35,000 people voted Repub, only 9,000 voted Dem in this district (which I found to be a pretty disappointing turn out for the Dems).

Gotta admit, it's a good idea - hopefully by November more DeLay bad news will have come out and the Dem nominee will have a much greater chance of winning.

[onenote]

1. doubt it

I'm sure there were more than enough repubs who still believe in Delay.

onenote

[babylonsister]

2. In TX, whatever party you're affiliated with in the primaries, you

have to vote for/with during the election, so I don't think so.
I was given a straight Dem ticket, so didn't have the option of
voting for da bugman.
Yep, apparently there were 25,000 freeps who voted for him, IF
you believe the voting system being used wasn't compromised.

[skids]

3. Huh?

Are you really saying that if you vote in a partisan primary in TX, you cann't vote a split ticket later?

[babylonsister]

7. I'm wrong but learned something! See Crispini's comments. nt

[onenote]

4. what babylonsister said

Exactly. Any registered voter may vote in the primary of any single party, as long as they have not voted in the primary of another party. Texas's primaries are thus "closed" in a less direct way than a typical "closed" primary system: once a registered voter has in effect declared his or her party affiliation by voting for the nominees in a particular party's primary, that person cannot participate in the proceedings (for instance, a runoff primary or convention) of another party. So basically, you'd have to be an Democrat who cared enough about politics to want to cast a "strategic" vote for Delay, but were willing to essentially abandon any formal role in the Democratic party. Not likely.

onenote

[crispini]

5. What? That is not correct.

If you cast your vote in the one primary you can most certainly vote for another party in the general. It's the RUNOFF that you can't cross over for.

[babylonsister]

8. I stand corrected; Crispini is much more well versed than I am.

I was under the wrong impression; I thought I read that I had to vote straight Dem now that my reg. card is stamped. :blush:

[crispini]

10. Uh... wait. Yes. Yes, you do. Actually you have to vote straight Dem

for the next 40 years now that you have voted in the Dem primary. It's the law. :evilgrin: :rofl: :hug:

[babylonsister]

12. I was willing to do that, Crispini; honest!

:evilgrin:

[Gothmog]

17. No, you can cross over in the general election

If you vote in one primary, then you can not cross over and vote in the other primary or go to the convention for the other party. They can not restrict who you vote for in the general election.

[Gothmog]

18. If you vote in primary, then you can not sign petitions

If you vote in one party's primary, you can not sign a petition to put a third party or independent on the ballot. Kinky Friedman and Snotty Scotty's mommy will have to contend with this rule in that they both have to get 45,000+ signatures from people who did not vote in either primary.

[crispini]

6. Yes. People estimate that about 15% of voters cross over

in the primaries in Texas. You would give up any role in the Dem party, but I have heard this statistic thrown around by several local people.

[jedicord]

13. So I can continue with my fantasy that there surely can't be

25,000 people in ONE district who are complete batshit crazy?

Seriously, when I woke up to the results, and later saw the low Dem turnout, my hope that Texans were waking up were dashed.

[crispini]

14. Well, I'm sure that some of them were crossovers,

but some of them were probably pro-Delay. He really does do a lot of "bringing home the bacon" for his district, and there are people who say, based on the money and the jobs he has brought in, that they are sticking with him. There are several highways and project that would not have gotten built without him. Looking at it from a local point of view, they don't care what others think of him. I can see that it's sort of the "independent I don't care what the rest of the nation thinks, he's our guy" mindset.

BUT, if you really want to be depressed, the only REAL Democratic Senate candidate that we had in the primary, Barbara Radnofsky, is in a RUNOFF with a crank, a perennial candidate who puts his name on the ballot every year and then does not campaign at all. His name? Gene Kelly. 75,000 people statewide in the Dem primary voted for the joke candidate BASED ON HIS NAME. :cry:

[jedicord]

16. Same reason Dan Patrick won I suppose.

Sheesh I people would become informed before they vote.

[babylonsister]

15. Also, there were TV ads ad nauseum for the bugman, all

sponsored by Perry and the jolly folks who swiftboated Kerry. So, the bots out there were-ahem-informed.

Edit to add this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=273&topic_id=72286

[Bridget Burke]

9. Juanita thinks so....

March 6: I got a mailout from DeLay saying that Democrats were voting in the Republican primary for his opponent. That ain't happening. Crossover Democrats are voting for DeLay. Reason? Well, when Republicans want to raise money, they holler, "Abortion!" or "Flag burning!" or "Consenting adults are doing nasty things in their bedrooms and won't let you watch!" When Democrats want to raise money, they simply say, "Tom DeLay." They don't even have to holler.

Yesterday: ...before the members of the Republican 101st Fighting Keyboard Brigade, who majored in political science in college rather than real science, get their typing fingers going faster than their brains and say, "Yeah, but a whole bunch more people voted in the GOP primary than the Democratic primary, stop. No, I'm serious. Stop. You are embarrassing yourself. In my 25 years in this county, I have never seen so many crossover votes. Never.

And then I know some Democrats who sat at home so they could sign Strayhorn's petition. Tee hee hee.

www.brazosriver.com/

The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon is a good place to get the news from DeLay's own District.

[laugle]

11. I heard only 7% of the people in that district voted.

That means many of them just stayed home!!

[depakid]

19. Sugarland's likely to vote that guy in again

even if he's doing a stretch in Club Fed.

There's something bad in the water down there....