Our heroes!
Texas State Senators in Exile Fear Arrest
By the Associated Press - In the NY Times.
Texas Senate Democrats who stymied Republican redistricting plans by fleeing to New Mexico may not be returning home any time soon, despite running down the clock on the special legislative session.The 30-day limit on the latest session expired Tuesday and Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry said he was prepared to call yet another special session to get the issue resolved, though he would not say when.
If they re-enter Texas, the 11 Senate Democrats now in Albuquerque said they feared being arrested and hauled back to the capitol should Perry call another session. Senate rules allow for the arrest of members who intentionally thwart a quorum.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said she and the 10 other Democrats are prepared to stay away another 30 days, the maximum length of a special session.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Laredo declined to rule on a related matter, the Democratic senators' federal lawsuit alleging that the GOP had violated their constitutional rights and the Voting Rights Act...
Republicans, who control the Texas House and Senate, have been trying to redraw the state's political lines to increase the number of Republicans in Congress.
Democrats have a 17-15 majority in the Texas delegation and have said the current map should not be changed. They argue that proposals before the GOP-dominated Legislature this year would have hurt minority representation.
Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Texas-Redistricting.html
Texas State Senators in Exile Fear Arrest
The Associated Press
Wednesday 27 August 2003
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Texas Senate Democrats who stymied Republican redistricting plans by fleeing to New Mexico may not be returning home any time soon, despite running down the clock on the special legislative session.
The 30-day limit on the latest session expired Tuesday and Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry said he was prepared to call yet another special session to get the issue resolved, though he would not say when.
If they re-enter Texas, the 11 Senate Democrats now in Albuquerque said they feared being arrested and hauled back to the capitol should Perry call another session. Senate rules allow for the arrest of members who intentionally thwart a quorum.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said she and the 10 other Democrats are prepared to stay away another 30 days, the maximum length of a special session.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Laredo declined to rule on a related matter, the Democratic senators' federal lawsuit alleging that the GOP had violated their constitutional rights and the Voting Rights Act.
At a hearing, U.S. District Judge George Kazen said he would refer the case a three-judge federal panel. He said he doesn't think the Voting Rights Act applies in the case, but said the issues raised by the 11 senators have enough merit to let the larger panel consider them.
Some of the senators had planned to attend the Laredo hearing but decided late Tuesday not to cross the state line amid mounting rumors that Republicans might try to get them arrested, said Harold Cook, a consultant for the Democrats.
``They haven't come this far to be lured into a trap,'' he said.
Perry didn't discount Democrats' concerns about being arrested in Texas. ``I guess that is a legitimate concern, I suppose. If they don't want to be here working then I don't think the lieutenant governor has any other options.''
Republicans, who control the Texas House and Senate, have been trying to redraw the state's political lines to increase the number of Republicans in Congress.
Democrats have a 17-15 majority in the Texas delegation and have said the current map should not be changed. They argue that proposals before the GOP-dominated Legislature this year would have hurt minority representation.
Democrats and one Republican thwarted the plan in the first special session, but Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst tried to push it through in the second session by dropping a rule that requires two-thirds of senators to agree to consider a bill.
With no blocking power, Democrats fled the state July 28 to avoid a vote and later sued, claiming Republicans violated their rights by dropping the rule. The 11 Democratic senators said the two-thirds rule is vital in ensuring racial, ethnic, or political minorities bargaining power.
Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, sent a warning Tuesday to self-exiled Democrats, who along with House Democrats have defeated redistricting three times this year.
``Let me pass on a very clear message to our 11 colleagues out in Albuquerque. The mood in the Senate is changing. We're tired. We're tired of sitting here and waiting,'' Dewhurst said.
Three of the Democrats watched from Albuquerque on the Internet as the Legislature adjourned. ``It really is sad to see the Texas Legislature so divided and at the same time, we felt validated because we accomplished what we set out to do,'' said Sen. Judith Zaffirini.
So the Dems in Texas had to "vote with their feet" again and go running in order to block a Republican-backed redistricting measure that would recount the districts in such a way that the Republicans would end up with more seats. (For more information on this, read the letter from Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis that I just posted from MoveOn.
This clip has Stephen Colbert interviewing Senator Rodney Ellis and Senator Leticia Van De Putte, two of the "runaways."
This piece was edited by Einar Westerlund and produced by Jim Margolis.
Runaway For The Border (Small - 10 MB)
The Daily Show (The best news on television.)
MoveOn has provided a great collection of information and links about what's going on over in Texas. So far, they've raised over $400,000 dollars for an ad campaign aimed at getting the word out about what's really going on.
What is actually going on over in Texas? (you might ask). Well, here's a letter from State Senator Rodney Ellis that will explain the situation a little better. I've also included the "background" he mentions at the top of the "more" section -- and the entire MoveOn.org email underneath it.
