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My name is David Mauro and I'm a staff writer for Burnt Orange Report, a leading progressive blog based out of Texas. I am also a full-time college student.

Before we get back to our work of ridding Texas of Speaker Tom Craddick, winning Chris Bell's state senate runoff election, and taking back some statewide offices for Democrats in 2010, I have a favor to ask you.

Please take a second and vote for me.

I am a finalist for a $10,000 Blogging Scholarship. The finalist who receives the most online votes wins. The contest ends tonight (at Midnight Pacific Time) and I am in a very close battle for first. Vote now.

I am the only progressive political blogger in the finals and I would really appreciate your support.

I first started reading Burnt Orange Report (and other blogs lie MyDD and Daily Kos) in 2003 when I was in high school. I had always been interested in politics and these online communities gave me a place to learn and interact with people whose passion for improving our nation still amazes me. It has been a great honor to join Burnt Orange Report, a site that I consider (with no bias, of course) to be one of the best state political blogs in the nation. Since I officially came aboard BOR last January, here are some of my favorite posts I've written.
Cornyn Politicizes Hurricane Dolly

According campaign press release yesterday, John Cornyn has asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to support a "bill would allow county governments in the Rio Grande Valley to repair an outdated levee system and be reimbursed by the federal government." Problem is, Big John, the storm already hit...

Building a Lasting Majority

An analysis of the two presidential campaigns' spending habits makes it clear that Barack Obama and John McCain are running two different campaigns, an article from Bloomberg shows. The Obama campaign has spent significantly more on staff salaries that the McCain campaign has. Obama's campaign had a June payroll of $2.3 million...

TDP Primary/Caucus Committee Holds First Hearing

The movement to end the Texas Two-Step, as many have been saying for a long time, is about a lot more than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. For those who were still trying to paint this as Clinton “sour grapes”, the first speaker at the “End the Texas Two-Step” press conference was quick to put that to rest. “I’m not sure that it matters,” Peter Nolan began, “but I am and was an Obama supporter..."

When Money Talks, Gov. Rick Perry Listens

Rick Perry aide Allison Castle claims that donors to the governor get nothing in return except for "good government." Well, a new story from the Houston Chronicle's R.G. Ratcliffe makes it clear that if you contribute enough, you can get a lot more...

To read some more of my work, please click here.

Again, this is the last day so please take a few seconds and vote now.

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Burnt Orange Report was following the weekend's TX county conventions and brings us this update - Todd

The current state of the Texas primary/caucus has Obama leading Clinton by 3 delegates. Here is the breakdown of delegates allocated to date.

In the state of Texas, 126 national delegates are primary-chosen, determined on March 4, and 67 national delegates are caucus-chosen, which won't be finalized until the state convention on June 6-7. In addition to these 193 pledged delegates, there are 35 Superdelegates elected from Texas, to total 228 delegates to Texas.

This past weekend, over 280 county conventions (or caucuses, for everyone else) were held in the next stage of the caucus process, just like Iowa had their second stage a couple weeks ago. We tracked the results from the conventions at Burnt Orange Report (besting the coverage of the Associated Press), and with 90% reporting, Obama leads Clinton 55.22% to 44.78%. That translates into a 37-30 pledged delegate lead for Obama.

Here is the overall state of the race, with our sources listed below:

                                                   Obama        Clinton
TX Primary-Chosen Results            61                65
TX Caucus-Chosen Results             37                30
---------------------------------------- -------------------------
Total Pledged Delegates                  98               95

The final caucus results won't be until the state convention on June 6, so these are not final numbers, but rather the current state of the race, should it end today. Obviously the Caucus numbers can and will change in the coming months -- but it's also fair to report where we are now.

We also are aware that these numbers differ than the +5 pledged delegate advantage reported by the Obama campaign. Their results are based on a 38-29 advantage over the caucus weekend -- and with the 10% of state convention delegates not yet accounted for, including over 280 automatic delegates to the state convention ("state Superdelegates" such as County Chairs), it is possible that a 38-29 split is still possible. However, we can only report what we know, and what we know right now is that there is a 37-30 split, advantage Obama.

However you break down the numbers, it is clear that Obama is currently winning in Texas. Even if you take the national Superdelegates from TX into account, Obama is winning Texas.

My only comment about these results is to link back to what I wrote on February 13, about how to win the Texas primary:

Senator Obama could come close to Senator Clinton in the "primary" portion and dominate the "caucus" portion --- the only catch is that those 67 votes that come from the "caucus" system won't be known until June at the Texas Democratic Party Convention.

If the expectations are that Senator Clinton will win and perhaps even dominate in Texas, then even Senator Obama finishing close on Election Day -- with an understanding that he will do well in the future caucuses -- could be enough to count as a win for Senator Obama.

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Recently, I e-mailed an old buddy who lives in Texas with a good Dubya joke. For those who are interested in the joke, you can read it at my blog, Benny's World. He responded with pleasantries and asked me how things were going for my POTUS candidate, John Edwards. I replied that John Edwards' poll numbers from CNN(courtesy of Wade Norris) today looked pretty promising in head to head matchups with the Republicans. I also mentioned that there was a three way race in Iowa and it was too close as well in NH to know who would win, but Edwards' chances looked very good. He said he liked the little guys, meaning Biden, Richardson, and Dodd (the non-front runners), but of the front runners, he was considering Edwards. Follow me after the jump..

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