Speaker of the TexasDem 11.
Posted on 09/01/2003 6:40:33 AM PDT by Libloather
Low on options, Senate Democrats realizing there's no easy way home
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Aug. 31, 2003, 11:19PM
AUSTIN -- The Albuquerque Democrats might as well learn the Ballad of the Alamo, because no reinforcements are coming and they're running out of ammunition.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, Democratic Caucus chair, completed the picture last week by drawing a figurative line in the sand to keep Sen. John Whitmire of Houston inside the senators' out-of-state fortress.
"We work on consensus, no matter what you've heard," said Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston. "Even Travis and Bowie had a big old fight at the Alamo."
If even one of the 11 boycotting senators returned to Texas and could be forced to the Capitol with the Senate in session, the state's Republican leadership would have a Senate quorum and the votes they need to pass a GOP congressional redistricting plan. The Democrats fled to New Mexico July 28 to stop the legislation.
With almost all hope gone that state or federal courts will intervene on the Democrats' behalf, the self-exiled senators now appear to have two basic options:
· Remain in New Mexico until Christmas, as some have pledged, to keep the Senate from meeting to pass the redistricting bill.
· Return home and declare victory for having blocked the Republican leadership through two special legislative sessions, saving face with the claim that whatever redistricting bill passes now will be too late for use in the 2004 elections.
"Now the question is what do we do from here forward, and that's a big question," said Gallegos.
Gallegos said he does not believe any final decisions will be made before a three-judge federal court panel hears the Democrats' voting rights lawsuit sometime in the next two weeks.
Even if that lawsuit fails, Gallegos said, there is a "magic date" sometime between mid-September and mid-October after which any redistricting bill passed by the Republican majority probably could not be used in the 2004 elections. He said the senators may have to stay out of state that long.
"That is the golden period," Gallegos said. "That's the breathing room that we're being asked to give them ... the lawyers, the congressmen, the people who support us and us, the Texas 11."
This timetable is based on the fact that any redistricting plan will require U.S. Justice Department clearance under the Voting Rights Act, and will inevitably be challenged in court.
The 30-day special session called by Gov. Rick Perry ended last Tuesday without a GOP congressional redistricting plan passing because the Democratic senators had kept their chamber from meeting. The state has now spent $3.4 million on special sessions without producing a redistricting bill.
The Democrats also had put high hopes on U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen, a Democratic appointee. They wanted a protective order allowing them to return home while their voting and free speech case played out, without fear of being arrested and dragged back to the Senate for a third special session.
Kazen not only rejected their protective order, but said that he did not think much of the Democrats' lawsuit. He said he thought mid-decade redistricting was a "bad idea" and a waste of taxpayers' money, but he also thought the Democrats were wrong in breaking the quorum by going to New Mexico.
"The fact is in a legislative body, you win some and you lose some," Kazen said. "The Democratic Party in Washington loses all the time now."
Kazen agreed to refer the lawsuit to a three-judge panel, but that did not improve the outlook for the Democrats. The case now will be heard by Kazen and two Republican judicial appointees -- 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Higginbotham and U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal.
Within hours of the ruling, a frustrated Whitmire told the Associated Press that he was going home for the Labor Day weekend. That led Van de Putte to tell colleagues that Whitmire "has poured us out."
After a closed-door session with his fellow senators, Whitmire agreed to stay out of Texas and not risk capture if Perry quickly called another special session.
Whitmire reportedly went to Santa Fe, N.M., and several other senators left Albuquerque for the weekend, but all are expected to regroup there Tuesday.
Whitmire last week continued to express frustration with the standoff.
"The problem is both sides are working toward their base and they don't want to make it look like they're blinking," Whitmire told the Houston Chronicle.
A Scripps Howard Texas Poll released last week showed Republicans support Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the redistricting battle, and Democrats are strongly backing the boycotting senators.
But the poll suggested that the populace as a whole is not happy with either side -- Texans oppose redistricting by a narrow margin but think the Democrats did the wrong thing by going to Albuquerque to stop it.
The same poll showed Perry's job approval rating dropped 6 percentage points since he called the first special session in June. Of those surveyed in early August, 48 percent disapproved of the job Perry is doing as governor, while 44 percent approved.
Perry said he was not worried because he tries to do "what is right" without fretting about a particular poll.
What Perry might fret about is an editorial in the Park Cities People Newspaper, a neighborhood newsletter for an affluent Republican area of Dallas that includes the home of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
"Won't you come home, Kay Bailey?" read the headline on an editorial urging Hutchison to return to Texas and challenge Perry in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary. It cites the redistricting standoff as a major cause of concern for Perry's leadership.
"The governor's political clumsiness has created a legislative crisis that leaves Texas unprepared and unarmed to fend for itself," the editorial said.
