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Van de Putte says she expects redistricting measure to pass
San Antonio Express News ^ | August 4, 2003 | Guillermo X. Garcia

Posted on 08/04/2003 1:11:49 PM PDT by hocndoc

Van de Putte says she expects redistricting measure to pass

By Guillermo X. Garcia Express-News Austin Bureau

Web Posted : 08/04/2003 12:00 AM

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.

Both said she politely declined the offer.

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.

"You'd agree that's a lot of ifs," she noted.

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."

ggarcia@express-news.net

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

08/04/2003


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New Mexico; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: chickends; newmexico; redistricting; texas
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To: Flyer
You bet, FRiend! My pleasure...

61 posted on 08/04/2003 6:03:15 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Coming Soon !: Freeper site on Comcast. Found the URL. Gotta fix it now.)
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To: My back yard
Hey ! I oughta apply for that job !! It looks real, and legitimate. Cool!


62 posted on 08/04/2003 6:09:16 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Coming Soon !: Freeper site on Comcast. Found the URL. Gotta fix it now.)
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To: My back yard
Yes he could. And btw, I added that Texas GOP site to my favorites . . .

63 posted on 08/04/2003 6:15:15 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Coming Soon !: Freeper site on Comcast. Found the URL. Gotta fix it now.)
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To: MeeknMing
TAXPAYER FUNDS AND BENEFITS
SENATORS CONTINUE TO RECEIVE

Salary $600.00/mo
Health insurance* $300.27/mo
Retirement $36.00/mo
Social Security $37.20/mo
Medicare $8.70/mo

Total per senator $982.17/mo
Total for all 11 $10,803.87/mo

SOURCE: Senate Payroll Office, Employee Retirement System
64 posted on 08/04/2003 6:17:30 PM PDT by My back yard (I am on my home computer now and suffering the dial up. Can't wait this long!!)
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To: My back yard
That's hilarious.
I've read and heard several people wish for this.
65 posted on 08/04/2003 6:21:05 PM PDT by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: My back yard
I'd read that the Senators had refused their per diem, but continue to draw their salaries.
66 posted on 08/04/2003 6:23:46 PM PDT by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: MeeknMing
Thanks for the ping, M&M!
67 posted on 08/04/2003 6:37:54 PM PDT by potlatch (If you want breakfast in bed - - - sleep in the kitchen!)
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To: potlatch; My back yard; Flyer; CindyDawg; Gary Seven; Dog Gone; Trajan88
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/958161/posts
Did y'all see this one?
68 posted on 08/04/2003 7:15:31 PM PDT by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: potlatch
You bet !
69 posted on 08/04/2003 7:20:59 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Coming Soon !: Freeper site on Comcast. Found the URL. Gotta fix it now.)
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To: hocndoc
Thanks for the link, I read it.
70 posted on 08/04/2003 7:22:00 PM PDT by potlatch (If you want breakfast in bed - - - sleep in the kitchen!)
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To: CindyDawg
LOL, I bumped our Lone Star Chat thread a few days ago, it has totally gone to sleep!!
71 posted on 08/04/2003 7:24:42 PM PDT by potlatch (If you want breakfast in bed - - - sleep in the kitchen!)
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To: potlatch
Decided that instead of chasing everyone down, I would just wait to be pinged. Waited and waited and...... :')
72 posted on 08/04/2003 7:53:47 PM PDT by CindyDawg
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To: CindyDawg
LOL, went to sleep too, huh??
73 posted on 08/04/2003 7:57:12 PM PDT by potlatch (If you want breakfast in bed - - - sleep in the kitchen!)
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To: hocndoc
Also ou may want to add to the biography of VandePutte that her husband was the Band Director @ Thomas Jefferson High School were she graduated whose family had a business, THE DIXIE FLAG COMPANY. He has been involved and a part of that business since they married. So don't bring out the violins for VanDePutte's finances. She does very well for herself with 2 family business's and well enough to send her children to Private schools.

Back about 5 yrs ago a team of us went to lobby for school choice, vouchers etc... and we lobbied her because I know her personally as I went to high school with her. Of course lobbying a politician whose childrend go to private schools and who is against school choice is kind of a no brainer. She tried telling me that she retunred and lives in the old neighborhood that she grew up in as she wanted her children to know the simple life, and I asked, OH SO YOUR CHILDREN GO TO THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH LIKE YOU?, knowing they didn't and she sputtered, and admitted they didn't.

74 posted on 08/04/2003 8:21:52 PM PDT by GUIDO
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To: GUIDO
A BUMP TO THE TOP!!!!
75 posted on 08/04/2003 8:37:59 PM PDT by GUIDO
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To: GUIDO
That is truly arrogant and hypocritical.
76 posted on 08/04/2003 8:53:50 PM PDT by MEG33
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To: GUIDO
She told us the story of dating Roy Barrerra, the current Republican Chairman of Bexar County, as a favor to a sorority sister, while she was at the University of Texas at Austin. She said it was a disaster and that she later nominated him for the worst kisser on campus.

77 posted on 08/04/2003 9:16:35 PM PDT by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: Cathryn Crawford
One good ping deserves another or "What I did on my summer vacation."
78 posted on 08/04/2003 9:33:21 PM PDT by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: hocndoc
If you have seen Roy Barrera and seen her husband, well I know looks aren't everything but.........

Roy is not a bad looking guy at all, I don't know about his kissing but he has brains. Coming from a staunch democratic family he was the first to register Republican and his brother Bobby is also a Republican now or as of 3-4yrs ago he was.

79 posted on 08/04/2003 9:49:54 PM PDT by GUIDO
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To: MEG33
is truly arrogant and hypocritical.

I am assuming that you are talking about her being against school vouchers /choice and then sending her children to private school? If so then you need to check it out, most politicians that are not for choice usually have their children in private schools.

80 posted on 08/04/2003 9:53:50 PM PDT by GUIDO
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