Gilberto Hinojosa and the Democratic County Convention

Now to the Cameron County Democratic Convention.

I attended my first Democratic County Convention in 1968. It was an impressive little steamroller in Denton County. Maybe thirty people were there and there was no dissent or controversy. Those were the days--democracy was not much sullied by the involvement of people. And we didn't have to worry about all of the complications that come from having two parties.

Gilberto did not have these advantages, though. This is why I think he did a good job:

1. He pulled off a difficult task smoothly by running things largely on schedule, even while having to put up with me and the other Obama people engaging in skirmishes to get our delegates seated and elected.

2. He followed party rules and allowed the Obama people to have our 31% representation. He and the other Hillary delegates had the stroke to shut us out completely and I would not have been surprised if they did. The Jesse Jackson delegates in 1988 (me included) effectively shut out the Al Gore people. The Obama crowd (again, me included) had already planned a floor fight, rump convention and challenge to the delegation at the state convention, if we got shut out. Gilbert avoided all of this by following the rules, despite his close ties to Hillary.

3. He put young Turks in charge of the Committees who did a good job.

4. He had the personal connections to get John Sharp, the presumptive Democratic candidate against Perry in 2010, to come to the convention.

5. He had the extreme good judgment and good taste of inviting me to introduce John Sharp. I am sometimes amazed at what a smart and sensitive guy he is.

Anyway, I thought it was Gilberto's county convention and the best I have seen.