GOP, Dems Gather for State Conventions

Jun 7, 2012

Texas political parties are gathering for the state's party conventions.



The top speakers at the Democratic convention are San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The Democrats are expected to elect a new party leader this weekend.

KUT's Ben Philpott talked conventional wisdom and party platforms with Ross Ramsey, executive editor of KUT’s reporting partner the Texas Tribune.

“A few years ago, the Democrats took a lot of the specific program things out of their platform, so that not all of their candidates would have to sign off on every single line of every single idea that got through the convention. The Republicans took the other tack and have been very specific in their platform, and in fact very prescriptive in their platform; you could actually almost write legislation out of it.”