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.”