Posted on 08/31/2003 7:44:40 AM PDT by Libloather
Demos resist desire to return home
By Guillermo X. Garcia
Express-News Austin Bureau
Web Posted : 08/31/2003 12:00 AM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Thirty-five days after defiantly leaving the state, and five days after successfully killing a second special session on redistricting, the Texas 11 are no closer to home this holiday weekend. Although some of the AWOL Democratic state senators had hoped to spend the long weekend with friends and family back in Texas — one member even made tentative reservations to return to Houston — they remain holed up in a high-rise hotel here with no clear exit strategy.
Their hopes hinge on a federal lawsuit whose merits have been questioned by a judge who many thought would be friendly.
While claiming victory on the legislative and judicial fronts last week, the 11 Democrats were showing signs of strain after more than a month of hotel living and the nonstop media glare from their show of opposition to a redistricting bill that could shift the balance of Texas' congressional delegation.
A combination of homesickness, frustration from the self-imposed exile and the stress of battling the Republican political majority across state lines resulted in cracks appearing for the first time in what previously had been a wall of solidarity.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said he was called on the carpet earlier in the week by Democratic Caucus chairwoman Sen. Leticia Van de Putte after he told a reporter he was frustrated with the impasse and that he had come "pretty damn close" to booking a flight to Houston.
"I thought if there was no special session and with the holidays, then I thought it reasonable to go back to Houston and be back here Tuesday morning," Whitmire said. "But it became too widely known that I was going back. ... Then out of an abundance of caution I decided it would be smart to stay around Albuquerque."
He said he remains steadfast in his opposition to redistricting.
The absent Democrats also face hefty fees after most of their Republican colleagues voted to fine them up to $5,000 a day and penalize their staffs by rescinding legislative perks, banning them from the Senate floor and preventing them from purchasing office supplies.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is ready to arrest the senators if they return, and their stand is playing worse in the polls than the issue of redistricting itself.
Still, they remain defiant.
"I didn't come here to make a statement of three or four days," said Sen. Judith Zaffirini , D-Laredo. "We've been here more than a month and we'll stay as long as it takes to win this."
The Texas 11 likely will have to keep waiting until at least mid-September before they can come home. That's when a panel of three federal judges is expected to decide whether to grant the senators a temporary restraining order that would allow them to return to Texas without fear of arrest while the case makes its way through the courts.
The Democrats' attorneys have warned them not to return to Texas without coming to terms on a "cooling off" period with Republican leaders, as U.S. District Judge George Kazen of Laredo has suggested. Kazen suggested that Republican Gov. Rick Perry give the senators a 72-hour notice before calling another session.
Perry, through a spokeswoman, rejected the suggestion. He has said he will keep calling special sessions until the lawmakers pass a bill that will ensure changes in the 17-15 majority that Texas Democrats in Washington currently enjoy.
The 11 senators took the holiday weekend off. Some were visited by family, others left for a fund-raiser in Denver, while still others attended to personal issues: a pedicure and manicure.
None returned to Texas, and they vowed to each other to regroup Tuesday as they scoffed at Republican claims that several would be returning home.
They are increasingly turning to the Internet to raise funds for a publicity campaign.
In four days of Web appeals, the Democrats' backers gathered $1 million they plan to use in a nationwide media blitz that will start this week. It's aimed at countering Republican charges that the runaways fled rather than stay and fight the redistricting battle — which Democrats know they'll lose.
But while they may claim victory in several fronts, winning the war appears far from certain.
Kazen, a Democratic appointee, denied the state's motion to dismiss the Democrats' lawsuit, even as he questioned the merits of their case. Rather than rule on the motion by himself, he asked for a panel of three judges including himself to hear the case.
The Democrats claim that a decision by Dewhurst to suspend use of a Senate rule during the redistricting debate not only violates minorities' voting rights, but that it discriminates against the senators themselves; nine of the 11 are Hispanic or African American.
They also charge that the redistricting plan would disenfranchise millions of the state's minority voters by limiting their ability to elect minority members to Congress.
Dewhurst changed the Senate's two-thirds rule, which requires at least 21 of the 32 senators to agree to bring legislation up for a vote. The 11 Democrats had used the rule to keep redistricting from being heard in the Senate until Dewhurst eliminated it, prompting them to flee to Albuquerque.
ggarcia@express-news.net
Because it wouldn't succeed, and the spin would create a PR nightmare for us.
It takes a 2/3rds vote to expel a senator, and as long as we don't have 2/3rds of the senators in Austin, we couldn't even hold that vote.
If Governor Perry attempted to declare their seats vacant, it would cause a court battle that I don't think we could win. The proposition that these people are no longer Texas residents is a loser. They have homes and family here, and they're not renouncing their residency. They claim they want to return, and nobody realistically believes that they're going to stay in NM, get new jobs, register to vote there, etc.
In any event, new elections would have to be held, and presumably each of these senators would fight to be on the ballot. They'd win that fight also, and then win re-election.
The costs of all this nonsense would be blamed on the Republicans, and it wouldn't change a thing.
Can New Mexico just refuse?
If Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas and his brother was robbing banks in neighboring states could Bill just say no, you can’t have him?
It seems like there must be some federal authority or statutes in cases like this.
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