Posted on 09/23/2003 5:29:50 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952
Perry offers a lone piece for district map puzzle
Gov. Rick Perry on Monday offered sparsely populated West Texas a new congressional district to help settle a fight between Republicans in that region, only to anger or confuse several Senate Republicans.
The governor's partial map left the eastern half of the state blank and several Senate Republicans disturbed because they think the governor's solution to the West Texas squabble could steal a seat in Congress from the more populous regions of the state, including Central Texas.
The governor's partial map underscores the problem of rearranging the state's 32 congressional districts: Satisfying one region causes a ripple that affects other parts of the state. By leaving part of his map blank, the governor avoided the need to identify which region would lose a congressional seat.
"To bring a compromise that reflects only a small fraction of the state is offensive to me," said Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor. "I think the priority should be a statewide map."
Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican who is insisting on a congressional district for his West Texas hometown of Midland, endorsed the governor's plan. Several Republican senators, on the eve of debating their own version of a state map, objected.
Rep. Phil King of Weatherford, Craddick's redistricting lieutenant, unveiled the governor's compromise at a Capitol news conference.
He said the compromise would increase West Texas' districts from three to four; give Midland a chance to elect its own member of Congress; and avoid pitting Rep. Charles Stenholm, an Abilene-area Democrat, against a newly elected Republican from Lubbock.
Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, has opposed any map that pits longtime Democrat Stenholm against his hometown congressman.
King urged the Senate to consider the governor's compromise for West Texas: "If they'll agree to this, we're willing to go to the drawing board and negotiate the rest of Texas in good faith."
Kathy Walt, the governor's press secretary, said the partial map was to help bring the House and Senate closer to a compromise.
"If they tweak it, that's fine," she said. "The idea is to get the two sides talking."
Yet the governor's compromise isn't acceptable to several Republican senators.
Duncan said that he's pleased the House is willing to negotiate but that the partial map doesn't do enough to solve problems in West Texas.
"Much work remains to be done," Duncan said.
The governor's map also would split Waco from the Fort Hood area in Bell and Coryell counties.
"It decimates the voice of Central Texas," Averitt said. "I think this map disregards the interests of Central Texas."
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican whose district includes southern Travis County, said he has questions about the governor's proposal.
"I'd like to see the whole map," Wentworth said. "You can't just do East Texas or West Texas or North Texas or South Texas, because they all have ripple effects."
The governor's map leaves Travis, Williamson, Bastrop, Caldwell and Hays counties blank.
Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, author of the map heading to the Senate floor today, said the Perry-backed version leaves many unanswered questions.
"It's significant progress from the viewpoint of West Texas, but it leaves a good bit of uncharted territory that must be filled in," he said.
Even Sen. Teel Bivins, an Amarillo Republican who supports Craddick's desire for a Midland district, said he could not support the governor's map, which "needlessly dissects a community of interest in the Texas Panhandle."
Also Monday, the Senate Administration Committee voted 4-3 to recommend $1,000-a-day fines for any senators who break a quorum in the future. The vote came along party lines with Republicans supporting it and Democrats opposing it.
Earlier, Senate Republicans fined 11 Democrats $57,000 each for boycotting a special session this summer, but then dropped the fines as long as they do not break quorum again.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, complained that the future fines, proposed by Wentworth, might wind up penalizing Senate staffers. Under the plan, the money would be taken from the missing senator's per diem expenses, which now amount to $125 a day. If that did not cover the fines, the remainder would be withheld from any missing senator's annual allocation of $408,000 for staff payroll.
Wentworth said most senators do not spend the full payroll amount.
Now, the Republicans are starting to fight each other. I wish they would just agree on a map and get back to work.
Yes and it's up to you idiots to come up with the answers. Get this worked out among yourselves before you make yourselves look like even bigger idiots than before.
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