Van de Putte says she expects redistricting measure to pass

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The organizer of the Senate Democratic walkout said Sunday that she expects a third special session on congressional redistricting will be called and that the politically divisive measure eventually will become law.

Democratic Texas Sens. Frank Madla (from left), Leticia Van de Putte, Eddie Lucio and Judith Zaffirini and her son Carlos Jr. say a prayer before Mass. They were at Risen Savior Catholic Church in Albuquerque, N.M., on Sunday. Jerry Lara/Express-News

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, is greeted by Father Edward Rivera as Deacon Mark Bussemeier greets Sen. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, after Sunday Mass at Risen Savior Catholic Church in Albuquerque, N.M. Eleven of Texas' 12 Democratic state senators are on their seventh day away from Texas to avoid a special session called by Gov. Rick Perry. # Maverick Democrat goes his own way San Antonio Sen. Leticia Van de Putte made the surprising comment to a pair of hometown Republicans in a private morning meeting.

"She said there will be a third (session) and that they will very probably have a vote on a map that will pass," Joe Solis, a candidate for the Bexar County Republican Party chairmanship, said of his meeting with Van de Putte.

Van de Putte acknowledged the statements but added that "there are a whole lot of 'ifs' attached."

Solis and Jim McGrody, who founded and runs a GOP Internet-based political action committee from San Antonio, made the weekend "Van to Van de Putte Tour" to try to persuade her to return to Texas with them.

Along with the results of a poll conducted by McGrody on his southtexasrepublican.com Web site, the two came bearing treats. They brought empanadas from Van de Putte's favorite bakery, La Poblanita; her favorite brand of chips and salsa; flowers; and a balloon in the shape of a boot with Texas flag on it.

The poll consisted of an e-mail sent to the 6,000 Republicans who regularly visit the site. McGrody said there were 150 respondents, with 53 percent of those responding saying they favor redistricting and 40 percent in opposition.

Van de Putte, who as chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, planned and led the walkout to New Mexico, repeated her vow that the Texas 11 will remain here and kill any Senate redistricting effort during the current second special session.

Van de Putte's prediction of a third special session was predicated on several scenarios. They include "the Senate deciding to stay (in Austin), the House deciding to stay, the removal of the two-thirds rule," she said, and the settling of an internal Republican squabble between House Speaker Tom Craddick and Senate Jurisprudence committee chairman Robert Duncan of Lubbock.

Van de Putte referred to a clash between Duncan, who heads the Senate committee charged with producing a redrawn map, and Craddick, who has told legislators he wants a congressional district to be based in Midland, his hometown.

The district ,which includes Midland, currently is anchored in Lubbock. Duncan, a Lubbock native, wants to keep it there.

Van de Putte also referred to a longstanding Senate rule, known as the two-thirds rule, which allows 11 senators to block a bill from coming to the floor for debate. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst removed the rule to force Democrats to participate in the redistricting effort.

The Democrats decided instead to leave the state and are personally financing their stay in New Mexico, now seven days long, drawing on savings and officeholder accounts to pay the daily hotel and living expenses.

Van de Putte said she has taken out a loan against her life insurance policy to finance her stay here (about $200 a day) because she didn't feel it is right to take money out of the family budget.

Van de Putte was joined Sunday by three colleagues, Sens. Frank Madla of San Antonio, Eddie Lucio of Brownsville and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo, for Mass at Risen Savior Catholic Church. They were joined by members of Van de Putte's staff and Zaffirini's son, who spent the weekend visiting his mother.

Van de Putte became teary when relating how her eldest son, Henry, on Saturday announced to a religious retreat group in Kerrville his plans to become a lay minister, the first step to the priesthood.

The session was attended "by his best friends and by the entire family, except for his mother," she said. A legislative arrest warrant calls for Van de Putte, along with her AWOL colleagues, to be detained and returned to the Senate floor if they are found in Texas.