But while Perry's handling of redistricting may cause discomfort among the Republican elite, it apparently is playing well with the grass-roots members who vote in primaries. Perry received a positive job approval rating from 65 percent of the self-identified Republicans who responded to the Texas Poll.
Perry has said he will call a third special session on redistricting but has not said when.
One theory is that he wants to keep a low profile on the dispute until after the Sept. 13 constitutional amendment election. That ballot includes Proposition 12, a high-stakes measure on capping damage awards in medical malpractice lawsuits.
A high voter turnout in Democratic areas might threaten the proposition, which is being pushed hard by Republicans and by the insurance and health care industries and opposed by trial lawyers.
By not calling a third session, Perry is depriving opponents of a rallying point that might get Democrats out to vote against Proposition 12.
But for now, Proposition 12 is widely favored to pass. Perry is about to do television ads for its campaign, so he might be able to ride the coattails of success on the proposition to an improved public standing in the midst of the legislative stalemate.
It all leaves the Democrats with no easy way out.
"If Rick Perry is willing to call unlimited special sessions and use every means available, it (redistricting) would be difficult to stop," Whitmire said.
But can the Democrats just come home and declare victory, saying they did what they promised -- kill redistricting in the second special session?
"The group certainly does not seem to be headed in that direction," Whitmire said. "They seem much more dug in and defiant, probably more so now than when we came out here."
In the meantime, the senator who wanted to go home for the holiday said he plans to spend this Labor Day weekend reading and jogging.
His reading material includes the transcript of Kazen's remarks when the judge made the ruling that almost discouraged Whitmire enough to risk a trip home.
"I know now why guys in prison lift weights and run," Whitmire said. "You've got so much time on your hands."
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· Political districts usually are redrawn every 10 years to reflect population changes recorded in the U.S. Census.
· State lawmakers are charged with drawing U.S. House district lines. But a politically split Texas Legislature failed to do so after the 2000 census, so a federal court drew the districts now in effect.
· From those districts, Texas voters last year sent 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans to the U.S. House.
· Now that Republicans control the state Legislature, they are pushing for new districts that would boost the number of Republicans in the Texas congressional delegation to at least 20.
Something they'll have to get used to for a long, long time...
Is the redistricting bill eventually going to pass? If so, is there any way legally to get it in place for 2004 to screw the Dems?
Speaker of the TexasDem 11.
Lord only knows what will happen. All Perry has to do is get off his rear, call a 3rd special session, and vote. There's no "legally" about it; the vote would be legal even without the chicken rats because it's already been determined that the runaway was for nothing as the 2/3rds quorum was only a tradition and not legally binding. The senate could call a meeting and vote on anything with two members present if it wanted.
An order of protection my arse. They need their chicken feathers plucked and stuck back on with tar, very hot boiling tar. They are losing votes every day they stay away. I've personally been told by life long Democrats they'll never vote RAT again. The longer this goes on the more my taxe$ are going down the drain. There was also a HB pertaining to my family's income which has been lost because there was no vote and that wasn't the only business they've left unfinished. It's time Perry steps up to the plate and ends this thing. I don't care what it takes, arrest them and throw away the key.
Still, I did detect a tone of resignation in his writing today. I think he finally realizes that the Republicans are going to win.
Republicans will take a little damage too, but I think they have masterfully boxed the Dems in a corner this time, where as with the first walkout they appeared to be power grabbing fascists to the public.
Somewhere the Dems got too emboldened with their rhetoric, and when the bluff was called, they were unwilling to lay cards on the table.
I give the bill passage 50/50 at this point. But it really is not that important now. Problem for the Dems is that I suspect this "magic date" is most likely in the Spring sometime, and everyone knows it but they are still misleading and bluffing.
I think it would have been more appropriate if they had run to Hope, Ark. this time.
Let me try to set this straight. The objective is not to "screw the Dems".
The last time there was redistricting (1990) the RATs were in charge of the Texas legislature and did such an effective job of gerrymandering the districts that even now with a Republican majority both in the state's voters and in the legislature, the US congressional delegation from Texas is majority RAT.
The objective of this attempt at redistricting is to change the districts to a more reasonable map so that the representation from Texas is divided in approximately the same proportion as the actual voters in Texas.
This is not a try to "screw the Dems", this is giving the people of Texas a more representative congressional delegation.
The reality here is that the Dems are screwing the Texans.
The 'New Mexico 11' are still moaning....Moaning, singing, cackling ...
Texas RAT Liberals Run to Albuquerque !!
(To the tune of Locomotion)
Chicken D's Anthem
Click here or on the pic !
Oh well, they made the comparison. Can an army of Mexicans be found to storm the hotel and kill them to the last man (and woman...I want to see Van Poot go down) ?
Now, that said, you didn't answer my question: is this eventually going to pass, and if so, is there any way to pass it in time for 2004? Would it matter much if it goes into effect after 2004? What are we talking about---the shift of 1-2 seats?
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