Texas Democrats wind up state convention

AUSTIN — Texas Democrats wrapped up their best attended state convention in modern history Saturday, preaching unity ahead of a tough fall election but still grappling with leftover bitterness from the Obama-Clinton smackdown.

Much of Hillary Clinton’s concession speech — the part that escaped technical glitches, anyway — was piped into the convention after her supporters demanded it. Party officials had earlier said that the televised speech couldn’t be squeezed in their tight schedule. But they reversed course and transmitted a grainy and sometimes faltering Internet feed of Clinton’s late-morning address.

It seemed to have a therapeutic impact on delegates. As if confronting the reality of a heart-wrenching break-up, Clinton allies had a good cry, waved their placards in a final, bittersweet frenzy and began the process of moving on. Many Clinton delegates could be seen sporting brand new Obama buttons, and a preference tally showed the Illinois senator with 57.3 percent of the 7,300 delegates, compared to 42.7 for the former first lady, officials said.

“There will be a period of healing,’’ said state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, who chaired the convention. “I sense that’s already really occurring.’’

For some, though, it was still too soon to fully embrace Barack Obama for president. “It’s not over yet,” one passing delegate blurted out to Clinton supporter Dolores Esparza, a first-time state alternate from San Antonio. Esparza corrected the passerby. Had her fellow Clinton supporter not heard the concession speech? Apparently not. “Yeah, it’s over,” Esparza said, still trying to make sense of it herself.

“I don’t feel like she should have gotten out,” Esparza said. “I think she’s still the better candidate. Without her on the ticket, I don’t know if Obama can win.”

Esparza said she won’t vote for Republican John McCain, but indicated that she might sit out the White House race.

Clinton’s official departure Saturday made for an anticlimactic final day, the only real excitement coming when a kitchen smoke alarm went off during a hot party rules debate; it sent delegates scurrying outside for a few minutes.

In recent election years state Democratic conventions have often felt like a trauma survivor support group, reflecting the party’s near collapse as Republicans staged one electoral rout after another. But after picking up several legislative seats and waging a lawsuit that helped give them the Congressional seat of former GOP House Majority Tom DeLay, Democrats say they’re on the cusp of a historic comeback.

“Let’s get out there and kick a little Republican rump!” yelled party chairman Boyd Richie of Graham, who easily won re-election to another two years at the helm of the Texas Democratic Party.

One of his opponents in the chairmanship race, populist lawyer and longtime party activist David Van Os, gave a fiery speech and railed against the “gang of criminals’’ in the White House. He faulted party leaders for focusing on small gains and incremental change.

But Ron Kirk, calling Richie a “workhorse,” urged delegates to stick with him and they did.

“When you’re on the eve of winning the Triple Crown, you don’t change jockeys,” Kirk said.

Before leaving Austin, Democrats passed their party platform, calling for universal health care, an overhaul of the controversial new business tax and a withdrawal from Iraq. They also selected the 67 delegates who will represent Texas at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August.

One thing Democrats did not do, despite a heated floor fight, is modify the delegate selection process that prompted so much confusion and mayhem amid record participation in March. But Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, will head up a party-appointed panel to mull future changes to the so-called “prima-caucus” system, whereby Texas Democrats vote both in a primary and a caucus.

“It may have shown some weaknesses in the process, but the numbers clearly overwhelmed the process that was established,” West said. “I’m pretty confident there will be some changes. If you ask me what changes there are going to be I can’t say right now.”