"The mommy in me said I should have been there," Van de Putte said. "But I can't."

Van de Putte was less sentimental when speaking to the Associated Press on Sunday about Gov. Rick Perry and Republican support in Washington for congressional redistricting in Texas.

"I don't know whose puppet strings are controlling which puppet at this point in the Republican Party," she said.

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt responded that Van de Putte is stooping to personal attacks to try to turn the issue away from the fact that the 11 senate Democrats "ran away from their responsibilities."

A few months ago, the President of our local New Braunfels Republican Women recommended a great email newsletter, called the “South Texas Republicans” (STR) published by James McGrody. Be sure and look at the website, which is an incredible resource with links to follow breaking news on politics and to contact your legislators and newspapers. http://www.southtexasrepublicans.com/ The South Texas Republicans were founded by Mr. McGrody and Joe Solis of San Antonio. I signed up and had been reading the newsletter for a while, so I knew how reliable their information and sources are and that we shared similar values and political views.

When the newsletter announced the ‘Van to Van de Putte” last week, I let them know that, although I’m not a constituent of any of the 11 rogue senators, I wanted to go with them to represent the millions of Texans whose legislative process is being held hostage in New Mexico by the Democrats. I also sent an email that I understood would be delivered to the Senators, to let them know that I’m in favor of redistricting and opposed to their actions. I met Mr. Solis, a constituent of Senator Leticia Van de Putte (whose family owns a pharmacy in San Antonio, and who is a pharmacist, herself) at the news conference sponsored by Republican House Representatives Mercer, Jones, Corte and my own Representative, Carter Casteel at Knolls Elementary in San Antonio last Wednesday.

We met at 7:00 Saturday morning, August 2, in San Antonio. Mr. Solis’ parents were there, as well as a couple of other supporters who could not make the trip with us and a reporter from the San Antonio TV station, WOAI, channel 4. We were featured on the WOAI news at 12 noon, 5 PM and 10 PM. Jim McGrody had 3 folders with the email replies to his website’s request for the opinion of Texans on the redistricting issue: 70 in favor of redistricting, 50 opposed, and a few (sorry, can’t remember how many) which seemed neutral.

Mr. Solis had been in touch with a member of Mrs. Van de Putte’s staff, and, although not certain, we were hopeful that we would be able to meet with her on Sunday morning. Mr. Solis and Mr. McGrody had rooms at another hotel in Albuquerque, but I was able to get a room in the Marriott Pyramid for half the rate that I’d heard the Senators were paying. The room was smaller than the one shown in pictures of the Senators in the media, but it was still very nice, and had a set up for morning coffee in the room, which I knew I would appreciate. Most of all, the room gave us a legitimate reason to be in the hotel.

When we arrived at the Marriott at 6:30 PM New Mexico time, after a 12 hour drive across Texas and New Mexico, Mr. Solis called the hotel operator and asked to be connected to the voice mail of Senator Van de Putte. He looked and sounded shocked when he realized that he had actually been connected to the Senator’s hotel room and that she had answered the phone herself. Joe explained who he was and mentioned that he had a gift from her hairdresser and empanadas from San Antonio. The Senator and Joe established that they had many acquaintances in common. Mrs. Van de Putte agreed to meet with us in my hotel room for a few minutes at 8:30 (New Mexico time). We went downstairs to unload the van, and eat a snack in the lobby bar. At about 8:15, I went up to the room with the yellow roses and Texas boot-shaped balloon and to order a pitcher of iced tea for the meeting.

When I got to my room, the phone was blinking. The message was from Senator Van de Putte, recorded just before 8 PM. She said that she had “a few minutes” to give us right then, and if we called back in the next 5 or 10 minutes, she would come down to talk to us. Otherwise, she’d meet us in the hotel restaurant for breakfast at 8 AM in the morning. I immediately called the hotel operator and asked to be connected to her room, but there was no answer. I went back down to the lobby to tell the guys the bad news, but Joe Solis had good news to tell me instead. He had been getting the last of the gifts from the van, and had run into the Senator in front of the elevators. She had assured him that she would meet with us in the morning at the hotel restaurant. We mentally crossed our fingers in hope, carried the San Antonio gifts up to my room, and the men left for their hotel.