Dear friends,I am writing to you from a hotel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
where I and 10 of my colleagues in the Texas Senate have been forced
to reside for the past 20 days. If we return to our homes, families,
friends, and constituents, the Governor of Texas will have us
arrested.I know, it sounds more like a banana republic than the dignified
democracy on which we have long prided ourselves. We are effectively
exiled from the state due to our unalterable opposition to a
Republican effort -- pushed by Tom Delay and Karl Rove, and led by
Texas Governor Rick Perry -- that would rewrite the map of Texas
Congressional districts in order to elect at least 5 more Republicans
to Congress.You may not have heard much about the current breakdown in Texas
politics. The Republican power play in California has obscured the
Republican power play in Texas that has forced my colleagues and me to
leave the state.Recognizing that public pressure is the only thing that can break the
current stalemate, our friends at MoveOn have offered to support our
efforts by sharing this email with you. In it, you will find:-Background information on how the situation in Texas developed;
-Analysis of what's at stake for Democrats and the democratic process;The Republican redistricting effort shatters the tradition of
performing redistricting only once a decade immediately after the
Census -- making redistricting a perpetual partisan process. It
elevates partisan politics above minority voting rights, in
contravention of the federal Voting Rights Act. It intends to decimate
the Democratic party in Texas, and lock in a Republican majority in
the U.S. House of Representatives. And Republican efforts to force a
vote on this issue by changing the rules of legislative procedure
threaten to undermine the rule of law in Texas.We do not take lightly our decision to leave the state. It was the
only means left to us under the rules of procedure in Texas to block
this injustice. We are fighting for our principles and beliefs, and we
can win this fight with your support.Sincerely,
Rodney Ellis
Texas State Senator (Houston)
August 18, 2003
The complete MoveOn.org email is underneath this "background" section.
Here's the background information that Rodney Ellis refers to:
Background:
During the 2001 session of the Texas Legislature, the legislature was
unable to pass a Congressional redistricting plan as it is required to
do following the decennial Census. A three judge federal panel was
forced to draw the plan. Neither Governor Rick Perry or then Attorney
General John Cornyn, both Republicans, objected to the plan, which was
reviewed and approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 2002 Congressional elections, the first held under the new
redistricting plan, resulted in a Congressional delegation from Texas
consisting of 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans. However, five of the 17
Democrats prevailed only because they were able to win the support of
Republican and independent voters. All statewide Republican candidates
carried these five districts. Most experts agree that the current plan
has 20 strong or leaning Republican districts and 12 Democratic
districts.
Meanwhile, the 2001 redistricting of Texas legislative seats (which
was enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislative Redistricting
Board, after the legislature again gridlocked in its efforts) resulted
in wide Republican majorities in both the Texas House and Texas
Senate. Now Tom Delay has made it his priority to force the
Republican-controlled Legislature to enact a new redistricting plan to
increase the number of Republican-leaning Congressional districts.
Republicans believe they can manipulate the districts to elect as many
as 22 Republicans out of the 32 member Texas Congressional delegation.
They achieve this by packing minority voters into as few districts as
possible and breaking apart rural districts so that the impact of
independent voters will be reduced and suburban Republican voters will
dominate.
During the regular session of the Texas Legislature, Democratic
members of the Texas House of Representatives exercised an
unprecedented parliamentary move to prevent the House from passing Tom
Delay's redistricting plan. While Democrats are in the minority of the
House of Representatives, the state constitution requires that at
least 2/3 of the House be present for the House to pass a bill.
Because it was clear that the Republicans would entertain no debate
and brook no compromise in their effort to rewrite the rules by which
members of Congress are elected, the Democrats were forced to break
the quorum to prevent the bill from passing. Because the Republican
Speaker of the House and Governor called on state law enforcement
officials to physically compel the Democrats to return, the lawmakers
removed themselves to a Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma -- outside
the reach of state troops(1). In there effort to apprehend the
Democrats, Tom Delay officially sought the help of the Department of
Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation and the Department
of Justice.
The House Democrats (nicknamed the "Killer D's", based on an earlier
episode in Texas history in which a group of Democratic state senators
called the "Killer Bees" broke the quorum in the Senate over a
similarly political stalemate) succeeded in stopping Delay's
redistricting plan during the regular session, returning to Texas
after the legislative deadline had expired for the House to pass
legislation. However, because the Texas Legislature meets in regular
session only every two years, the state constitution gives the
Governor the power to call a 30-day special legislative session at any
time between regular sessions. Despite statewide protests from Texas
citizens who oppose Tom Delay's redistricting plan, the Governor has
called two special sessions(2) already this summer to attempt to force
the legislature to enact a new plan.
The first called session expired in a deadlock, as 12 of 31 Texas
Senators(3) opposed the plan. Under Senate rules and tradition, a 2/3
vote is required to consider any bill on the floor of the Senate,
giving 11 Senators the power to block a vote(4). The Republican
Governor and Lieutenant Governor then determined they would do away
with the 2/3 rule, and called another special session, forcing 11
Democratic Senators to break the quorum and leave the state.(5) These
Senators have spent the past 22 days in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Governor has indicated he will continue calling special sessions
until the Republican redistricting plan is enacted, despite the fact
that the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court recently rejected
the Governor's writ of mandamus filing to compel the Senators to
return to the Senate. Meanwhile, eleven Democratic state senators are
exiled from their state, unable to be with their families, friends,
and constituents, for fear of being arrested as part of a partisan
power play by Republicans. In the most recent indignity, Republican
Senators voted to fine the absent Democrats up to $5,000 per day, and
to revoke parking and other privileges for their staffs as long as the
Senators are away.
What's at stake:
At stake, on the surface, is whether Tom Delay will succeed in
exploiting Republican control of the Texas Legislature to add to the
Republican majority in the United States Congress. But deeper issues
are also at stake.
