Burnt Orange Report

Redistricting Updates

By Byron LaMasters

Well, Charles beat me in writing about redistricting today, and he covered all the bases, so check out what he has to say. Basically, nothing too interesting should happen until Monday or Tuesday, when the Senate Jurisprudence Committee will consider plans to sent to the full Senate.

One thing that has been of interest is how there seems to be a growing concern among Senate Republicans about the whole idea of redistricting. Not only is there concern about rural east Texas losing representation, but there's also concerns from Lubbock Republicans that Charlie Stenholm may beat Randy Neugebauer if they were paired:

In West Texas, the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, the Plains Cotton Growers and Lubbock Mayor Marc McDougal, a former Lubbock County GOP chairman, have denounced the House plan because it would pair veteran U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene, and freshman Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, in the 19th District.

Mr. Stenholm is the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Mr. Neugebauer also sits on the panel. Regional farm interests fear losing clout if they lose one of their representatives in Congress.

In addition, some Republicans worry that the well-known Mr. Stenholm might beat Mr. Neugebauer. That might reverse the results of last month's special election to replace U.S. Rep. Larry Combest, R-Lubbock, because Mike Conaway, a Midland Republican whom Mr. Neugebauer beat, could win in the redrawn, Midland-anchored 11th District.

Also in the Dallas Morning News was a report that Democrats received a favorable ruling, saying that state law overrode the Texas House rules that required for the arrest of House members breaking quorum:

The Texas Department of Public Safety lacks the legal authority to track down and arrest rebellious state lawmakers who break a quorum, a judge said Thursday.

Visiting state District Judge Charles Campbell in Austin ruled on a lawsuit filed last month by Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, one of 51 state House Democrats who fled to Oklahoma for four days in May to prevent a vote on a Republican-backed congressional redistricting plan.

After the lawmakers brought the chamber to a standstill by failing to show up May 12, state troopers went to their homes, to their family members' offices – and even to a Galveston hospital neonatal unit where Rep. Craig Eiland's newborn twins were under care.

Some DPS officers found the group that night in Ardmore, Okla., then acknowledged that they had no authority to bring them back.

But Texas law "limits the role of DPS to enforcing the laws protecting the public safety and providing for the prevention and detection of crime," Judge Campbell wrote in the ruling.

The judge said that law overrides a state House of Representatives rule allowing for absent members to be arrested by the sergeant-at-arms or an officer appointed by him.

DPS officials could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

Mr. Burnam said he was delighted with the ruling.

"The bottom line is they had no authority to spend the thousands of dollars they spent on looking for us," Mr. Burnam said. "The major law enforcement agency in the state has to follow the law."

Mr. Burnam initially filed suit accusing DPS of violating the state's Open Records Act by illegally destroying documents related to the search.

Judge Campbell ruled Thursday that "those claims are dismissed as moot." Mr. Burnam said DPS has turned over what it says are all the remaining documents.

The DPS has come under fire by Democrats from Austin to Washington, D.C., for tactics used in the searches. But last month, investigators found no wrongdoing by a Department of Homeland Security agency that helped the DPS track down the private plane of Rep. Pete Laney of Hale Center, who also fled to Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, the Legislature is back in a special session to discuss the redistricting issue.