Dewhurst's reputation depends on 11 who fled

Houston Chronicle ^ | August 3, 2003 | CLAY ROBISON

[Dog Gone]

AUSTIN -- Not too many months ago, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst likened congressional redistricting to "contagious flu," discouraging speculation that it would infect Texas' legislative process.

But even Dewhurst finally caught the bug from other Republican leaders, prompting 11 Democratic state senators to flee to Albuquerque, N.M., to keep the Senate's GOP majority from passing a new congressional map.

Their flight poses more than a challenge to the effort -- orchestrated primarily by Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land -- to increase the number of Republicans elected to Congress from Texas.

It also threatens Dewhurst's reputation as a fair-minded Senate leader and erodes the bipartisanship that, until now, has characterized most of the Senate's work.

Sooner or later, the fate of the redistricting effort likely will be decided in federal court.

It could be sooner if the Democrats, as Dewhurst anticipates, file a federal lawsuit seeking to pre-empt Senate action. Reports have been widespread that lawyers for the runaways will file a lawsuit challenging the changes that Dewhurst plans to make in Senate voting procedures for redistricting.

It would be later if the dissidents return to Austin in time -- as many political observers expect they will -- to allow the Legislature to pass a new redistricting bill.

In the latter case, Democrats then would go to federal court seeking to overturn the plan, and they would try to convince the U.S. Department of Justice to reject it on grounds it diluted minority voting strength in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

"There's not a person in this room, in Albuquerque or across the hall (the House and the governor's office) who doesn't believe it's going to end up in court," said Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, sitting in a mostly deserted Senate chamber.

Armbrister, the only Senate Democrat who didn't bolt, said he believes his colleagues can hold out for the remainder of this 30-day session (another three weeks) in New Mexico but not much longer.

And Perry, barring a nose dive in public opinion polls, seems determined to call a third special session on redistricting if necessary. That would still leave enough time to get a redistricting bill passed before mid-September, which some lawmakers believe is necessary to give the Justice Department and courts an opportunity to review it before the 2004 campaign season begins.

"I think the Democrats are going to lose this (legislative) fight at some point. They can't stay in New Mexico forever," said Cal Jillson, a government professor at Southern Methodist University.

But, he added, Dewhurst has to avoid "overreaching" on redistricting if he wants to save the reputation he earned as a "thoughtful and moderate" leader during the contentious regular session earlier this year.

"All of that is still intact but somewhat at risk as he proceeds through the redistricting fight," Jillson said.

"Overreaching," the political scientist explained, would be trying to pass a redistricting map that all but guarantees Republicans more than 19 of Texas' 32 congressional seats. At present, the GOP holds only 15, while Democrats occupy 17, a division that Republican leaders insist is out of step with Texas' GOP strength.

All statewide elected officials and the majority of state legislators are Republicans.

Jillson said a redistricting plan creating 21 or 22 Republican districts, as a bill approved by the Texas House would do, would be struck down in court or by the Justice Department.

"To get that far, they (Republicans) have to dilute minority voting strength," he said.

Dewhurst and the Senate didn't have to face the contentious partisan issue during the regular session, when more than 50 House Democrats killed a redistricting bill by fleeing to Ardmore, Okla., for four days in May.

Although outnumbered 19-12, Senate Democrats blocked redistricting during the first special session, which ended last week, by taking advantage of a traditional Senate procedure requiring two-thirds approval before any legislation can be considered.

But with Dewhurst serving notice that he would bypass the so-called "two-thirds rule" and allow redistricting to be advanced on a simple majority vote during the second special session, the 11 Democrats headed west to break a Senate quorum.

Dewhurst repeatedly has urged the AWOL senators to return, promising to try to negotiate a "fair" map. And, he suggested, he would lean over backward to give them an opportunity to thoroughly argue their case in Senate debate, including filibusters.

"I've encouraged them (Democrats) to come back, sit down with us, work with us on a plan that's fair," he said.

But, citing previous special sessions on redistricting, when Democratic majorities didn't use the two-thirds procedure, Dewhurst refused to back down on that key point.

Jillson said it was understandable that Dewhurst, who is believed to be interested in higher office, including the U.S. Senate, finally decided to help other Republican leaders enact a new redistricting plan.

