Thanks for the post and ping !
bttt for later read !
Posted on 07/19/2003 9:52:08 AM PDT by deport
Senators talk of boycotting any redistricting session07/19/2003
AUSTIN – Democratic senators sent their strongest signal yet Friday that they might boycott a potential second special session on congressional redistricting, much like their House colleagues did in May.
"If there are sufficient numbers to break a quorum, then I'll be a part of breaking it," said Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. "I'm sure other members, including Republicans, feel the same way."
Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, said he was willing to spend weeks in hiding, which might be necessary to sustain a boycott until redistricting is defeated.
"I've spent time in the firehouse for 30 days," said Mr. Gallegos, a former firefighter. "I can."
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, meanwhile, held out the possibility of a series of special sessions lasting through the summer, even into September, if Democratic senators refuse to strike a deal on a new congressional map more favorable to Republicans.
And he said any further sessions would be run on terms more favorable to the GOP.
"I'm committed to having a fair plan, whether we're talking about July, August or September," said Mr. Dewhurst, a Republican.
Gov. Rick Perry hasn't tipped his hand on whether he would keep lawmakers at work if they fail to agree on new district boundaries in the special session, which began June 30. Only the governor may call a special legislative session. A special session can last no longer than 30 days.
The White House and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, have pushed for swift action by the Legislature on redistricting in hopes that the new map could be used for next year's congressional elections. Democrats have a 17-15 edge in the state's delegation.
Mr. Perry called the special session to take up redistricting after a Democratic boycott in the House killed the issue in the regular legislative session that ended June 2.
The House has passed its version of a new map, but Senate Republicans lack the two-thirds majority needed to bring the issue up for consideration in the 31-member Senate.
Other bills would be parked ahead of the remap legislation, and the GOP doesn't have the 21 votes needed to suspend the rules and take up the bill out of order.
However, Mr. Dewhurst vowed that in a second special session, redistricting would be the Senate's first order of business – meaning that only 16 senators would be needed to take up and pass the measure. The GOP holds a 19-12 majority in the Senate.
But Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said that if the lieutenant governor abandons the Senate's usual operating procedures, "We would have to react."
"The options are showing up, getting rolled over – or having to leave to not have a quorum," she said.
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.
But Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the Senate's longest-serving member, said senators in 1992 "started out in agreement" on rules. "We didn't run over anybody," he said.
Mr. Dewhurst met with Democratic senators and urged them not to stage a boycott. He declined to say whether he would try to use law officers to bring back senators if they refused to participate.
E-mail gjeffers@dallasnews.com or rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
July 19, 2003, 12:55AM
Dewhurst warns Dems: cooperate or face defeat
Says 2nd session would be uphill road
By R.G. RATCLIFFE and CLAY ROBISON
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin BureauAUSTIN -- Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Friday that Democrats can negotiate on congressional redistricting now or suffer inevitable defeat with less bargaining power in a second special session.
"We're going to come together. It may be in August. I hope it is in July," Dewhurst said.
But Dewhurst's hard line prompted new questions about whether Democratic senators might deny a quorum to halt a special session.
"That's up to each senator, but we have not made any decisions. All options are open," said Sen. Leticia Van De Putte, D-San Antonio, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Fifty-five Democratic state representatives drew international attention in May when they fled the Capitol to break the House quorum and kill a congressional redistricting bill in the regular session.
The lieutenant governor made clear that he expects Gov. Rick Perry to call a second special session if the current one fails to produce a new map of congressional district boundaries favoring Republicans.
Dewhurst said once a second session begins, he will not allow the use of a "blocker" bill -- a long-standing Senate practice that empowers the chamber's minority by requiring a two-thirds vote to open debate.
A blocker is an insignificant bill placed at the top of the Senate agenda. Because rules require that bills be considered in agenda order, debate on legislation behind the blocker bill requires a two-thirds vote to suspend rules.
That means 11 of the 31 members can block debate on a bill if all are in attendance. At present, 11 Democrats and one Republican in the Senate have pledged to vote against debate.
If, in a second special session, Dewhurst placed redistricting first on the agenda without a blocking bill, a simple majority could bring it to the floor for debate.
