Michael Ainsworth / DMN
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (center)
speaks at a press conference in Albuquerque
today as a number of Texas Senate Democrats
look on.
Texas senators stake ground in map battle07/29/2003
AUSTIN - Democratic and Republican senators dueled across the Texas-New Mexico state line Tuesday as each camp tried to score political points in the intensifying battle over congressional redistricting.
Republicans urged their Democratic colleagues to end their boycott and return from Albuquerque, N.M., to work on a fair redistricting plan.
"No Texas problem has ever been solved in New Mexico," said Sen. Todd Staples of Palestine, chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus.
But the 11 Senate Democrats who left the Capitol to break a quorum Monday just as Republican Gov. Rick Perry was about to call a second special legislative session gave no indication they would give in. The senators said they're prepared to remain out of state -- beyond the reach of Texas law officers sent to arrest them -- up to 30 days, the maximum length of a special session.
"There's nothing fair about a partisan redistricting effort that turns a deaf ear to the overwhelming majority of Texans and turns it back on the minority opportunity," Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said Tuesday at a news conference in New Mexico.
The Senate walkout comes less than three months after a similar move by House Democrats, who broke a quorum in their chamber and killed a redistricting bill by fleeing to Ardmore, Okla.
GOP-backed redistricting proposals could cause more than 1.4 million minorities in Texas to lose effective representation in Congress, Van de Putte said.
But Republicans denied that minority representation would be hurt under their plans. Staples, chief architect of the Senate's Republican proposals, said the maps would protect minority voting rights.
The Senate met briefly Tuesday, but without a quorum no business could be conducted. The Senate is to meet again Wednesday morning.
Across the Capitol, the House struggled to achieve a quorum, which means the presence of two-thirds of its 150 members. Once enough legislators showed up, the Republican-controlled House pushed through a redistricting bill, the same one the House adopted in the first special session over Democrats' objections.
Republicans want to gain a majority of the seats in the 32-member Texas congressional delegation. Democrats now hold a 17-15 edge and want to keep existing districts.
Democrats blocked a Senate vote on redistricting in the first special session because of rule requiring two-thirds of the 31-member chamber to agree to bring a bill up for debate. Eleven Democrats and one Republican opposed consideration, thwarting the measure.
In the new special session, Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is arranging the order of bills so that the two-thirds rule is not needed to bring up redistricting. That move, Democrats said, breaks Senate tradition and led to their walkout.
Van de Putte said the Democrats would return if Perry ends the second special session or Dewhurst reinstates the two-thirds rule.
"When either of these two requests are granted, we will be on the first flight home," Van de Putte said.
Dewhurst and Republican senators said no two-thirds rule has been used in the three other legislative sessions on redistricting that have occurred in the past 32 years.
Sen. Steve Odgen, R-Bryan, also said Democrats should return to address other important issues before the Legislature, notably a transportation bill that could provide for the appropriation of $231 million.
"Nobody in this state that I know of campaigned on the proposition that if you elect me I won't show up," Ogden said.
Dewhurst himself didn't speak publicly about the Democrats on Tuesday.
His spokesman, Dave Beckwith, said the lieutenant governor has been in contact with two of the absent Democrats. He declined to identify them or elaborate on the conversations.
"He's always willing to entertain compromise," Beckwith said. "They could come back now and have meaningful input."
On Monday, Dewhurst said he may consider hiring off-duty police officers to assist in returning the senators to the Capitol.
Beckwith said Tuesday he didn't know anything about "bounty hunters" that some Democrats said they heard might be after them. Beckwith wouldn't specify what actions the lieutenant governor is taking with regard to off-duty police officers or others to force the senators back to Austin.
"We're being deliberately vague about that at this point," Beckwith said, "because we are not going to telegraph what we are going to do in advance."
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