"He believes he has a future in the Republican Party of Texas. He can't ignore the party's sense that they deserve a majority of seats in the Texas delegation," he said.

"If he can get (redistricting) done without blood on the floor, then I think he is in good shape," Jillson added.

As the standoff continued last week, phone calls were exchanged across state lines, but both the Democrats and Dewhurst have been mostly close-mouthed about who was talking to whom, and what they were saying.

"They (Democrats) are desperate to get an exit strategy," Dewhurst spokesman Dave Beckwith said.

In Albuquerque, senators continued to be complimentary of Dewhurst, at least publicly, but they just as adamantly insisted that he honor the two-thirds procedure.

"He has been an excellent lieutenant governor, and we would hope that ... we can convince him we need that restored," said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said the present congressional map, drawn by a federal court after the Legislature failed to act two years ago, includes 19 Republican or Republican-leaning districts, even though Democratic incumbents were re-elected in four of them last year.

"They don't like the names and faces that they have in there, and they want to tweak them to get the right names and faces," he added.

Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, Dewhurst's predecessor as lieutenant governor, said he wasn't sure Republican senators could agree on a new redistricting map, even if a quorum were restored. Several GOP senators, including Ratliff, oppose the plan drawn by the House in part because it would shift rural influence to suburban areas.

During the first special session, Ratliff joined the 11 dissident Democrats in vowing to block Senate debate on any congressional redistricting bill.

Ratliff didn't join the Democrats' boycott in New Mexico. But he said he believed the AWOL senators were "pretty dug in."

Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, said he would like to see the Senate do away with the two-thirds requirement altogether because the "majority should rule." But he said he didn't know how much support he had for that.

Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, chairman of the Senate Jurisprudence Committee, which is handling redistricting, agreed with Dewhurst's decision to bypass the "two-thirds rule" during the special session. But, he said, he didn't want to do away with it entirely.

"It promotes consensus," Duncan said.

Consensus is something about which senators of both parties traditionally have boasted, but Ratliff pointed out that it has fallen prey to partisanship this summer.

"I don't know if (the harm) is irreparable, but I think there are going to be some deep scars left," he said.

Chronicle reporter Armando Villafranca contributed to this story from Albuquerque, N.M.

[Dog Gone]

Clay Robison, the author of this piece, wears two hats at the Chronicle. He's a "reporter" and he's a columnist. It's pretty hard to tell the difference in his pieces.

Here's his editorial column today:

---

Witness elephants crying crocodile tears

By CLAY ROBISON
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Gov. Rick Perry's clumsy effort to revive vaudeville with his newly contrived bleeding-heart, crocodile-tear act over state spending is fooling only the foolish.

Yes, that was our governor -- backed by a troupe of other Republican actors -- hitting the road last week to juggle the truth, bemoaning, as he did, legislative inaction on such important needs as more trauma care and Medicaid funding.

Yes, he is the same Rick Perry who was so concerned about the plight of the needy this past spring that he insisted that spending on health care and other critical programs be slashed, so that he and lawmakers could balance a new budget without a modest tax increase.

And, you bet, he is the same governor who, only a few months ago, allowed a group of wheelchair-bound Texans to be arrested for peacefully protesting budget cuts outside his office.

Now, Perry is feigning religion. Angered that 11 Democratic state senators have fled to New Mexico to continue blocking action on a congressional redistricting bill favoring Republicans, the governor is unfairly -- and preposterously -- blaming them for budgetary problems he and other tight-fisted Republicans largely created.

Each of the 11 senators most likely would have voted for a reasonable increase in taxes last spring to meet budgetary needs the governor and other Republicans didn't consider so critical then.

You also, by the way, may have caught state GOP Chair Susan Weddington's acrobatic "save the poor" routine in support of the governor.

Weddington issued a statement last week accusing the 11 Democrats of "costing the people of Texas millions in education and health care funding."

Three months ago, she suggested that it was no big deal if low-income Texans were deprived of public health care services. They, she said then, could simply make do with a "little less disposable income or a little less inheritance from Mom and Dad."

It is true that as long as the Democrats continue to boycott the Senate, legislative action will be delayed on several funding-related bills during this special session.

Perry said it was particularly crucial that the Legislature decide how to spend an additional $167 million in federal matching funds for Medicaid. He said the extra money could be used to lessen the impact of a scheduled 5 percent reduction in rates paid to hospitals and doctors caring for the needy.