1. If the Republicans succeed in redrawing the Texas Congressional
lines to guarantee the election of five to seven more Republicans, it
will ensure that Republicans hold the majority in the U.S. House of
Representatives for the entire decade and will likely result in Tom
Delay becoming Speaker of the House.(6)
2. The Republican advantage would be gained by removing many African
American and Hispanic voters from their current Congressional
districts and "packing" them into a few districts that already have
Democratic majorities. The voting power of these minority voters would
be dramatically diluted by the Republican plan, in contravention of
the federal Voting Rights Act. If the Republicans succeed, over 1.4
million African American and Hispanic voters will be harmed. It would
be the largest disenfranchisement of minority voters since the Voting
Rights Act was passed.
3. Redistricting exists for the purpose of reapportioning voters among
political districts to account for population shifts. The purpose of
this reapportionment is to ensure a roughly equal number of voters in
each district, to preserve the principle of "one man, one vote."(7)
For this reason, redistricting has always been conducted immediately
following the U.S. Census' decennial population reports. Tom Delay now
proposes a new redistricting plan two years after the Census report
simply because Republicans gained control over the Texas Legislature
in 2002 and now have the power to enact a much more Republican-
friendly plan than the one drawn by the federal courts two years ago.
This is an unprecedented approach to redistricting, one that
subordinates its original purpose of ensuring the principle of "one
man, one vote" to the purpose of perpetual partisan politics.
Redistricting, in this model, would never be a settled matter, and
districts would constantly be in flux depending on the balance of
political power in the Legislature.
4. The Texas Legislature has traditionally been defined by a spirit of
bipartisanship and cooperation. This issue has polarized the
legislature in a way that threatens to destroy that tradition. The
Republicans have effectively exiled their Democratic counterparts in a
power play that makes our state look more like a banana republic than
a dignified democracy. The arbitrary decision to discard the 2/3 rule
in the Senate sets a precedent that undermines that body's tradition
of consensus and cooperation. The deployment of state law enforcement
officials to apprehend boycotting legislators erodes the separation of
powers between the executive and legislative branches of government,
and diminishes legislators' ability to represent their constituents as
they see fit. The unilateral Republican effort to penalize Democratic
Senators and their staffs
What is needed:
The Democratic Senators currently in Albuquerque have two critical
needs. The first is to generate increased public awareness of the
situation. By all reason, every day the Senators are out of the state
this story should get bigger. Instead, news media have gradually lost
interest in the story. The California recall has dominated the
attention of the national media, and the Texas media has largely lost
interest in the story -- out of sight, out of mind. Without public
attention to this story, the Republicans have all the leverage -- if
it does not cost them politically, it costs them nothing(8) to
continue calling special sessions until the Texas 11 are forced to
come home.
The second critical need is funding. The cost of hotels, meeting
rooms, staff support, and public relations efforts is mounting. In
addition, the Senators must defend themselves legally against
Republican efforts to compel their return, while also filing legal
claims against the Republican power play. The Senators are actively
raising money for the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus Fund to offset
these costs and prepare themselves for a stay of indefinite duration
in Albuquerque.
Notes:
1. A recent Department of Justice investigation chronicled Republican
state officials' illegal attempts to use federal resources --
including anti-terrorism resources from the Department of Homeland
Security -- to compel the Democratic lawmakers' return. See
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51520-2003Aug12.html
for a news report on the Justice Department investigation, or
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/03-08a/final.pdf for a copy of the
complete Justice Department report.
2. At a cost to taxpayers of over $1.5 million per session.
3. House Republicans passed a redistricting bill in the special
session despite an outpouring of public opposition in hearings across
the state. All 12 Democratic state senators opposed the plan, along
with Republican state senator (and former Lieutenant Governor) Bill
Ratliff.
4. The "2/3 rule" requires the Senate to reach broader consensus on
difficult issues than a simple majority vote. It is a combination of
official Senate rules and tradition. The rules of the Senate require a
2/3 vote to suspend the "regular order of business" to consider a bill
that is not the first bill on the Senate calendar. By tradition, the
Senate has always placed a "blocker bill" at the top of the Senate
calendar, so that every bill requires a suspension of the regular
order of business to be considered. The process requires compromise
and consensus to achieve a 2/3 majority on each bill. One Texas
insider has said that the 2/3 rule is "what separates us from
animals."
5. In fact, the Governor and Lt. Governor attempted to "surprise" the
Senators by calling the second special one day early and "trap" them
in the Senate Chamber. The Senators were able to escape the Capitol
with literally minutes to spare.
6. Republican party activist Grover Norquist, head of the Washington
D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform, was quoted as follows in the
August 17 Fort Worth Star Telegram: "Republicans will hold the House
for the next decade through 2012 if Texas redistrictsIt depresses the
hell out of the Democrats and makes it doubly impossible to take the
House and probably depresses their fund raisingAnything that helps
strengthen the Republican leadership helps DeLay become speaker
someday if he wants it."
7. Established in the landmark case Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962)
8. Notwithstanding the millions of dollars it is costing taxpayers.
Here is the full text of the email from MoveOn that was sent out to me:
In one day MoveOn members have contributed more than $400,000 for our
"Defend Democracy" campaign. We've been overwhelmed by the response.
The 11 Texas legislators who are right now risking everything for us
and for democracy are deeply grateful to receive this support.
Let's raise a $1,000,000 to make this our biggest campaign ever.
