Burnt Orange Report

Dewhurst's Options

By Byron LaMasters

With 11 firm no's, it looks as if redistricting is dead. Not quite. Lt. Gov. Dewhurst still has several options to bring up a debate on redistricting. The Houston Chronicle reports:

Here's how Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst could get a redistricting bill to the state Senate floor and get around the tradition that two-thirds of senators must agree to bring a bill up for debate:

• The rule is put into effect with a "blocker bill," an inconsequential measure put at the top of the calendar. As long as the bill is first in line, it takes a two-thirds vote -- 21 of the 31 senators if all of them are present -- to suspend rules and consider another bill out of order.


• As presiding officer of the Senate, Dewhurst can ask sponsors of the blocker bill and any others ahead of a redistricting bill to withdraw them, putting redistricting at the top of the list.


• If that doesn't work, Dewhurst also can ask Gov. Rick Perry to call another special session with redistricting as the only issue. Then Dewhurst can decline to refer any other bills to committee, so there would be no blocking bill.

The first option, the easiest option, will probably no longer be a possibility with 11 Senators firmly opposed to a debate on redistricting. That brings us to option two. The "blocker bill" is sponsored by Sen. Chris Harris (R-Arlington). He's pro-redistricting, and Dewhurst could ask him to withdraw the "blocker bill". However, there's a problem with that. One of the bills that would be up before redistricting is a bill carried by a Democrat opposed to redistricting. It's extremely unlikely that Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) would let his bill go anywhere if it were to become the "blocker bill":

The sponsor of the blocker bill is Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, who also is the sponsor of the redistricting bill. Harris and Republican sponsors of two other bills that were on the Senate calendar Monday could be recognized by Dewhurst on the Senate floor and then withdraw their legislation to clear the way for a redistricting debate.

But in other action Monday, a government reorganization bill sponsored by Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, received approval from the Government Organization Committee and joined the other bills on the regular order of business. Ellis is among those Democrats who signed the letter.

If Ellis refused to withdraw his bill, it would become a blocker and force the two-thirds rule.

The final option, a second special session, seems to be Dewhurst's only real possibility to declaring defeat. I'd be shocked to see Perry call it, but after two and a half years of Governor Perry, nothing he does really shocks me anymore.