AP
Texas Senators Eliot Shapleigh, Mario Gallegos and
Gonzalo Barrientos are joined by Fla. Sen. Frederica
Wilson at a Monday news conference in Hollywood, Fla.
Posted on 09/09/2003 5:58:42 AM PDT by Dog Gone
Senator says they won't come back to Austin until quorum achieved
The renegade Texas Democrats decided late Monday to leave the New Mexico hotel that they've made their home for the last six weeks and to come back to the state for a court hearing Thursday before returning to their homes.
"We will say goodbye to the great people of New Mexico, probably on Wednesday, and then we will be in court on Thursday" in Laredo, said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic caucus.
The runaway senators had vowed to stay out of Texas until another redistricting session was called and a quorum established on the Senate floor. However, Ms. Van de Putte said, the decision last week of Houston Democrat John Whitmire to return to Texas changed the other Democrats' thinking.
They will still stay out of Austin until Mr. Whitmire helps the Republicans reach the 21-member quorum needed to do business but will return to their families in Texas, she said.
"We're not at risk of being captured," Ms. Van de Putte said.
Meanwhile, in Austin, Gov. Rick Perry met Monday with Republican leaders to plan another special session on the issue amid one remaining obstacle – getting agreement among the Republicans themselves.
At issue is a squabble between House and Senate Republicans over the shape of a West Texas congressional district that currently includes Midland and Lubbock.
Sen. Robert Duncan of Lubbock wants to keep the district largely intact. House Speaker Tom Craddick wants new boundaries in which Midland has its own district.
"There is no deal on West Texas," Craddick spokesman Bob Richter said Monday after a meeting of the state's top three GOP officials. Mr. Craddick, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst met for about an hour in the governor's office.
Mr. Dewhurst said only that the governor could summon the Legislature back into a third special legislative session as early as this week, but he cautioned that the House and Senate still needed to break the deadlock over new congressional boundaries.
The Republican lieutenant governor predicted that lawmakers, who failed to draw a new map during a regular session and two 30-day special sessions, will return soon and complete the task of redrawing congressional boundaries. He said the session should last no longer than two to three weeks.
"I think we're going to reach agreement on a whole map" before the governor summons lawmakers back into special session, he said. "That's my goal."
Democrats have stymied Mr. Perry's efforts to force the Legislature to redraw congressional boundaries to boost the number of Republicans in the state's 32-member delegation. Democrats have 17 seats, and Republicans 15. Republicans hope to pick up at least five new seats in next year's elections under a new map.
Over the weekend, two of the Democratic senators zipped in and out of Texas for family visits.
News accounts back home quoted two as saying the group would make a "barnstorming tour" of Texas this week or next week if that is when Mr. Perry calls another special session on redistricting.
Mr. Whitmire's return gives the Republicans the quorum they need to consider and pass a new congressional map.
The Democrats say that Mr. Dewhurst violated minorities' voting rights in late July when he chose in the redistricting flap to dispense with a Senate rule in use since the 1950s. The rule says two-thirds of the senators must agree to debate a bill before it can be heard.
The Democrats say Mr. Dewhurst and the Senate needed to obtain federal approval for the change in parliamentary procedure because it could propel to passage a map they say would dilute the voting power of 1.4 million black and Hispanic Texans.
Republicans hold 19 of the Senate's 31 seats – two short of the 21 needed to take up a map if the two-thirds rule is followed.
The governor has indicated it is time for the Senate to end the two-thirds tradition and simply go by majority rule.
Mr. Whitmire said a big reason he returned to Texas was worry over loss of the rule, which he said would leave Democrats with no voice on education, the state budget, health care and abortion.
On Monday, three Texas senators visited South Florida to say Republicans have shown a "national pattern of abuse of power" by trying to scrap Democratic congressional districts and overturn elections the GOP lost.
Texas state Sens. Mario Gallegos, Eliot Shapleigh and Gonzalo Barrientos were joined by several Florida Democratic legislators, who wore small Texas flag pins.
Monday's visit comes one day before President Bush visits Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale. Other senators spoke at a similar event Monday in Philadelphia.
"We're here to tell the story of recount, recall and re-redistricting, the new three R's of Republican extremism," said Mr. Shapleigh, of El Paso.
Mr. Shapleigh said that the recount in Florida during the 2000 presidential election, redistricting conflicts in Colorado and Texas and the California gubernatorial recall are all troubling examples of Republicans trying to make power grabs in several states.
The Democrats said they are trying to expose involvement of the president, presidential adviser Karl Rove and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in the Texas redistricting battle.
Some of the runaway senators have begun shipping personal effects home to Texas, and staff members to the Democrats have been seen carrying boxes into the hotel, although they said they simply were trying to organize all of the gifts and food items that supporters have sent the lawmakers.
As usual, the 'rats are LYING. There is a senate rule that requires a two-thirds vote to take up business out of order. a tradition, not a rule, has been to have an innocuous bill at the head of the agenda, thus requiring a two-thirds vote to get around the "blocker" bill. This tradition has been disregarded numerous times in senate history, including on the issue of redistricting.
'rats are by nature, liars.
Mr Whitmire, you shouldn't be too concerned as you can still count on RINO's like Bill RATliff and his ilk. There are several "closet" RINO's you can still count on.
"We're here to tell the story of recount, recall and re-redistricting, the new three R's of Republican extremism," said Mr. Shapleigh, of El Paso.
"We're here to tell the story of Distort, Delay and Deny, the new three D's of Democrat extreme liberalism," said Mr. Shapleigh, of El Paso.
And they will tell that story using the three D's of Democratic extremism… deceit, demagoguery and divisiveness.
Texas state Sens. Mario Gallegos, Eliot Shapleigh and Gonzalo Barrientos were joined by several Florida Democratic legislators, who wore small Texas flag pins.
Wish I would have known. I was in South Florida Monday Morning and could have freeped my own Runaway Rat Senator.
Yep !Here is a list of recent articles on Redistricting:
FR Search: Keyword "Redistricting"
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.
07-19-2003
[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.07-15-2003
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.
Thanks, DG ! ...
AP
Texas Senators Eliot Shapleigh, Mario Gallegos and
Gonzalo Barrientos are joined by Fla. Sen. Frederica
Wilson at a Monday news conference in Hollywood, Fla.
Renegade. I like that.
renegade
adj : having deserted a cause or principle; "some provinces had proved recreant"; "renegade supporters of the usurper" [syn: recreant]
n 1: someone who rebels and becomes and outlaw [syn: turncoat]
2: a disloyal person who forsakes his cause or religion or political party or friend etc. [syn: deserter, apostate, recreant]
v : break with established customs [syn: rebel]
hehe ! Yep. I was surprised when I saw The Dallas Morning News use 'renegade'
in the first sentence (or anywhere in the article, for that matter) ...
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