Party Line - A Microscopic View Of The Social Network

...There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in
the air... - Bob Dylan, "Tangled Up In Blue"

The voices are soft, attenuated. They come at you from what
seems like a distance, crackling and spitting electronic
sounds, like an old-time party line in the midst of a
prairie blizzard or the static bursts of an amateur radio
broadcast during a period of sun spot disturbances.

Social networking.

It's nothing particularly new. After all, there were party
lines, HAM radio, coffee shops - jungle drums.

That's why it's like running across a trunk full of old
sepia-toned photos of people you know perfectly well, but
see for the first time and for the first time only when you
join a conference call or log on to a political FaceBook or
Twitter account.

The four announced candidates for the two State Senate
District 22 slots on the Republican Party's Executive
Committee made an appearance on a conference call sponsored
by the Blue Collar Republican Club of McLennan County last
night.

When The Legendary logged on - late, fresh from a hasty
dinner - incumbent committeman Chris DeCluitt was speaking
at length about his vision for the GOP in this time of plans
to take back the U.S. government and forge new alliances
with new friends who can help do that, Republican style.

A Waco attorney, Board Chairman of the Brazos River
Authority, campaign manager for such party luminaries as
District Judge Vicki Menard, Mr. DeCluitt is a well-known
and experienced establishment player who is known to get
results.

He fielded a question from Hispanic GOP acitivist Duke
Machado.

"What are your views of the Hispanic movement in the
Republican Party?"

Mr. Machado is a Ford Motor Company sales executive,
President of the McLennan County Hispanic Republican Club
and the district-wide GOPisForMe.com website.

His organizations have fielded two candidates for the
committee, Jimmie Kerr, a refuse hauler who has vowed to
increase the number of precincts with GOP party apparatus
present by huge percentage points, and Janet Jackson, a
Clifton activist and realtor, who helped co-found the
Hispanic Republican Club.

Mr. DeCluitt didn't miss a beat.

"You know, Duke, under federal guidelines, my last name is
considered Hispanic..."

He continued to speak of his strategy - one he shares with
the core cadre of state party leadership - of attracting new
voters - people who have never before registered or voted -
to cross over from their traditional attraction to
Democratic Party ranks and support a GOP Congressional
candidate who can defeat 10-term Representative Chet
Edwards, (D-Waco).

If they can't defeat Chet, they can't take back the House of
Representatives with its purse strings authority and its
ultra-liberal leadership in Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The solution? Attract new voters who have never before
registered and persuade them to vote for a change in
national policies.

It's a heady assignment and it's going to be a long, hot
summer.

Here's where the rubber meets the road, where Baylor Law
shakes hands with the management of the car lot.

There have been dust-ups and scrapes, some of them
prominently publicized in the local conservative daily, The
Waco "Tribune-Herald."

In fact, the local Hispanic club is starting to gain
recognition in other areas of the state, attracting ink in
The Ft. Worth "Star-Telegram" and The Austin "American-
Statesman."

Mr. Machado's stance borders on the militant - with a twist.
He knows that the Hispanic voter will soon be representing
the majority population of the state. Some demographers say
it will happen within the coming decade.

His attitudes are surprising to some. He insists that
Hispanics will never get anywhere unless they speak and read
English fluently. Nothing else will do. In fact, in the
home his grandparents made for him at San Marcos, the kids
were not allowed to speak anything but English. Stay in
school was the rule. Hard work and only hard work will cure
your problems.

In a follow-up question, he quizzes Mr. DeCluitt about some
other aspect of the establishment's approach to the coming
shift in the numbers, and he is interrupted - politely -
with this rejoinder.

"You know, Duke, relations between us have not always been
good..."

There it is.

It's out in the open, the thing everyone is aware of and yet
no one speaks of openly.

The discussion began to loosen up, the stilted tones began
to go away and were replaced with the kind of nuts and bolts
dialogue that turns elections one way or the other.

Jimmie Kerr said that though he was not in particularly good
odor at County Republican Party Headquarters, it doesn't
really matter.

His goal is to continue to sign up people to be Precinct
Chairmen, to continue to build party apparatus, deputy voter
registrars, phone talkers, sign installers, poll
transportation types, those who will take early and absentee
voting applications to those who don't understand, help them
get the paperwork filled out and turned in, then take them
to the polls if necessary.

"I don't care what they think about it out there on
Lakeshore Drive. It doesn't really matter."

What matters most to Jimmie Kerr is that of 91 voting
precincts in McLennan County, only a few of them have
Republican Chairmen.

"If you think Chet's people don't know this, you're wrong."

Janet Jackson recounted her busy season traveling with a
projector, a sound system and a two-hour presentation that
educates voters, the kind who volunteer, in the precise
politics and all the neat structural dovetails and joints of
the carpentry that goes into the party's platform, its
rules, the election code and the way it all fits together.

They have established new Hispanic Repubican Clubs in
Brazos, Navarro, Ellis, Johnson and Hood Counties. They are
in the exploratory stages in talking with operatives in Leon
and Somervell Counties.

That's way more than half the 10 counties in this State
Senate District.

As the hour wore on, there were intense question and answer
exchanges between the candidates, Molly Smith, Janet
Jackson, Chris DeCluitt and Jimmie Kerr.

Ms. Smith's mother and father contend that they started the
GOP in McLennan County, something that is contested by at
least one rival.

Her mother served on the Executive Committee for a couple of
terms.

About 15 listeners hammered them with questions under the
moderation of TEA Party activist Toby Marie Walker.

In the last analysis, State Vice Chairman Robin Armstrong
set the record straight on exactly how the rules operate,
the nomination procedures and the way the State Republican
Convention at Dallas will proceed this weekend.

Nominations for the Executive Committee will be made at the
District Caucus after the first General Session of the
Convention, about 4 p.m., give or take.

Nominations may be made from the floor in addition to the
announced candidacies of the four who appeared on the party
line last night. Only those who are delegated to the
convention may vote in the caucus, but anyone may attend the
meeting.

It's going to be quite a show, from the bottom to the top,
the top to the bottom. State Party chairmanship is just as
hotly contested as the Executive Committee slots - one each
for a man and a woman from the state's 31 Senatorial
Districts.

The only thing in the middle of the road is a dead armadillo
and The Legendary anticipates nothing less than blood and
feathers on the floor.

It's a sea change on the bed of an ancient ocean - the Texas
prairie. A real shoot-out on the plantation. Big D, little
a, double...