This is going to be a cut-and-paste job.
McClatchy Newspapers' Jay Root is reporting in the Kansas City Star that the Clinton campaign may have threatened to pursue legal action against the Texas Democratic Party to block or dispute the results of the Texas caucus.
The Texas Democratic Party is warning that its March 4 caucuses could be delayed or disrupted after aides to White House hopeful Hillary Clinton raised the specter of an "imminent" lawsuit over its complicated delegate selection process, officials said Thursday night.
The threats are apparently serious enough that the state Party issued a sharply-worded letter to both campaigns to dissuade any legal action:
In a letter sent out late Thursday to both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, Texas Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn warned that a lawsuit could ruin the Democrats' effort to re-energize voters just as they are turning out in record numbers.
[...]
"It has been brought to my attention that one or both of your campaigns may already be planning or intending to pursue litigation against the Texas Democratic Party," Dunn said in the letter, obtained by the Star-Telegram. "Such action could prove to be a tragedy for a reinvigorated Democratic process."
The threats are confirmed by at least two independent, although anonymous sources.
"Both campaigns have made it clear that they would go there if they had to, but I think the imminent threat is coming from one campaign," said one top Democratic official, referring to the Clinton campaign. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another Democratic source who was privy to the often intense discussions confirmed that representatives of the New York senator's campaign had issued veiled threats in a telephone call this week.
"Officials from Senator Clinton's campaign at several times throughout the call raised the specter of 'challenging the process,' the official said. "The call consisted of representatives from both campaigns and the Democratic Party."
The source, who did not have authorization to speak about the matter on the record, said Clinton's political director, Guy Cecil, had pointedly raised the possibility of a courtroom battle.
The Clinton campaign has officially denied any such threats. However, the contrast in tone and language between the two campaigns is interesting.
But Adrienne Elrod, Clinton's top Texas spokeswoman, said campaign and party officials had merely discussed primary night procedures and that the campaign was merely seeking a written agreement in advance. She could not elaborate on the details of the agreement the Clinton campaign is seeking. "It is our campaign's standard operating procedure that we need to see what we are agreeing to in writing before we agree to it," Elrod said. "No legal action is being taken. We have no reason to take any legal action."
Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said the Obama campaign had no plans to sue.
"We're confident that by working closely with the Texas Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign we'll have a caucus that Texans can be proud of -- because every eligible voter will be allowed to participate and have their vote counted in a timely manner," Earnest said.
I cannot find any other sources on this story right now. It appears to be freshly developing.
Minor Update: This story appears to have originated in the Fort-Worth Star Telegram (see their version here) . Obviously, it has been syndicated to other McClatchy papers.
Minor Update #2: Root is an award-winning journalist who has been the Star-Telegram's Austin bureau chief since 1996 and seems to be held in high regard. He was at the center of a recent controversy involving Texas Gov. Rick Perry, challenging Perry over his habit of purging official e-mail records.
Minor Update #3: The Associated Press is now carrying a version of the story, but they're just reporting on the Star-Telegram's report. No new details in there.
Random Matter of Framing: I would caution that threatening to sue as part of a negotiation over caucus rules is a somewhat different thing than actually considering a lawsuit. It could be some kind of bluff, in other words. But either way, I'd assume that this is something that Texas voters would be interested in hearing about.
Substantive Update #1. Someone over at Al Giordano's blog tracked down the PDF of the letter sent out by the state party. As the letter keenly observes:
"As you know, the rules and procedures that govern the 2008 Texas primary and convention were actually developed by and utilized in previous Presidential election cycles by many of your key Texas supporters and have been available to your campaigns well before voting, or even campaigning, had started."
Minor Update #4. The Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News are now carrying the McClatchy and AP versions of the story, respectively. So, no new reporting, but it does look like the story could get substantial traction locally.