Burnt Orange Report

Redistricting Chaos

By Byron LaMasters

Again, redistricting was all over the papers today, with no one exactly sure what is next. Here's all the details of the latest action.

Again, redistricting was all over the papers today, with no one exactly sure what is next. The San Antonio Express-News explained how we got to where we are today. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) led ten Democratic senators and Bill Ratliff to sign the "unalterable opposition" document:

Like a riverboat gambler, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte held her cards close to the vest.

Throughout the day Monday, the San Antonio legislator held the document she authored so close that it literally came between her and her bra.

Tuesday, she smiled coyly as she pointed under her blouse at the undergarment that stashed the document everyone was asking about, but no one would see.

Ten Senate Democrats and one Republican senator signed the letter, which informs Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst that a contentious congressional redistricting bill — the main reason lawmakers are meeting in a special session this month — is all but dead.

"Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, in his heart, expects the Senate to hold hands and sing Kumbaya over a redistricting map. That's not reality, and it's not going to happen," Van de Putte said.

Under longstanding rules in the Senate, 11 of the 31 members can prevent a measure from being brought up for floor debate.

Although the document had not been delivered as of late Tuesday, Van de Putte said the 11 senators are firm in their opposition to redistricting "and we will not be moved."

There was more about Gov. Perry's intentions to call a second special session in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

If congressional redistricting is blocked in the special legislative session, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry will call another session.

And if that happens, several key Texas Senate Democrats said they might resort to a quorum-busting tactic similar to the flight to Oklahoma by their House counterparts to ensure that congressional boundaries remain unchanged until after the 2004 elections.

Tuesday's back-and-forth between the state's top Republican leaders and key Democrats came on the heels of Monday's announcement by state Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, that he would join the effort to kill what he called a "partisan bloodletting" move to redraw the state's political map. The political lines were drawn in 2001.

Dewhurst, a first-term Republican who presides over the Senate, said he was working diligently to keep the peace in the 31-member chamber. But he warned that unless senators approve a redistricting plan, lawmakers could expect to spend at least another month in the Capitol. A 30-day special session of the state Legislature costs taxpayers an estimated $1.7 million, or about $57,000 per day.

"At the end of the day, I am still optimistic that we'll be able to come up with a map which will have a consensus of senators behind [it] ," Dewhurst said.

Asked whether he thought the governor would call another special session if the current one ends on July 29 without a consensus, Dewhurst replied, "Yes." Asked whether Perry had told him that, Dewhurst answered, "Yes, he did."

Perry, who spoke briefly with reporters outside the Senate chamber, offered a more guarded answer.

"Oh, I never rule it out," he said.

The article went on to say that undecided (on redistricting) Sen. Ken Armbrister (D-Victoria) offered to lead a walkout among senators to break quorum should Dewhurst decide to abandon the two thirds rule in a special session:

The impasse in the Senate centers on one of the chamber's most cherished traditions: that any 11 members can band together to block debate on legislation.

With Ratliff joining 10 Democrats firmly opposed to redistricting, it would appear that the issue is dead. But Dewhurst said he might consider breaking tradition and allow a simple majority to decide redistricting instead of requiring a two-thirds majority, 21 votes.

"I would lead the exodus if they tried to violate the 21-vote rule," said state Sen. Ken Armbrister of Victoria, a conservative Democrat who has not ruled out supporting a redistricting effort. "I think that's one tradition that we don't relinquish for any reason."

All 12 of the Senate's Democrats have said they want the 21-vote rule protected. But Republicans are divided.

The issue has united all twelve senate Democrats, but Republicans are divided

"I'd break it in a heartbeat," said Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio.

"I ran for public office the first time in 1974, and I've watched the Democratic majority kick Republicans around for 30 years. And we've just taken it because we have been outvoted," he said. "And the very first time we get a majority, what do they do? They run off and hide in Oklahoma in a parliamentary sneak attack, and if that's the way they are going to play the game, the majority needs to exercise its will."

But Lubbock Republican Robert Duncan, chairman of the Senate committee handling redistricting, said he would be loath to change course on the rule.

"It's been a tradition in the Senate that has worked well," he said. "I think it would be preferable for the two-thirds rule to remain."

[...]

The Senate committee handling redistricting has yet to offer a proposed map for the members' consideration, and Duncan said he has yet to see a draft map that he could support.

The Austin American Statesman did a survey of it's own with the Senators on redistricting. Their finding?

A survey of senators on Tuesday indicated that at least 14 object to changing the rules. It would take only 11 dissenters to shut down the Senate.

Dewhurst does have support from several Republican senators for the rule change for the redistricting bill. Nine senators voiced various levels of support for changing the rules only for redistricting. Four said they were unsure, two refused to comment, and two could not be reached.

One of the supporters, Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said redistricting is different from other legislation because it's a partisan issue.

"I think the (two-thirds) rule is crucial for everything but redistricting," he said. "It is the partisan issue the Legislature deals with."