But the governor and the Legislative Budget Board could decide how to spend those funds and make certain other spending decisions without the full Legislature's approval.

Perry never would have called a special session simply to decide how to spend the Medicaid money. But it makes a convenient cover now for his top priority -- a redistricting bill that would allow more Republicans to be elected to Congress.

If the governor really wants the full Legislature to act on funding issues now -- including a bill to give state leaders the flexibility to spend several hundred million dollars in new federal funds and money vetoed from the state budget by Perry -- all he and other Republicans have to do is agree to give up on redistricting, an unnecessary issue they never should have tried to force upon lawmakers in the first place.

But Perry's partisan priority apparently is still stronger than his concern for spending needs.

Poking fun at the Democratic senators, the Texas Republican Party announced that it was sending them a "care package," including "child leashes to keep them firmly attached" to national Democratic leaders who, according to the GOP, ordered the walkout.

I don't know if national Democratic leaders ordered the senators to flee or not, although I am sure they are encouraging them to continue to fight redistricting.

I also am sure that the U.S. House's Republican leader, Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, is just as strongly encouraging Perry and Texas Republicans to ram a redistricting bill through the Legislature.

Perry and Weddington, tears and all, remain firmly leashed to DeLay, whose heart bleeds for more partisan power.

Robison is chief of the Chronicle's Austin Bureau. clay.robison@chron.com

[deport]

He's correct about one thing and that is any redistricting legislation coming out of the legislature will wind up in the courts.... Wasn't the 1991 legislation drug through the court system until 1996 or so before final orders were given?

That's why I'm not sure that any change will occur in the makeup of the Texas delegation before the 06 cycle at best even if legislation is passed?

[Dog Gone]

I don't know the answer to that. You've mentioned this before, but I simply don't recall the 1991 redistricting becoming effective in 1996.

My best guess to that question is that the redistricting becomes effective once it passes Justice Dept scrutiny, and then it's subject to challenge in the courts. In the meantime, the new district boundaries stand.

But that's a guess.

[deport]

You maybe correct about the plan being implemented awaiting final disposition in the courts... Some of that seemed to have happened in the 1990 cases.....

http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/departments/scr/redist/redsum/TXSUM.HTM

[Dog Gone]

Good link.

I didn't go look at the actual court decisions yet, but the summary provided for Vera v. Richards did mention this:

Plaintiffs challenged 24 of the state's 30 congressional districts as racial gerrymanders. The federal district court struck down three, Districts 18, 29, and 30, but the decision was stayed pending appeal, so the plan continued in use for the 1994 election.

That tends to support my guess.

[Princeliberty]

That's why the Democrats are doing the walk outs.
If they can anything form passing this year,
things will go to court and by the time the
court settles it, the it may be past 2008 elections
or the court may even say things are simply too
late to put new districts in effect.

[Princeliberty]

That what happened before, but since
these would going in effect after the
2002 elections, the current districts would stand
pending the outcome.
The rules are always going to favor the status
quo remaining.

[MeekOneGOP]

Man, what an editorial by Robinson ! Seems we've seen a couple of his hit pieces before.

Poking fun at the Democratic senators, the Texas Republican Party announced that it was sending them a "care package," including "child leashes to keep them firmly attached" to national Democratic leaders who, according to the GOP, ordered the walkout.

He forgot to mention the diapers, rattlers and pacifiers.

I don't know if national Democratic leaders ordered the senators to flee or not, although I am sure they are encouraging them to continue to fight redistricting.

Right, of course they didn't !!

As King began his argument for the new congressional boundaries Monday afternoon, about 30 Democrats in the gallery donned white socks as hand puppets to mock King. Every time he spoke, the little white mouths flapped.

[Dog Gone]

Oh, I love that top photo!

[MeekOneGOP]

Here is a list of recent articles on Redistricting:

FR Search: Keyword "Redistricting"

08-03-2003
Dewhurst's reputation depends on 11 who fled

07-31-2003
Dewhurst: I'm honoring tradition and precedent
(Article exposes ‘RAT Lies!!)
Congressional districts in Texas today are essentially those drawn by a partisan Legislature in 1991. At that time, a national publication called the Texas map the most outrageously gerrymandered redistricting effort in the nation, resulting in Democratic strength in our congressional delegation well beyond its representation among voters.

