WANTED IN TEXAS
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Posted on 05/12/2003 11:25:44 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
AUSTIN -- A group of Democratic lawmakers who threw the Legislature into turmoil when they went into hiding to block a Republican congressional redistricting plan turned up Monday evening in Ardmore, Okla.
House Speaker Tom Craddick announced in the state Capitol Monday night that most of the missing Democrats were at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore and that officers of the Texas Department of Public Safety were arriving to offer to escort them back to Austin.
More than 50 Democrats skipped the legislative session scheduled for Monday morning, depriving the body of the two-thirds majority required to conduct business. The tactic threatens to kill dozens of bills besides the redistricting measure, and possibly trigger a special session.
House rules allow for the arrest of members who thwart a quorum, although the act carries no other criminal or civil sanction. But Craddick, who earlier Monday had ordered the missing members arrested and returned to the Capitol, said the DPS officers did not have arrest authority in Oklahoma.
He said he was seeking federal assistance to arrest the lawmakers.
More than 90 House members agreed to spend the night in the Capitol in case enough Democrats returned to achieve the 100-member quorum required to conduct business.
But later Monday night, Craddick said the DPS reported that none of the Democrats agreed to return from Ardmore, and he dismissed House members present until 9 a.m. today.
In a phone interview with the Chronicle, state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said he was in Ardmore with several other Democrats from Harris, Fort Bend and Galveston counties.
Coleman said none of the legislators with him felt in danger of imminent arrest.
He said the lawmakers were working on budget-related legislation and other measures. "It's a serious mood," he said. "It's a mood that goes along with strong convictions."
The runaway Democrats planned a news conference for 1 p.m. today in Ardmore, Coleman said.
The legislative walkout erupted from months of growing tension that the Democrats described as the "tyranny of the majority," resulting from the Republican takeover of the House for the first time since Reconstruction. But Craddick said it was the Democrats who ended the era of bipartisan cooperation in Austin.
This is the third quorum-busting walkout in modern Texas history. The most famous was the "Killer Bee" episode in 1979 that killed a bill to change the party primary date.
The errant House Democrats issued a statement saying a walkout was the only way they could protect current congressional district lines from being changed solely for political reasons.
"We won't be present today -- or any day -- that the House plans to consider this outrageous partisan action," the Democratic statement said.
But Craddick described the Democrats as sore losers now that they are in the minority.
"How do you think the Republicans felt for the last 130 years?" Craddick said.
"I've been in the House for 35 years and I've lost some, but I've never walked off the floor like these Chicken D's."
Among the Democrats in hiding is Craddick's predecessor as speaker, Rep. Pete Laney, D-Hale Center.
Eight of Harris County's 11 Democratic representatives participated in the walkout. Reps. Al Edwards, Sylvester Turner and Ron Wilson did not.
Turner said he stayed mostly because he is one of two Democrats on the House-Senate conference committee that is writing the final version of the state budget, and that it was more important to fight budget cuts than to walk out over redistricting.
But Turner said he was sympathetic with his Democratic colleagues frustration over the redistricting bill.
Turner, who is expected to announce as a candidate for Houston mayor, said the politics of that race did not figure into his decision to stay in Austin. He said opponents could turn his actions against him whether he joined the quorum-busting Democrats or stayed in Austin.
While the walkout was designed to kill the redistricting bill, it also was killing dozens of other House bills. One measure in jeopardy was a government reorganization bill that would have created $227 million in savings to help balance the state's budget.
Without a budget, Gov. Rick Perry would be forced to call a special legislative session. He called the walkout a "childish prank."
"These legislators have been elected and paid to come to work by hard-working Texans," Perry said. "They are asked to work for 140 days every two years -- not hide out because they don't like the way the debate is going."
The walkout was triggered by a congressional redistricting plan being promoted by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. The plan would give Republicans an opportunity to win four to seven seats now held by Democrats and erase the Democrats' 17-15 congressional delegation majority.
Craddick and his lieutenants have been power-driving the plan through the House process during the past two weeks. A floor vote was set for Monday, and the bill was expected easily to pass the House with its 88-62 Republican majority.
"This misbegotten plan is a monument to Tom DeLay's ego," the Democrats said in their statement. "No one benefits more than Tom DeLay. He believes he should choose who represents Texas in Congress, not the Texas voters."
Jim Ellis, a political aide to DeLay who advised House Republicans on how to draw the new maps, said the Democrats were operating in the interest of the national party rather than the state.
"It's unconscionable for them to shut the House down on their narrow partisan agenda, clearly on orders from Democrat leaders in Washington and San Francisco," Ellis said in a reference to U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.
Even if the redistricting bill gets out of the House, it may still face problems in the Senate.
Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, said Monday he has a dozen senators committed to blocking Senate debate. Senate rules require that two-thirds of members present vote to debate -- 21 votes if all 31 senators are present.
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said the House walkout may give wavering Democratic senators the courage of their convictions if the plan gets out of the House.
"It may help to give us a bit more backbone," Ellis said.
DeLay believes the Texas congressional districts should match voting patterns that have given the GOP control of the legislature and every statewide office.
"What's at stake here is the most effective and accurate representation for Texans," DeLay said Monday. "Republicans are the majority party in both Washington and Austin and are best able to deliver on Texans' priorities and represent their beliefs."
The House partisan meltdown occurred less than three years after then-Gov. George W. Bush successfully campaigned for president with a theme of bringing Texas' bipartisan working relationship to Washington.
"The Democrats did a great job of dividing the House," Craddick said, contending that Republicans were cooperative when they were in the state House minority, and that Democrats have not been.
But Democrats said the blame falls on Craddick and the Republican-dominated House, which has run over the Democrats time and again on issues such as state spending and putting caps on lawsuit damage awards. Republicans mostly refused to debate the Democrats on the budget, voting down one Democratic amendment after another.
"Redistricting was the last in a series of outrageous, iron-fisted power plays by Speaker Tom Craddick," said state Democratic Chairwoman Molly Beth Malcolm. "If Mr. Craddick wants to know who caused this, he should look in the mirror."
The legislative walkout apparently is the largest in Texas history. Forty-two House members shut the chamber down for an hour with a 1991 walkout to get a commitment from then-Gov. Ann Richards to help them restore funding in the state budget for prekindergarten programs.
Kim Jung Il has to be taking note. Texas Rangers being sent out to hunt down wayward legislators sends out a loud and clear message: Texans are serious! Don't mess with Texans!
Bump!!
Any other differences aside, I have to admire these Republicans in the Texas House. They're putting their cojones, and the rest of their carcasses, on the line -- literally -- to try to get past the effects of this tantrum.
Unlike the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, who for months have refused to do a single "overnight," to keep the Democrats who want to obstruct votes on judges actually talking! Some "filibuster"!
I don't think so. The stupid Idaho House (Republican) should have staged a similar walkout instead of letting Kempthorne (Republican) beat them into raising taxes. (They talked about it and then wimped out.)
I'm really annoyed with Republicans at the moment.
If they can’t show up for their duty, we can’t pay our taxes.
I hope the Texas Republicans start playing real hardball with these clowns.
Smiley N. Pool / Chronicle Rep. Joe Moreno of Houston, one of 51 Democratic lawmakers who walked out of the Texas House of Representatives Monday, makes a phone call from beside the pool at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore, OK, Tuesday.
House to stay shut, absentees vow***But Woolley said if Republicans surrender on redistricting, they empower the Democrats to do this again on other bills. The partisan wrangling played out rhetorically as Democrats called their legislators the "Killer D's," while Republicans referred to them as "Chicken D's." Two women dressed as chickens picketed the Capitol's south steps.***
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