I Got Slapped Down By The Texas Democratic Party

The Democratic Party Convention in Texas will be held on June 26 through 28 in Dallas, and as I have for a while now, I requested press credentials from the party. While my blog is not huge, it does have over 2,000,000 page views, and the party has given me those credentials for every convention since 2006 -- so I didn't think there would be any problem getting them again this year. I was wrong.

I was notified by the Deputy Communications Director (Lisa Paul) yesterday that my request for credentials has been denied "due to an overwhelming interest". In other words, back when you couldn't convince the mainstream media to cover the Democratic convention, they were happy to give credentials to bloggers -- but now that the mainstream media is showing some interest in their candidates, the party has no use for us bloggers.

Actually, I have no idea whether they are doing this to all Texas political bloggers, or just me (because I have recently spoke out against the party's recent move to the right again -- just like in the past). If it's all bloggers, then I think that's short-sighted (because regardless of what the state leadership may think, they are not yet popular enough to be dumping their friends). If it's just me, then I take that as a personal insult. I would love to hear from some of you other Texas bloggers -- were you also denied?

It seems to me that the state party may be getting "too big for their britches". At any rate, they've made it clear they neither want nor need me. I guess I now need to decide if the feeling is mutual.

NOTE -- I will be going to the convention anyway, since I have already paid for airline tickets and a hotel. And I will try to post as much as I can from the convention. I just won't have access to the press room wi-fi -- so I'll have to wait until I get back to my hotel each night.

**UPDATE**
I received a call from Ms. Paul today. She says the party will be issuing me press credentials at the convention this year -- and said my denial was a "clerical error". I don't know if that's true or not (since I'm a naturally suspicious person), but I'm happy to be back on the approved list.