Let's take this campaign to national media outlets, and go deep with
Texas media. Let's take it to California. Let's connect the dots.
George Bush and Karl Rove have been counting on getting away with
these underhanded tactics -- on bullying their opposition into
submission, on playing every dirty trick in the book. With your help,
we can make it cost them dearly. If you can, please make a
contribution today:
http://moveon.org/texasads
We've added a progress graph to our contribution page so that you can
see how close we are towards our goal. Click above to see our
progress.
Our democracy has survived 227 years for one simple reason: when
confronted by extremism, Americans have always united in defense of
freedom. The redistricting fight in Texas is a piece of a larger
attack on democracy nationwide -- Impeachment; the 2000 election;
intimidation on Capital Hill; the California recall; and now
congressional redistricting at the whim of the Majority in Congress.
Texas is a first step. Next week, we will ask for your help to defeat
the California recall -- specifically, to recruit friends and family
in California who are angry about the recall and want to do something
about it. We can stop this attack on Democracy if we once again stand
united. We'll stop it in Texas, California, Washington DC and wherever
it occurs.
Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn Team
August 21st, 2003
Once again, here is the letter from State Senator Rodney Ellis and
background information on the events in Texas.
___________________
Dear friends,
I am writing to you from a hotel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
where I and 10 of my colleagues in the Texas Senate have been forced
to reside for the past 20 days. If we return to our homes, families,
friends, and constituents, the Governor of Texas will have us
arrested.
I know, it sounds more like a banana republic than the dignified
democracy on which we have long prided ourselves. We are effectively
exiled from the state due to our unalterable opposition to a
Republican effort -- pushed by Tom Delay and Karl Rove, and led by
Texas Governor Rick Perry -- that would rewrite the map of Texas
Congressional districts in order to elect at least 5 more Republicans
to Congress.
You may not have heard much about the current breakdown in Texas
politics. The Republican power play in California has obscured the
Republican power play in Texas that has forced my colleagues and me to
leave the state.
Recognizing that public pressure is the only thing that can break the
current stalemate, our friends at MoveOn have offered to support our
efforts by sharing this email with you. In it, you will find:
-Background information on how the situation in Texas developed;
-Analysis of what's at stake for Democrats and the democratic process;
The Republican redistricting effort shatters the tradition of
performing redistricting only once a decade immediately after the
Census -- making redistricting a perpetual partisan process. It
elevates partisan politics above minority voting rights, in
contravention of the federal Voting Rights Act. It intends to decimate
the Democratic party in Texas, and lock in a Republican majority in
the U.S. House of Representatives. And Republican efforts to force a
vote on this issue by changing the rules of legislative procedure
threaten to undermine the rule of law in Texas.
We do not take lightly our decision to leave the state. It was the
only means left to us under the rules of procedure in Texas to block
this injustice. We are fighting for our principles and beliefs, and we
can win this fight with your support.
Sincerely,
Rodney Ellis
Texas State Senator (Houston)
August 18, 2003
___________________
Background:
During the 2001 session of the Texas Legislature, the legislature was
unable to pass a Congressional redistricting plan as it is required to
do following the decennial Census. A three judge federal panel was
forced to draw the plan. Neither Governor Rick Perry or then Attorney
General John Cornyn, both Republicans, objected to the plan, which was
reviewed and approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 2002 Congressional elections, the first held under the new
redistricting plan, resulted in a Congressional delegation from Texas
consisting of 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans. However, five of the 17
Democrats prevailed only because they were able to win the support of
Republican and independent voters. All statewide Republican candidates
carried these five districts. Most experts agree that the current plan
has 20 strong or leaning Republican districts and 12 Democratic
districts.
Meanwhile, the 2001 redistricting of Texas legislative seats (which
was enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislative Redistricting
Board, after the legislature again gridlocked in its efforts) resulted
in wide Republican majorities in both the Texas House and Texas
Senate. Now Tom Delay has made it his priority to force the
Republican-controlled Legislature to enact a new redistricting plan to
increase the number of Republican-leaning Congressional districts.
Republicans believe they can manipulate the districts to elect as many
as 22 Republicans out of the 32 member Texas Congressional delegation.
They achieve this by packing minority voters into as few districts as
possible and breaking apart rural districts so that the impact of
independent voters will be reduced and suburban Republican voters will
dominate.
During the regular session of the Texas Legislature, Democratic
members of the Texas House of Representatives exercised an
unprecedented parliamentary move to prevent the House from passing Tom
Delay's redistricting plan. While Democrats are in the minority of the
House of Representatives, the state constitution requires that at
least 2/3 of the House be present for the House to pass a bill.
Because it was clear that the Republicans would entertain no debate
and brook no compromise in their effort to rewrite the rules by which
members of Congress are elected, the Democrats were forced to break
the quorum to prevent the bill from passing. Because the Republican
Speaker of the House and Governor called on state law enforcement
officials to physically compel the Democrats to return, the lawmakers
removed themselves to a Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma -- outside
the reach of state troops(1). In there effort to apprehend the
Democrats, Tom Delay officially sought the help of the Department of
Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation and the Department
of Justice.