Dewhurst said he has precedent for that. He noted that then-Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock did not use a blocker bill when the Senate debated redistricting in a 1992 special legislative session.
"I feel obliged to follow the Bullock precedent and put redistricting first," Dewhurst said.
The 1992 special session was intended to set aside a state Senate redistricting plan ordered by a Republican federal court. Democrats pushed through a plan on a partisan 18-12 vote, with three Democrats joining the Republican minority.
Republican senators did not publicly object to the Senate procedures during that special session, which occurred in the middle of candidate filing for the primaries.
The federal court rejected the Senate's map and ordered its own map used for the election. That map gave Republicans four additional state Senate seats.
Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby also tried to avoid a blocker bill in the 1979 regular session to pass legislation creating a presidential primary favorable to the Republican presidential bid of former Gov. John Connally. Twelve Democrats, who became known as the Killer Bees, broke the Senate quorum to kill the bill.
Dewhurst noted that when Hobby threatened to remove the blocker bill in a 1989 special session on workers' compensation insurance, he broke a deadlock and launched negotiations that resulted in passage of a bill.
He said he hopes the same thing occurs this year on congressional redistricting.
"We're engaged in conversation. We have a great tradition of working together in the Senate," Dewhurst said.
He said he also feels confident that the Democrats will not walk out on a second special session.
"We're not going down that road," Dewhurst said. "I expect all of our Democrat senators will work together and we won't be facing the lack of a quorum."
One potential face-saving option for the opponents would be to vote "present and not voting" on the question of bringing a redistricting bill to the floor for debate in this special session. That would allow the Senate majority to pass the bill and avoid a second special session, while the opposition would not have a record of voting for it.
"No decisions have been made at the caucus level," Van de Putte said.
Dewhurst said all he wants is a "fair" redistricting plan. He said that would result in Republicans holding 19 or 20 of the state's congressional seats, "plus Ralph Hall."
Hall, D-Rockwall, frequently votes for President Bush's Republican agenda.
Democrats now hold a 17-15 majority in the state's congressional delegation. Republicans argue that because they hold all the state elective offices and a majority in the Legislature, they also should have a congressional delegation majority.
A map passed by the state House probably would give the GOP 21 seats in the U.S. House. A proposed Senate plan could give the GOP as many as 22 U.S. House seats.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, offered the Senate Jurisprudence Committee another option Friday.
It likely would defeat as many as five incumbent Democratic congressmen, but it would guarantee only 16 Republican and 13 Democratic seats, while three districts would be Republican-leaning but competitive.
"We shouldn't have a map that has 22 Republican districts to only 10 Democratic districts, because this state is not a 70 percent Republican state. It's about 55 to 60 (percent Republican)," Wentworth said.
If at first they don't succeed . . .
Whether now or later, new map will pass, Dewhurst contends
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, July 18, 2003
Congressional redistricting might simmer through a long, hot summer.
Trying to entice redistricting opponents to cut a deal, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Friday escalated his rhetoric about the inevitability of redrawing the state's congressional map to favor Republicans over Democrats.
"We're either going to come up with a fair plan now or we're going to come up with a fair plan later," Dewhurst said at a news conference. "It may be in August. It may be in September, but we will come together."
Looming over the standoff in the Senate are two prospects. Gov. Rick Perry could continue to recall state lawmakers to redraw the congressional map until a bill is passed. Or the dozen senators who have vowed to oppose redistricting could kill debate this special session, then fail to show up to establish a quorum at a second special session so the Senate could not conduct business.
Both sides are trying to keep their rhetoric cool, not hot.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio and chairwoman of the Senate Democrats, said the dozen senators who signed a letter opposing redistricting remain firm in their opposition.
In May, 52 House Democrats fled the state to block a House vote on a redistricting map. Speaker Tom Craddick dispatched the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest the boycotting lawmakers. They failed because the members were out of state and out of the reach of officers.
The boycott, however, focused national attention on the redistricting issue and cemented hard feelings in the Texas House.
Perry called a special 30-day legislative session on June 30 to reconsider the issue. The House has passed a map, but senators continue to be deadlocked.
Asked if he would dispatch law enforcement officers to arrest boycotting senators, Dewhurst said, "We're not going to go down that road."
