House passes remap
Veteran Democrats may lose seats if bill goes through Senate Excerpt from post #10:
Frustrated House Democrats said they couldn't stop the bill as they did in May when 51 of them fled to Ardmore, Okla., for four days.
"This is fruitless," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, as he watched Democratic supporters use sock puppets in the House gallery to ridicule Republican speakers and their relationship to U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, who backs redistricting. "I wish I was in Ardmore."
The battle will shift to the Senate, where a dozen Democrats could potentially block its consideration – if they stick together and the GOP majority doesn't jettison a long-standing procedural rule. Republicans hold 19 Senate seats, two short of the two-thirds majority required before a bill can be brought up.
If the Senate considers redistricting, it would probably amend the House plan.
For instance, Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, said last week that he couldn't "support any plan that could result in someone from the Dallas-Fort Worth area representing northeast Texas." Under the House plan, as many as four districts with pieces of rural northeast Texas could be dominated by the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs.
The plan that Republicans were poised to push through the House could force retirement for up to six white Democratic incumbents, including Ralph Hall of Rockwall and Chet Edwards of Waco.
Under the existing districting setup, Democrats last fall won 17 of Texas' 32 congressional seats. But Mr. King said Republicans could win up to 21 seats under the House plan.
During the debate, Democrats invoked Nazi Germany, South Africa's former apartheid system, Liberia's civil war and Mexican general Santa Anna as they strained to underscore how deeply they oppose the plan.
"Mr. Speaker and members, democracy was destroyed in Liberia," said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, who said he supports President Bush's decision to send U.S. military advisers to the war-torn West African nation.
"The people's voice was not being heard, and we as defenders of democracy have a duty to fix it," he said. "The people of Texas have spoken, and it's very clear to me: The people do not want new congressional lines."
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