More on the Texas Democrats

Some comments from Texas newspapers about the Democrats flight from the state:

HoustonChronicle.com - Fight, flight in Texas House is Washington-driven

The Texas House, with 62 Democrats and 88 Republicans, cannot convene without at least 100 of the 150 members present. House rules allow for the arrest of members who intentionally thwart a quorum. Reports were that most of the missing members had left the state to avoid such arrest.

"We refuse to participate in an inherently unfair process that slams the door of opportunity in the face of Texas voters," they said in an absentia statement read by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston.

"It is a disgrace to run and hide," countered Craddick who added that he was not interested in negotiating with the missing members.

And that's the point.

Leave aside for the moment the costs and expected legal challenges to the redistricting proposal. Leave aside the fact that the strangely gerrymandered redistricting map being pushed was not revealed until virtually the last minute. And that the proposed plan appears to violate the constitutional prohibition on racial gerrymandering. And leave aside for now that the proposal would questionably match up Houston neighborhoods with far-flung precincts (i.e. Houston's Fourth Ward with Chambers County).
At the very least, Republicans pushing the redistricting effort bear a large share of the responsibility for this legislative standstill.

We and many others have been saying since before the session began that Texas has too many important pieces of business to conduct to get bogged down in a needlessly partisan and divisive political and legal catfight over redistricting.

Most agreed in the early stages that collaboration, bipartisanship and open dialogue would be crucial to the success of the session. When you promise collaboration and then you just pay lip service to it, political deadlock is part of the consequence.

The article (along with most others) notes that the redistricting plan was handed down to Texas Republicans by Tom Delay, which is part of what has angered the Democrats about the plan. It's not something generated by Texas, but rather at the national level, and is clearly designed to benefit only the Republican's interests.

Interestingly, Tom Craddick, the leader of the House Republicans, was previously involved in a similar walk-out by Republicans in 1971, when they opposed the actions of the House Speaker Gus Mutscher, who was accused of being involved in a bribery scandly, for which he was eventually convicted.

The Waco Tribune also notes:

At his Jan. 14 swearing-in ceremony as speaker, Craddick went out of his way to promise that the historic bipartisan tradition in the House would continue "all the way through the session."

Craddick not only failed to remember history, his brazen attempt to punish Democrats by forcing through a new congressional redistricting map also failed to keep his promise to uphold the House's bipartisan tradition.

What Craddick has done is put his friendship with U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay over the lessons of history and his own promises to run a bipartisan House.

DeLay asked that the Texas Legislature reopen congressional redistricting, an issue punted to a judicial panel by the 77th Texas Legislature.

Both Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst expressed no enthusiasm for another bite of the redistricting apple at the beginning of the session. Dewhurst called the idea "almost as attractive as contagious flu."

Confronted with a $10 billion budget shortfall, school finance and insurance reform, it is irresponsible to consider redistricting again without a court order.

When denied a quorum to continue legislative business in the House, Craddick has no one to blame but himself for his failure to learn from history he helped write.

Posted by thorswitch at May 13, 2003 12:40 PM | TrackBack