Likewise, Van de Putte refused to say whether the Senate's redistricting opponents would actually boycott.
"No one wants to go to any extremes," she said. "We are continuing to dialogue. To be sure, the governor needs to understand we're immovable."
At issue is a Senate tradition that bills be debated in the order they are passed from committee. An insignificant bill is parked at the top of the calendar, and it takes a two-thirds vote to debate any bill out of order. Thus, 11 senators can block a bill from being debated on the floor.
Dewhurst has said he will honor that tradition during this special session, which ends this month. But he said all bets are off for any future special session the governor might call.
Meanwhile, the Senate Jurisprudence Committee heard testimony Friday from a mostly polite, orderly crowd. Most of the people objected to any redistricting. Republicans argue that their supporters are not showing up at the public hearings because GOP voters elected a Republican majority in the Legislature to represent their wishes.
Democrats have won 17 of the state's 32 congressional districts under a map drawn by federal judges when the Legislature deadlocked on the issue two years ago.
Democrats say that should be the end of it. The state's GOP leadership, encouraged by the White House and U.S. Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, argue that the GOP is the state's majority party and is entitled to new districts that allow Republicans to win 20 or more of the congressional seats in the 2004 election.
Van de Putte said she thinks a series of special sessions on the issue will backfire.
"I think at some point, the people of Texas will say this is a waste of taxpayers' money," she said.
Thanks for the post and ping !
bttt for later read !
From the first article: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.
But Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the Senate's longest-serving member, said senators in 1992 "started out in agreement" on rules. "We didn't run over anybody," he said.
So what's Whitmire saying then? Bipartisanship only works ONE way ? The GOP will work with the 'RATS when the 'RATS hold the edge, but not vice-versa ?!?!?
AND, it's ok for the 'RATS to break precedent on the 2/3rd's rule, but the GOP better NOT do that ???
Man !! Am I reading that correctly ???
Here is a list of recent articles on Redistricting:FR Search: Keyword "Redistricting"
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.07-18-2003
New map, same pain for Dems
(Texas Redistricting fun)
07-17-2003
New map surfacing in Texas Senate
07-16-2003
Dewhurst at crossroads on redistricting in Texas Senate
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 1992.07-09-2003
DROP IT -- Redistricting would benefit few Texans, harm many
(Editorial)
07-08-2003
Senators have problems with House redistricting map - Texas redistricting
07-08-2003
House passes remap
Veteran Democrats may lose seats if bill goes through Senate
Above article is worthy of showing that a picture indeed is worth a thousand words:
First the Chicken D’s run away to Ardmore, Oklahoma. That didn’t work, so here they are,
still having a fit during the Redistricting debate:07-07-2003
TEXAS REDISTRICTING--Vote TONIGHT!
07-07-2003
Race rhetoric stokes Texas redistricting fire
07-07-2003
Tension may soar as map debate hits House floor - Texas redistricting
07-06-2003
House panel quickly passes Republican redistricting plan -
map likely to unseat six Democrats
07-04-2003
New GOP map restores (Rep. Martin Frost's) district
07-03-2003
Republicans pull proposed map - redistricting
07-03-2003
Chamber of Commerce and GI Forum Hire Temps to Testify
07-02-2003
The Great Texas Power Grab - redistricting
07-01-2003
Tx Democrats Trying Fight, Not Flight, Over Districts
(The-Terrific-Texan-Special-Session)
My faith in Dewhurst is somewhat renewed by this news. Republicans have to USE the rules to our advantage just like the cowardly Rats ABUSE the rules to theirs. The Dems and the media will make a big stink and cry no matter what; we might as well get what is equitable done. Maybe Dewhurst's statement will get Armbrister and Madla or Lucio aboard on one of the less ambitious maps, like Wentworth's (as compared to the regular session or this session's House map). I'd be alright with that.
Showing people the law that the Texas demoncrats are breaking will show how anti-American their partisan acts are. Although some people will never see the light.
They can't hide forever. These folks are paid only a token salary to begin with, and they have to get back to their real jobs eventually.
The Rats will lose this battle. The question is whether it will be gracefully or ugly.
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