The House Democrats (nicknamed the "Killer D's", based on an earlier
episode in Texas history in which a group of Democratic state senators
called the "Killer Bees" broke the quorum in the Senate over a
similarly political stalemate) succeeded in stopping Delay's
redistricting plan during the regular session, returning to Texas
after the legislative deadline had expired for the House to pass
legislation. However, because the Texas Legislature meets in regular
session only every two years, the state constitution gives the
Governor the power to call a 30-day special legislative session at any
time between regular sessions. Despite statewide protests from Texas
citizens who oppose Tom Delay's redistricting plan, the Governor has
called two special sessions(2) already this summer to attempt to force
the legislature to enact a new plan.
The first called session expired in a deadlock, as 12 of 31 Texas
Senators(3) opposed the plan. Under Senate rules and tradition, a 2/3
vote is required to consider any bill on the floor of the Senate,
giving 11 Senators the power to block a vote(4). The Republican
Governor and Lieutenant Governor then determined they would do away
with the 2/3 rule, and called another special session, forcing 11
Democratic Senators to break the quorum and leave the state.(5) These
Senators have spent the past 22 days in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Governor has indicated he will continue calling special sessions
until the Republican redistricting plan is enacted, despite the fact
that the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court recently rejected
the Governor's writ of mandamus filing to compel the Senators to
return to the Senate. Meanwhile, eleven Democratic state senators are
exiled from their state, unable to be with their families, friends,
and constituents, for fear of being arrested as part of a partisan
power play by Republicans. In the most recent indignity, Republican
Senators voted to fine the absent Democrats up to $5,000 per day, and
to revoke parking and other privileges for their staffs as long as the
Senators are away.
What's at stake:
At stake, on the surface, is whether Tom Delay will succeed in
exploiting Republican control of the Texas Legislature to add to the
Republican majority in the United States Congress. But deeper issues
are also at stake.
1. If the Republicans succeed in redrawing the Texas Congressional
lines to guarantee the election of five to seven more Republicans, it
will ensure that Republicans hold the majority in the U.S. House of
Representatives for the entire decade and will likely result in Tom
Delay becoming Speaker of the House.(6)
2. The Republican advantage would be gained by removing many African
American and Hispanic voters from their current Congressional
districts and "packing" them into a few districts that already have
Democratic majorities. The voting power of these minority voters would
be dramatically diluted by the Republican plan, in contravention of
the federal Voting Rights Act. If the Republicans succeed, over 1.4
million African American and Hispanic voters will be harmed. It would
be the largest disenfranchisement of minority voters since the Voting
Rights Act was passed.
3. Redistricting exists for the purpose of reapportioning voters among
political districts to account for population shifts. The purpose of
this reapportionment is to ensure a roughly equal number of voters in
each district, to preserve the principle of "one man, one vote."(7)
For this reason, redistricting has always been conducted immediately
following the U.S. Census' decennial population reports. Tom Delay now
proposes a new redistricting plan two years after the Census report
simply because Republicans gained control over the Texas Legislature
in 2002 and now have the power to enact a much more Republican-
friendly plan than the one drawn by the federal courts two years ago.
This is an unprecedented approach to redistricting, one that
subordinates its original purpose of ensuring the principle of "one
man, one vote" to the purpose of perpetual partisan politics.
Redistricting, in this model, would never be a settled matter, and
districts would constantly be in flux depending on the balance of
political power in the Legislature.
4. The Texas Legislature has traditionally been defined by a spirit of
bipartisanship and cooperation. This issue has polarized the
legislature in a way that threatens to destroy that tradition. The
Republicans have effectively exiled their Democratic counterparts in a
power play that makes our state look more like a banana republic than
a dignified democracy. The arbitrary decision to discard the 2/3 rule
in the Senate sets a precedent that undermines that body's tradition
of consensus and cooperation. The deployment of state law enforcement
officials to apprehend boycotting legislators erodes the separation of
powers between the executive and legislative branches of government,
and diminishes legislators' ability to represent their constituents as
they see fit. The unilateral Republican effort to penalize Democratic
Senators and their staffs
What is needed:
The Democratic Senators currently in Albuquerque have two critical
needs. The first is to generate increased public awareness of the
situation. By all reason, every day the Senators are out of the state
this story should get bigger. Instead, news media have gradually lost
interest in the story. The California recall has dominated the
attention of the national media, and the Texas media has largely lost
interest in the story -- out of sight, out of mind. Without public
attention to this story, the Republicans have all the leverage -- if
it does not cost them politically, it costs them nothing(8) to
continue calling special sessions until the Texas 11 are forced to
come home.
The second critical need is funding. The cost of hotels, meeting
rooms, staff support, and public relations efforts is mounting. In
addition, the Senators must defend themselves legally against
Republican efforts to compel their return, while also filing legal
claims against the Republican power play. The Senators are actively
raising money for the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus Fund to offset
these costs and prepare themselves for a stay of indefinite duration
in Albuquerque.
Notes:
1. A recent Department of Justice investigation chronicled Republican
state officials' illegal attempts to use federal resources --
including anti-terrorism resources from the Department of Homeland
Security -- to compel the Democratic lawmakers' return. See
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51520-2003Aug12.html
for a news report on the Justice Department investigation, or
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/03-08a/final.pdf for a copy of the
complete Justice Department report.
2. At a cost to taxpayers of over $1.5 million per session.
3. House Republicans passed a redistricting bill in the special
session despite an outpouring of public opposition in hearings across
the state. All 12 Democratic state senators opposed the plan, along
with Republican state senator (and former Lieutenant Governor) Bill
Ratliff.