Our congressional lines are even more outdated today. When the Legislature failed to draw new lines to accommodate Texas' two new congressional seats in 2001, the job fell to a federal court. The judges made the fewest changes possible to the existing 1991 map, in essence protecting incumbents.

07-29-2003
Democrats bolt again – to New Mexico
(Senators trying to halt new special session on redistricting)

Link to pics of the 11 Democrat Senators that Obstructed Redistricting
(Post #4)

07-28-2003
Session ends as 11 Democrats slip out
(Dem's Flee state again!)

07-26-2003
GOP effort to redraw districts is crushed
[Texas redistricting]

07-24-2003
Democrats may be free to flee - constitutionally protected, says lawyer

07-24-2003
As new Texas redistricting map offered,
Dewhurst says compromise is in the air

07-23-2003
Committee passes redistricting bill (Texas)

07-23-2003
Texas Republican Senators Forge Ahead on Congressional Redistricting Plans

07-19-2003
[Texas] Senators talk of boycotting any redistricting session
Mr. Dewhurst said he would be on solid ground in working around the Senate tradition requiring a two-thirds vote to take up a bill. The late Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, a Democrat, did the same thing in a 1992 special session on legislative redistricting, Mr. Dewhurst said.

07-18-2003
New map, same pain for Dems
(Texas Redistricting fun)

07-17-2003
New map surfacing in Texas Senate

07-16-2003
Dewhurst at crossroads on redistricting in Texas Senate

07-15-2003
Ratliff joins Democrats to oppose redistricting
The state Republican Party was quick to point out that the [2/3rd’s] rule has been abandoned on occasion – such as when the Senate took up a state senatorial redistricting plan in 1992.

07-09-2003
DROP IT -- Redistricting would benefit few Texans, harm many
(Editorial)

07-08-2003
Senators have problems with House redistricting map - Texas redistricting

07-08-2003
House passes remap
Veteran Democrats may lose seats if bill goes through Senate

Above article is worthy of showing that a picture indeed is worth a thousand words:
First the Chicken D’s run away to Ardmore, Oklahoma. That didn’t work, so here they are,
still having a fit during the Redistricting debate:

As King began his argument for the new congressional boundaries Monday afternoon, about 30 Democrats in the gallery donned white socks as hand puppets to mock King. Every time he spoke, the little white mouths flapped.

07-07-2003
TEXAS REDISTRICTING--Vote TONIGHT!

07-07-2003
Race rhetoric stokes Texas redistricting fire

07-07-2003
Tension may soar as map debate hits House floor - Texas redistricting

07-06-2003
House panel quickly passes Republican redistricting plan -
map likely to unseat six Democrats

07-04-2003
New GOP map restores (Rep. Martin Frost's) district

07-03-2003
Republicans pull proposed map - redistricting

07-03-2003
Chamber of Commerce and GI Forum Hire Temps to Testify

07-02-2003
The Great Texas Power Grab - redistricting

07-01-2003
Tx Democrats Trying Fight, Not Flight, Over Districts
(The-Terrific-Texan-Special-Session)

[MeekOneGOP]

Photos taken from the Texas Senators of the 78th Legislature website.

The 11 Obstructors:

Gonzalo Barrientos, Austin/Rodney Ellis, Houston/Mario Gallegos Jr., Houston

Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, McAllen/Eddie Lucio Jr., Brownsville/Frank Madla Jr., San Antonio

Eliot Shapleigh, El Paso/Leticia Van de Putte, San Antonio/Royce West, Dallas

John Whitmire, Houston/Judith Zaffirini, Laredo

---

The Lone Democrat that is staying:

Kenneth Armbrister, Victoria

[MeekOneGOP]

Here they are with costumes on:

Surely these ‘RATS are not true Texans??

[MeekOneGOP]

That was done by Freeper Lowbridge !

[Ron H.]

And if memory serves me CLAY ROBISON has given (keynote) speeches at the Dem's state conventions in years past, has received honorary awards from the state Dem's on his reporting of their issues over the years.

Mr ROBISON has been well known to be a partisan Democrat and a Rat booster for many years. I don't think he understands the word nonpartisan nor knows what it means.

[Dog Gone]

If he knows what it means, he doesn't care. His reporting sucks.