photo credit: Klobetime

Tomorrow Texas votes and if you are an astute observer you may have noticed that the state will hold BOTH a primary and a series of Caucuses. So if you were not confused about caucuses and primaries to begin with, this probably isn’t helping. So here is a rundown. Note that all of this is blatantly stolen from The Green Papers.

Texas has 288 Delegates it will send to the 2008 Democratic Convention

193 are pledged (decided by voters) and 35 are unpledged (superdelegates!)

Superdelegates can vote for whomever they wish, so we won’t worry about them for now.

Of the 193 that are left, these are divided into 126 district delegates and 67 state-wide delegates.

Primary
The 126 district delegates are divided among Texas’ 31 Senatorial Districts and are allocated to the presidential candidates based on the primary results in each District. Note that unlike many other states, Texas uses Senatorial districts and not Congressional ones.

The number of delegates that the Party allocates to each District depends on the votes cast in each for the Democratic candidates during two past elections: Chris Bell in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election and John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. This allocation scheme awards a higher number of delegates to Districts with a high population of African-American residents and a lower number of delegates to Districts with a high population of Hispanic residents.

This is why many believe Clinton could win the popular vote in Texas but Obama could end up with more delegates.

Caucuses

First and foremost Texas refers to these as “precinct conventions” and not caucuses.

These precinct conventions “are to be convened no earlier than 7:15 P.M. local time the day of the presidential primary (the polls will have closed in Texas at 7 P.M.) to begin the process of choosing the delegates to County and Senate District Conventions.”

Saturday 29 March 2008: Tier 2. County and Senate District Conventions select delegates to State Convention.

THEN on Friday June 6th – Saturday June 7th 2008: Tier 3. A State Convention will choose the remaining 67 pledged delegates. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates at the statewide level.

Breakdown
67 delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based on the presidential preference of the delegates at the State Convention as a whole.
42 at-large National Convention delegates
25 Pledged PLEOs
The remaining 35 National Convention delegates consist of

32 Unpledged PLEO delegates:
17 Democratic National Committee members.
13 Members of Congress (0 Senators and 13 Representatives).
0 Governors.
2 Distinguished Party Leaders (former House Speaker James C. Wright, Jr., former DNC chairman Robert Schwarz “Bob” Strauss).
3 Unpledged “add-on”s (elected at the state convention).
These 35 delegates and will go to the Democratic National Convention officially “Unpledged”.