4. The "2/3 rule" requires the Senate to reach broader consensus on
difficult issues than a simple majority vote. It is a combination of
official Senate rules and tradition. The rules of the Senate require a
2/3 vote to suspend the "regular order of business" to consider a bill
that is not the first bill on the Senate calendar. By tradition, the
Senate has always placed a "blocker bill" at the top of the Senate
calendar, so that every bill requires a suspension of the regular
order of business to be considered. The process requires compromise
and consensus to achieve a 2/3 majority on each bill. One Texas
insider has said that the 2/3 rule is "what separates us from
animals."
5. In fact, the Governor and Lt. Governor attempted to "surprise" the
Senators by calling the second special one day early and "trap" them
in the Senate Chamber. The Senators were able to escape the Capitol
with literally minutes to spare.
6. Republican party activist Grover Norquist, head of the Washington
D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform, was quoted as follows in the
August 17 Fort Worth Star Telegram: "Republicans will hold the House
for the next decade through 2012 if Texas redistrictsIt depresses the
hell out of the Democrats and makes it doubly impossible to take the
House and probably depresses their fund raisingAnything that helps
strengthen the Republican leadership helps DeLay become speaker
someday if he wants it."
7. Established in the landmark case Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962)
8. Notwithstanding the millions of dollars it is costing taxpayers.
This entry goes with this earlier post.
I don't even want to get my hopes up on this one. But we're supposed to believe that DeLay spoke to the Shrub and Karl Rove about "redistricting in general" and did not discuss in any way the situation that was going on at the time about redistricting in Texas. I don't see how we could ever prove it one way or the other, unless there are tapes of the conversations or something. Otherwise it's just heresay -- as juicy as that heresay might be :-)
Details Sought on Bush Role in Texas Dispute
By Mike Allen for the Washington Post.
A Democratic leader asked yesterday for details of communication by President Bush and his senior adviser, Karl Rove, with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) about a partisan Texas dispute that absorbed federal resources.Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), ranking Democrat on the Governmental Affairs Committee and a presidential candidate, said White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. told him by telephone Tuesday that DeLay spoke with Bush and Rove about the matter.
The issue is politically sensitive because the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged assisting law enforcement officers who were asked by Republicans to round up Democrats who had fled the state to avoid voting on a redistricting plan championed by DeLay. The plan died when a deadline passed without a quorum.
An FBI agent also helped in the search, but the bureau said it did not act at the behest of politicians. The Federal Aviation Administration gave aircraft-tracking information to DeLay's staff, and his staff sought advice from the Justice Department.
A White House official said Bush and Rove spoke to DeLay before the departure of the Democratic legislators. The official said Bush spoke to DeLay "briefly and in passing" and that Rove and DeLay discussed "redistricting in Texas generally."
Another White House official confirmed Lieberman's conversation with Card. "The summary speaks for itself," spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said. "The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation are looking into this matter."
A Lieberman source said Card was "vague" in his description.
A senior administration official said DeLay's conversation with Bush "likely" occurred in conjunction with a 45-minute meeting he held April 30 with Republican leaders of the House and the Senate to discuss the tax cut and other legislation. The exodus by Democrats began on May 12...
DeLay has said he and his staff made no overture to the Department of Homeland Security, and noted that the FAA information was publicly available.
Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29211-2003Jun7.html?nav=hptoc_p
Details Sought on Bush Role in Texas Dispute
By Mike Allen
Washington Post
Sunday 08 June 8 2003
A Democratic leader asked yesterday for details of communication by President Bush and his senior adviser, Karl Rove, with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) about a partisan Texas dispute that absorbed federal resources.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), ranking Democrat on the Governmental Affairs Committee and a presidential candidate, said White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. told him by telephone Tuesday that DeLay spoke with Bush and Rove about the matter.
The issue is politically sensitive because the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged assisting law enforcement officers who were asked by Republicans to round up Democrats who had fled the state to avoid voting on a redistricting plan championed by DeLay. The plan died when a deadline passed without a quorum.
An FBI agent also helped in the search, but the bureau said it did not act at the behest of politicians. The Federal Aviation Administration gave aircraft-tracking information to DeLay's staff, and his staff sought advice from the Justice Department.
A White House official said Bush and Rove spoke to DeLay before the departure of the Democratic legislators. The official said Bush spoke to DeLay "briefly and in passing" and that Rove and DeLay discussed "redistricting in Texas generally."
Another White House official confirmed Lieberman's conversation with Card. "The summary speaks for itself," spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said. "The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation are looking into this matter."
A Lieberman source said Card was "vague" in his description.
A senior administration official said DeLay's conversation with Bush "likely" occurred in conjunction with a 45-minute meeting he held April 30 with Republican leaders of the House and the Senate to discuss the tax cut and other legislation. The exodus by Democrats began on May 12.
DeLay told reporters at a briefing on May 13 that, as he walked out of a Republican leadership meeting with Bush the previous week, he had told the president he thought the Texas redistricting plan would pass. The administration official did not know when the conversation with Rove occurred.
DeLay has said he and his staff made no overture to the Department of Homeland Security, and noted that the FAA information was publicly available.
