Jun
26
Written by:
William Lutz
6/26/2010 4:23 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI -- One hasn’t really attended a Texas political convention unless one goes through the exhibitor booths and looks around. Part bazaar, part political fair, the booths have something for every political activist.
The Texas Democratic Party has a different policy on exhibitor booths than the Republican Party of Texas. The Republicans often deny booth space to organizations that disagree with the party. Thus, gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina’s We Texans didn’t get a booth. The Democratic party will take money from almost anyone. Therefore, the Texas State Rifle Association and the Texas Alliance for Life – for example – both had booths at the Texas Democratic Convention.
Of course, most of the booths are exactly what people would expect to find at the Democratic convention – folks selling Obama T-Shirts and other Democratic memorabilia and various liberal causes.
Booths included the Texas Environmental Democrats, Annie’s List, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, the Stonewall Democrats (an organization for gay and transgendered Democrats), the Texas Freedom Network (which is dedicated to fighting the so-called ‘Religious Right’), Texas Watch, and the League of Conservation Voters.
Perhaps the best props from the corporate booths included an inflatable donkey, brought to the convention by AT&T and TXU, which hired massage therapists to give Democrat delegates massages.
The most amusing T-Shirt slogans “Good Hair or Clean Air: Bill White for Texas Governor” (with pictures of both Gov. Rick Perry and White, with a busters sign over Perry) and “Texas GOP Class of 2009,” with a picture of Perry with a caption “Most Likely to Secede”