I have to say that my colleagues did themselves proud this weekend. Sadly, I didn’t get to blog as much as I wanted due to battery problems, a persnicikity MP3 player, and trying to upload photos, but I did blog a a good deal at Capitol Annex, and will have more to report from BAR’s press conference, a few more “convention wrap-ups,” some final thoughts, and all that jazz today and in the morning.

In the meantime, here is a rundown of convention coverage from Texas blogs:

Look At All The Liveblogging (Brains & Eggs)

State Chair Race, More Chair Race, (Burnt Orange Report)

Nominations Committee (Just Another Blog)

Complete text of Radnofsky’s convention address (BOR)

Chris Bell Speech Text (BOR)

Nate is “Almost Famous” (Common Sense)

Talking About A Being Optomistic (Common Sense)

Convention Thoughts (Dos Centavos)

State Chair Election Liveblog (Just Another Blog)

Convention Interviews (Kuff’s World)

More Liveblogging (Marc’s Miscellany) [Friday here]

Ya Basta! but not giving up (McBlogger)

Blogging Van Os, Chris Bell (Musings)

I’m going to eat so I’ll finish this shortly.

Not only are bloggers looking fondly and salivating at the power plugs behind the newly erected ropes to keep us away from a power supply on the convention floor, (In all fairness, it’s supposedly because the convention center does not want that much power used or a fuse will blow), but the MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS TOO! They’ve also been told that they can’t use the plugs. In fact, I overheard that someone from the TDP told them that the new little rope was put up beause they don’t want people sitting down and using the plug like Greg and I were yesterday.

Oh, well. Regardless of that, I’ve GOT to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT on behalf of all bloggers to AMBER and HECTOR with the TDP. They’ve hooked we bloggers up beyond our wildest dreams and at great expense to the party.

THANK YOU AMBER! THANK YOU HECTOR! You really “played it forward” for the bloggers, and we appreciate it.

(Cross posted at JAB)

Here is your time for rumor and speculation. As one writer put it, the propaganda is flying.

As I wrote yesterday, everything seemed calm and the positive campaign Glen Maxey and Charlie Urbina-Jones asked for seemed to be happening.

However, this morning there was a turn.

Rich Bailey was appointed as Co-Chair for the important Nominations Committee. The appointment was made three weeks ago and confirmed last night. This morning five minutes before the committee met, Bailey (a Maxey supporter) was pulled from the committee and replaced.

The committee ended up voting to endorse ALL four candidates as opposed to the expected Richie nomination. The other option usually taken is a resolution of non-recommendation.

Maxey and Urbina-Jones supporters seem to be staying positive, and the Lakesha Rogers supporters seem to be literally singing.

There are over 100 districts with no representation so there is no way to gage how the vote will go down.

With no single nomination and the hard campaigning being done by every candidate, the pundits are saying that there will 2 ballots (the second being a runoff).

It has just been announced that the chair’s race won’t start until 1 p.m. It was noted that it will take longer this time than in years past.

Matt Glazer of Just Another Blog will be posting to Blogger’s Caucus shortly. Unfortunatly, in my haste to get the site ready, I left him off. But, he’ll be posting several things shortly. Welcome him aboard.

by statewide candidates Radnofsky, Van Os, and Gilbert yesterday in the exhibit booth area, blogged and photographed by Sharon.

Cross-posted at Common Sense

I just left a press conference with Chris Bell filled with all kinds of media personalities. I saw my drinking buddy Karen Brooks, I saw W. Gardner Selby and I saw the biggest hunk in all of Texas media - Wayne Slater!

I haven’t been able to blog this convention the way I wanted. It’s been all going to and fro; always another caucus to attend. Just finding a spare minute to sit in the press room and start writing anything, anything at all, has been very hard. But I have found the time to talk to you wonderful people.

I must say, I’ve got a bad feeling about this convention. Just looking around you would think that the only person running for TDP Chair is Boyd Richie. Signs, signs everywhere and I can’t walk through a doorway without someone trying to stick me with a pin or a sticker with Boyd Richie’s name on it. What happened to all the people that were committed Maxey delegates?

Where are all the Maxey people? I’ve seen a handful with homemade signs wandering around, nothing serious. We’re going to have to get something together before tomorrow night if we’re going to succeed. I’ll work my mojo to find out what is going on for you.

Don’t forget: Bloggers Caucus party tonight! Flying Saucer, 111 E. 4th Street downtown Fort Worth. Just five blocks north of the convention center. I got an assurance that if he arrives in Fort Worth tonight, superstar Chet Edwards may attend.

… which serves as the TDP’s convention hotel (some are unhappy with it) was formerly the Hotel Texas, the place where President John F. Kennedy and the First Lady slept the night of November 21st, 1963. The next morning, after a speech in the hotel’s ballroom and a press conference directly in front of the hotel, the president’s motorcade departed for Dallas, taking with it the final moments of a more innocent America.

In the side foyer of the hotel is a photographic recollection of this bit of history. More on the convention events later.

P.S. : I have donated a first-edition copy of An Inconvenient Truth — signed by the book’s author, Al Gore — to the silent auction for our statewide candidates. If you’re attending the convention, come by the exhibition hall booth next to the Van Os campaign’s booth and place a bid on it.

Cross-posted from Brains and Eggs 

Just a test post as we gauge the need for such a blog…