A Lieberman aide said the senator sent a letter to Card yesterday asking for more details. Lieberman said in his letter that Card told him that neither Bush nor Rove "contacted any federal agencies about the missing legislators" as a result of a conversation with DeLay. Lieberman said he was told that Card "had asked others at the White House about this matter and found no inappropriate action had been taken."
The letter quoted Card as saying that he did not intend to respond in writing to a request Lieberman made on May 27 for information about White House involvement.
"In a matter of this significance, where questions have been raised about whether scarce homeland security resources were misused for political purposes, the public should not be forced to rely on private reassurances," Lieberman said.
Lieberman's letter asked for a written description of White House involvement, including "any contacts and actions, even those you do not believe to be inappropriate."
Update 6/17/03: There has been an important development in this story.
There are two parts: Part 1 from the May 13, 2003 broadcast and Part 2 from the May 14, 2003 broadcast.
The other articles and blog links below are just FYI in case you wish to learn more about what happened. I'm still trying to understand it completely myself, but it sure is fun to watch!
May 13, 2003 Broadcast:
Daily Show On The Texas Democrat Walk Out - Part 1 of 2 (Small - 7 MB)
Daily Show On The Texas Democrat Walk Out - Part 1 of 2 (Hi-Res - 93 MB)
Audio - Daily Show On The Texas Democrat Walk Out - Part 1 of 2 (MP3 - 4 MB)
May 14, 2003 Broadcast:
Daily Show On The Texas Democrat Walk Out - Part 2 of 2 (Small - 5 MB)
Daily Show On The Texas Democrat Walk Out - Part 2 of 2 (Hi-Res - 70 MB)
Audio - Daily Show On The Texas Democrat Walk Out - Part 2 of 2 (MP3 - 3 MB)
The Daily Show -- the best news on television.
Bid to Find Tex. Lawmakers Decried
Federal Workers Were Led to Believe They Were Looking for Downed or Lost Plane
By Christopher Lee for the Washington Post.
Over 50 Texas Democrats Remain on the Lam
By April Castro for the Associated Press.
Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
(the other article is included below this one)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61464-2003May15.html
Bid to Find Tex. Lawmakers Decried
Federal Workers Were Led to Believe They Were Looking for Downed or Lost Plane
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 16, 2003; Page A27
A Texas political battle turned into a matter of national security for a few hours this week when state officials enlisted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help track down more than 50 Democratic state lawmakers who had vanished from Austin.
The Democrats fled the state over the weekend, depriving House Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican, of the quorum he needed to pass several controversial bills, including one that would redraw Texas's congressional districts in favor of the GOP. On Monday, Craddick and other Republicans dispatched state troopers to round up the legislative fugitives and bring them back to the Texas Capitol.
State police officials, in turn, called in federal help as they pursued a rumor that Rep. James E. "Pete" Laney, a former Texas House speaker, had ferried fellow Democrats out of state aboard his Piper turboprop airplane. A state investigator called the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center in Riverside, Calif., part of the Homeland Security Department, to ask officials there to use their nationwide radar network to help locate the plane.
The call from the unnamed investigator came as an "urgent plea," describing a plane with state officials aboard that was overdue, according to a statement issued yesterday by the Homeland Security Department's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"We got a problem, and I hope you can help me out," the statement quoted the officer as saying. "We had a plane that was supposed to be going from Ardmore, Okla., to Georgetown, Tex. It had state representatives on it, and we cannot find this plane."
Believing they had an emergency on their hands, agency officials called the Federal Aviation Administration in Fort Worth, and airport officials in two other Texas cities, but were unable to find the plane.
"When law enforcement calls us asking for assistance in locating an aircraft that may be missing or lost or downed, it's certainly an appropriate response to try to locate that aircraft," said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the bureau. "We take these statements at face value."
In fact, there was no plane. Most of the Democrats had taken buses to Ardmore, where they holed up in a hotel. They were expected to stay there until at least midnight last night -- the deadline for new bills to be brought to the House floor.
The only thing in jeopardy was the GOP legislative agenda.
Democrats in Washington seized on the episode yesterday after the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News reported on the incident this week. Several vented their outrage on the House floor yesterday. They accused Craddick and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the chief proponent of the redistricting plan, of misusing their official powers for political ends. They said both Republicans had turned to the Justice Department as well as to Homeland Security for help.
"Not since Richard Nixon and Watergate 30 years ago has anyone tried to use law enforcement agencies of the federal government for domestic political purposes," Rep. Martin Frost (D-Tex.), a longtime foe of DeLay in redistricting battles, said in an interview. "This is an abuse of criminal- and terrorist-fighting resources of the U.S. government for a domestic political matter. . . . There should be a complete investigation."
Rep. Jim Turner (Tex.), ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said it was "deeply disturbing" that federal resources were diverted to try to track down Laney, who, in a show of bipartisanship, had introduced George W. Bush before the president-elect gave a speech after the Supreme Court settled the outcome of the 2000 election.
"We created the Department of Homeland Security to track down terrorists, not law-abiding citizens," Turner said.
Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, joined eight other House Democrats yesterday in asking the acting inspector general at Homeland Security to investigate what happened.
"If true, this report represents a shameful diversion of taxpayer resources for partisan purposes," the lawmakers wrote to Clark Kent Irvin.
DeLay spokesman Jonathan Grella said DeLay did not seek federal help in forcing the Democrats back to Austin. DeLay did pass along to the Justice Department Craddick's inquiry on whether federal law enforcement could assist in the manhunt, Grella said.
