by Will Mari, Charles Cadwallader, and Cailin Magruder

A dispute has arisen at the precinct on 1700 South Lamar blvd in Travis County today, a Clinton supporter and an Obama supporter both claim to be the precinct captain and a lawyer is now involved.

Richard Herzog claims to have been recommended by the Clinton campaign and appointed by the Texas State Democrats this year to be the precinct captain at this location. Herzog says that the Obama supporter is falsely claiming to be the sitting precinct captain because he was the precinct captain two years ago. He was elected two years ago but only served one year and did not take part last year. Today he has shown up, claiming his elected position and authority over Herzog.

While the Obama supporter claims to be the current precinct captain he was not present at the site.

Herzog is waiting for a lawyer being sent by the Hillary Campaign in Texas to dispute the Obama supporter’s claim to the position.

The Trail Blazers blog on the Dallas Morning News reported on Saturday that a memo from the campaign contained the following directions:

Hillary Clinton and her campaign is pushing for precinct captains for Texas’ 8,000 Democratic polling places. They need to train folks to lead the caucus sessions that will determine more than 60 delegates after the primary voting is over. In training materials being handed out by the Clinton campaign, it is clear that they want to control those caucus sessions. The materials say in part, DO NOT allow the supporter of another candidate to serve in leadership roles.

More details to come soon.

http://trailblazers.beloblog.com/archives/2008/03/caucus-strategy.html