County Democratic Chair Close to Being Removed as Delegate

Party leaders scrabbling to resolve conflicts

AUSTIN - The Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairman came very close to being removed as a delegate at the state convention.

A group accused Juan Maldonado of closing the county Democratic convention illegally.

The Justice Advocacy Group (JAG) was founded by McAllen Democrat David Garza. The group filed several complaints about how the county convention was run.NEWSCHANNEL 5 was at the convention in March, when angry protestors gathered outside.

Garza says it was run "with complete incompetence."

His group says they felt ignored by Maldonado.

But the county party chair says he didn't do anything wrong at the convention.

"The rules are set. They're in black and white. We followed the rules to a T this time. We have two parliamentary that oversaw the process, including one assigned by the state Democratic Party," explains Maldonado.

McAllen Democrat Leslie Gower was on the committee that listened to the challenge about Maldonado.

"Things could have been done a lot cleaner," she tells us.

Gower says there were problems at the Hidalgo County convention, but they were minor ones compared to chaos in other areas.

"What I see in Hidalgo County is very small compared to whole conventions being thrown out of the convention center," Gower says.

Democratic Party leaders have been scrambling to resolve conflicts before the convention begins on Friday.

In the end, the committee decided Maldonado will keep his seat at the convention. But he was just one vote away from being shut out.

"With him not winning re-election, he definitely got what he deserves," adds David Garza.

Meanwhile, Garza was able to get 10 more Valley Clinton supporters alternate seats at the convention.

The Texas Democratic Party Convention kicks off on Friday. Some party members are worried there's growing racial tension between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters.