Posted on 08/15/2003 5:00:46 AM PDT by Ron H.
AUSTIN -- As boycotting Democratic state senators chalked up their first day of fines Thursday because of their absence, the leader of Texas' congressional Democrats said a Republican redistricting plan could cost the state federal highway dollars.
The funding would be jeopardized if Republican leaders succeed in replacing senior Democratic members of Congress from Texas with inexperienced freshmen, U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, told a transportation summit in his home city.
"If (House) Majority Leader (Tom) DeLay has his way, eight senior Democrats with 124 years of seniority would be replaced by eight freshmen Republicans who will barely know where the bathrooms are located their first year in Washington," Frost said.
Aides for Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who support DeLay's effort to increase the number of Republicans elected to Congress, disputed Frost's claim.
"I think that President Bush, being from Texas, understands well the needs of this state. With the leadership in this state as well, Texans can look forward to getting their fair share of transportation dollars," said Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt.
Meanwhile, the 11 Democratic state senators who fled to Albuquerque, N.M., on July 28 to break a Senate quorum at the beginning of the second special session on redistricting missed a deadline for returning to the Capitol on Thursday.
Under penalties imposed by most of the 19 Republican senators earlier this week, each of the runaways was slapped with a $1,000 fine for failing to return by 4 p.m. The fine will be $2,000 today, $4,000 Saturday and $5,000 each day after that until Aug. 26, when this session must end.
That means each missing senator could be penalized as much as $57,000 if the 11 remain in Albuquerque, as they say they will do.
Democrats say the fines are illegal because the senators who approved them lacked a quorum. The Republicans say lawmakers who are present for a session have constitutional authority to sanction ones who fail to show up.
The senators fled to Albuquerque shortly before Perry ordered the current session. They acted after Dewhurst announced that he would bypass a traditional procedure requiring two-thirds of the Senate to approve debate on any legislation.
Outnumbered 19-12, Senate Democrats had used that procedure to block a redistricting bill during the first special session. The only Democratic senator to stay behind in Texas was Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, who voted against the move to fine his colleagues.
Democrats now have a 17-15 majority in Texas' congressional delegation, while Republicans hold all statewide offices and a majority of both houses of the state Legislature.
Speaking in Dallas, Frost said Texas in 2002 received 84 cents for every tax dollar it sent to Washington for the transportation trust fund -- a figure that he said was already "inadequate."
"However, all this funding may come to a screeching halt because of the unprecedented all-out assault on the senior Democratic members of the delegation," he said.
Frost, a 26-year congressional veteran and the ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said he and seven other Democrats with a total of 124 years of seniority would be in danger of losing their seats under some redistricting plans proposed by Republicans.
Frost said Perry sent him a letter two weeks ago asking for his help on a transportation issue.
"Transportation funding is not a partisan issue and must be pursued on a bipartisan basis if we are to successfully compete with other aggressive states," he added.
Dewhurst spokesman Dave Beckwith said Frost was exaggerating the number of Democratic incumbents likely to be unseated under a Republican congressional map. He said the more likely number was four or five.
"Texas now has excellent representation in Washington, starting with President Bush," Beckwith said. He said Republican U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn also represent the state well.
In Albuquerque on Thursday, the Texas Democrats held a news conference with five Democratic state senators from Colorado, where Republicans earlier this year succeeded in passing a new congressional redistricting bill.
The Colorado senators said Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, orchestrated the redistricting effort in Colorado, as Texas Democrats contend he is pushing the issue in Texas.
Armando Villafranca reported from Albuquerque
SCARE THE PEOPLE!!!
Thereby making your pitiful, disgusting, selfserving inactions of RUNNING away from your duty seem noble?
Frost clucking that the sky is falling does not renove the stench from what these folks are doing.
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