Feb 23, 2008 4:54 pm US/Central
More Texas Stops For President Bill Clinton
EL PASO (AP) ―
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Bill Clinton during a recent stop in Richardson.
KTVT / KTXA
President Bill Clinton wants Texans to vote for his wife, twice.
Stumping for Sen. Hillary Clinton, the former president told supporters at an early morning rally in Corpus Christi Saturday that while it's important for them to vote for his wife in early voting or on March 4, they can't forget to participate in the precinct caucuses.
Those caucuses, he told the crowd, will decide 35 percent of the states' 228 delegates.
"If you are going to vote for Hillary, then you have to understand the Texas system, which is highly unusual," Clinton said. "Like everything else in Texas, it is special. Vote early, vote on election day, but after you vote you will have only voted for 65 percent of the delegates. You have to vote twice."
Texas has a hybrid system -- part primary, part caucus -- that awards 228 delegates in all.
Primary voters will decide 126 delegates in 31 state senate districts. About half the districts have four delegates, and others range from two to eight delegates.
Delegates are awarded based on a candidate's percentage of the vote, so some districts may split their prize between Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York.
Bill Clinton warned voters in Corpus Christi, where he was making his second campaign stop in two days, that if they didn't vote in the caucus after the polls close, they risked having their votes voided.
"March 4 you are going to be the only people in the entire United States who can vote twice and not go to jail," Clinton joked to a cheering crowd. "You don't want to win this election in the daytime and see it taken away in the dark of night."
The former president also repeated his assertion that Hillary Clinton must win Texas and Ohio on March 4 to win the Democratic nomination.
"Texas is going to decide this," Clinton said. "If she wins in Texas and she wins in Ohio, she will win in Pennsylvania and she will go on and win the nomination and be the president of the United States."
Hillary Clinton has lost 10 primaries since Super Tuesday and her campaign appears to be struggling against the juggernaut that has become Obama's bid for the White House.
Bill Clinton, who never mentioned Obama by name, praised the field of candidates but said Hillary Clinton was the only candidate who is "a change-maker for other people's lives."
During his nearly 30-minute speech, Clinton also told voters of Hillary Clinton's plans to bring troops home from Iraq, reform health care, and eliminate tax cuts for the wealthy.
Bill Clinton was to continue his tour across the state Saturday with stops in Killeen and El Paso.
President Bill Clinton wants Texans to vote for his wife, twice.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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