"We've had no contact with Homeland or the FBI," said Grella, who asserted that Democrats were trying to detract attention from their "shirking" of their legislative duties in Austin.
"This is a smoke screen," Grella said. "[W]e certainly are disappointed that they've resorted to flat-out lying to hold on to power."
A spokesman for Craddick, who became speaker this year after Republicans won control of the House for the first time since Reconstruction, said Craddick did not tell the state police to seek federal help.
"He called them [state police] in and let them do their job," said Bob Richter, the spokesman. "There was an effort made to find out if they could get some federal help in that. It was either turned down, or they found out they couldn't do it. By the end of the day Monday, it was a dead issue [because the lawmakers were found]. . . . I think Craddick is getting credit for a lot of things other people did. He may have said, 'Let's do what we can to find them.' "
Tom Vinger, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said it was routine to seek federal assistance. "We feel that we conducted a thorough and professional investigation," he said.
Richter said Craddick just wants the Democrats to come back and has acknowledged that the House will not take up the redistricting bill this session, which ends June 2. "He's repeatedly said there's not going to be retaliation," Richter said. "He wants to get back to business and salvage what we can."
Late yesterday, the Associated Press reported that Democrats declared victory and posed for a photograph at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore. "Now that we have been able to kill redistricting, we are able to go back and finish the business of this state," state Rep. Craig Eiland said.
Here is the full text of the article (below) in case the link goes bad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2671636,00.html
Over 50 Texas Democrats Remain on the Lam
Tuesday May 13, 2003 6:59 PM
By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Three Democrats returned to the Capitol on Tuesday, but more than 50 remained on the lam in Oklahoma, frustrating Republican efforts to push through a plan to redraw the state's congressional districts.
The rebellious Democrats were holed up at a hotel in Ardmore, Okla. They sneaked out of Austin on Sunday after spending several days discussing ways to derail a GOP plan to redraw the districts that seeks to increase the number of Republican seats.
With 58 Democrats gone on Monday, the 150-member House was unable to muster the two-thirds quorum needed to conduct business. House Speaker Tom Craddick called the House to order Tuesday morning but even with the return of three Democrats, there still were enough missing to block any House business.
The three returning Democrats were welcomed back into the House chamber with hugs and supportive words from their Republican colleagues. One Democrat, Rep. Helen Giddings, fought back tears as she stated her desire to stop the redistricting plan.
The defiant Democrats in Oklahoma said they would stay away until Republicans agreed to drop the redistricting plan.
"It's totally up to Craddick, and he has been so advised," one of the Democrats told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. "If he'll get redistricting off the calendar, we'll be right there bright and early."
Craddick said he was not interested in negotiating.
Republicans constructed signs and gimmicks ridiculing their colleagues. They plastered the Democrats' faces on milk cartons, and state Republican chair Susan Weddington, borrowing from the "most wanted Iraqi" cards, announced she had playing cards featuring the missing legislators.
House rules allow state troopers to arrest lawmakers and bring them back to the Capitol. On Monday, Craddick had ordered troopers to find the missing lawmakers, arrest them and bring them back to Austin. Several agents arrived at the Democrats' hotel in Ardmore on Monday night but they did not have jurisdiction outside of Texas and did not have a warrant issued by Oklahoma authorities.
Instead, the troopers asked the legislators to board their aircraft and return home, but the lawmakers refused.
The capped months of tension between Democrats and the newly-in-control Republicans.
"They're legislative terrorists and their leaving today is a weapon of mass obstruction, blocking hundreds of pieces of legislation," Republican Rep. Dan Branch said Monday.
The Democrats said they were taking a stand for fair treatment of the minority party. They said U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, had pushed the Texas House to take up the issue of congressional redistricting instead of more pressing matters, such as the state budget.
"There are some issues that are important to us, important to all Texans," Rep. Pete Gallego said.
The state already has a court-drawn redistricting map, but Republicans say it doesn't match state voting trends and want to redo the plan. Their proposal could add five to seven GOP House seats to the 15 already in Republican hands. The state has 32 members in the U.S. House.
Redistricting had been scheduled on the House calendar for Monday. The deadline for preliminarily votes on House bills is Thursday or they risk dying for the session, which ends June 2.
The Texas House cannot convene without at least 100 of the 150 members present. The body has 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats. Four Democrats had stayed behind and the whereabouts of four others were not known.
The missing Democratic lawmakers spent Monday in a hotel conference room, where large sheets of paper taped to the walls were used as makeshift chalkboards and long tables were filled with laptop computers, stacks of papers and notebooks.
They said they discussed school financing, homeowners insurance and other issues.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry lambasted the Democrats for deserting the Legislature, saying "we might as well shut this building down and let it become a museum because the work of the people is through."
The Republicans and the few Democrats who were left milled around. Some left the chamber and were elsewhere in the Capitol. They weren't be required to stay on the House floor Tuesday as they had all day Monday.
Craddick said Perry assured him he would call a special session after the regular session if it's needed.
The walkout came 24 years to the month since a group of 12 Texas state senators defied then-Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby by refusing to show up at the Capitol.
Some of the "Killer Bees," as the 12 Democrats came to be known, hid out in a west Austin garage apartment while troopers, Texas Rangers and legislative sergeants-at-arms unsuccessfully combed the state for them.
^---
On the Net:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us