Sunday morning, Joe and Jim were back at the Marriott at 7:30 AM, and we took the yellow roses, the balloon, a huge thermos labeled “Texas Tea Cup” (which made a great vase for the roses), several HEB bags full of chips and Pace Picante, a couple of boxes of empanadas (cookies), and the hairdresser’s gift all back downstairs and set them on and around our table (near the breakfast buffet - which I enjoyed, by the way.).

And then, we waited.

At 8:10 AM the Senator still hadn’t shown up and with a sense of déjà vu I went up to my room to check my voice mail. There were no blinking lights this time, so I went back downstairs where I found the men and the Senator sitting at the table.

Joe and Jim introduced me to the Senator, and I reminded her that we had been introduced before, since I had served as a Doctor for the Day at the Capitol 3 times this year, and 2 other times over the years. I explained that while Senator Jeff Wentworth is my Senator this session, in 1995 and 1999 Senator Judith Zaffirini had introduced me since at that time her district had included much of Comal County. I told her that I had come to represent the constituents of the Senators who had shown up for work last week and to let her know that I feel that she has stolen my vote by running away to prevent discussion of redistricting on the floor of the Texas Senate.

The Senator declined our offer to give her a ride back to Texas in our van because there was an arrest warrant out for her issued by the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate and allowed by the Constitution of the State of Texas for legislators who willfully refuse to attend the Senate or the House. I’ll admit that I did not know that an actual “arrest warrant” had been issued and said so, but she said that she could show me the faxed copy. (To me, that sounds like she knows she’s breaking the law.)

Senator Van de Putte disingenuously gave a long speech blaming the whole push to redistrict on a supposed feud between Republicans in the Washington House of Representatives, Tom DeLay and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, although she also blamed Governor Rick Perry. She claimed that Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst had told her that he is not in favor of redistricting, but felt political pressure from outside sources. She said that the Democrat and Republicans were all close friends and that the last thing she did before leaving Austin was to hug the Lieutenant Governor.

Her arguments in opposition to redistricting focused on the unfairness of the majority. She said “Anglo” so many times that I was tempted to mention my Cherokee ancestors in the hopes that she would think I had a legitimate voice in Texas politics. She also pointed out that many of the districts that had voted for President Bush, Senator Cornyn and Governor Perry had voted for Democratic Federal Congressional Representatives, but disagreed with me that this fact showed that the people would vote for the candidates they supported, regardless of redistricting. She said that many Latinos and other minorities feel that it doesn’t matter how they vote. I pointed out that shutting down the Senate of the State of Texas by breaking the quorum is more likely to re-enforce that feeling.

The Senator refused to engage in dialogue. Instead, she responded to any requests for clarification - especially any challenging questions - with “Do you want to let me finish?” and “Will you let me answer?” I stifled my inclination to point out that she was making speeches rather than talking with us. Once, she made a movement as though she would follow the current pattern of the Texas Democratic Party members and leave the table. It appears that the Senator’s ego is not up to true debate. Perhaps that’s because the Senator’s facts couldn’t withstand the scrutiny.

The Senator did allow me to take pictures of her with Mr. Solis and Mr. McGrody presenting her with the email messages http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/hocndoc.

As we all walked away from the table, we learned that several reporters were waiting to interview the Senator. They were very curious about who we were and why we were there. We were interviewed by a reporter from the San Antonio Express News, the AP, and a reporter from Harper’s magazine. The San Antonio paper has an article today that mentions Mr. Solis and Mr. McGrody (but not me!). Mr. McGrody has sent out an e-mail with pictures and a report. He does mention that I went along. As soon as it’s posted on the website, I’ll post that link.

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