He said the Democrats punished Republicans for decades during redistricting and now the GOP should be in charge: "We are the majority, and the majority should rule."

Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and the longest-serving senator, said breaking tradition is dangerous.

He said other votes — vouchers and abortion rights, for example — could break down along party lines. And, he added, there will be temptation in the future to debate bills without a two-thirds approval.

"If you start making exceptions for tradition, there's no end," he said. "I think it does irreparable harm."

Several senators and Dewhurst cited 1992 as a precedent for breaking the tradition.

That year, Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and the Texas Senate met quickly in special session when the courts threw out the Senate's map.

Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor, opposes splitting his home county of McLennan, but he said he isn't ready to stop trying to draw a new map.

As for Dewhurst changing the rules, Averitt said: "I think changing the rules in midstream probably is not the best thing. It should certainly be the absolute last option considered."

Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, is the redistricting committee's chairman. He said his constituents oppose a new map. Asked whether he could vote for one, he said, "It would be awful tough on it unless I had some consensus (from his constituents) on it."

Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, said he would vote against any map unless it kept intact the three counties that contain Fort Hood. He also said he opposes creating a congressional district for Midland, the hometown of House Speaker Tom Craddick. But Fraser said he could support breaking tradition and debating a map with only 16 senators if his concerns are taken care of.

Even if Dewhurst changes the rules and a map passes, it will have to go to a conference committee of House and Senate members who will negotiate a final map.

That has many senators nervous.

Perry and Dewhurst could very well have a fight on their hands, should Perry call a second session and Dewhurst abandon the two thirds rule. Not only might senate Democrats break quorum, but senate Republicans are anything but unified. As I've said all along, this whole redistricting mess has done more to unite Democrats in Texas than anything that Democrats could ever do.

The Houston Chronicle, trying to best the Statesman's poll of senators, decided to interview former governors. I think the Statesman wins this one. Senators opinions are a tad bit more important than 90 year old former governors. Still, it's interesting that the Houston Chronicle was able to get ahold of conservative Democratic governors Preston Smith and Dolph Briscoe. We don't hear from them too much any more:

Former Democratic Govs. Preston Smith and Dolph Briscoe have been retired from active politics for years. But they remain spectators from afar, and both believe it is wrong for Perry, a Republican, to try to redraw congressional districts set two years ago by a federal court.

Perry's goal is to increase the number of Republicans elected to the U.S. House from Texas. Although all statewide officeholders and a majority of state legislators are Republicans, Democrats still hold a 17-15 edge in the House delegation.

"I see a danger in this. Next session we may have a Democratic majority (in the Legislature). Will they redraw them again?" Smith said in a phone interview from Lubbock, where, at 91, he still helps raise money for Texas Tech University.

He said Perry and the Legislature should live with the map drawn by the federal court after the 2001 Legislature failed to act in the first session after the 2000 U.S. census, the traditional session for redistricting.

"They had a chance to do that in 2001 and failed to do it," Smith said.

Briscoe, 80, of Uvalde, who returned a phone call from vacation in England, agreed.

"I think it's traditional to do it every 10 years. To me, it sets a bad precedent to redraw the districts between the time of the censuses," he said.

As for the editorial department, the Austin American Statesman praised Sen. Ratliff's decision to oppose redistricting:

If you are among those who bemoan the lack of courage and independence in politicians, then please take note of Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant. He has single-handedly taken on U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick, all Republicans.

Ratliff announced Monday that he will not support any plan to redraw Texas' congressional district lines. It was not a solo blast. He joined 10 Democratic senators in making the announcement, and under Senate rules, it takes just 11 of the 31 senators to block consideration of any bill -- even if a simple majority would approve the bill itself, as would likely happen if a redistricting bill were to reach the Senate floor. DeLay and other GOP leaders want such a bill to boost the number of Republican representatives from Texas in the U.S. House, from the current 15 (out of 32) to as many as 22.

In joining the Democrats on this issue, Ratliff was not acting out of partisan favor for either party, or even out of personal interest. Rather, he acted out of what he considered the best interests of his small city and rural constituents, who don't want to become the tail of a congressional district wagged by Dallas suburbs.

Ratliff's constituents, like Ratliff himself and other small-town and rural Texans, have irritated and frustrated DeLay with their independence. On the whole, they are conservative and vote Republican: They backed George W. Bush for president, John Cornyn for U.S. Senate, Perry for governor and Dewhurst for lieutenant governor. But then they broke ranks and voted for conservative or moderate Democrats for Congress whom they have come to know and trust. In Ratliff's part of the state, that has meant they supported Rep. Max Sandlin, D-Marshall.

There are other congressional Democrats getting support in rural and otherwise Republican-leaning districts, such as Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Charles Stenholm of Stamford and Chet Edwards of Waco.

Ratliff isn't worried about saving Democrats. He wants to make sure his constituents have an effective say in who gets elected to Congress, and he thinks the maps he has seen so far won't do it.

Dewhurst has not given up. He hopes to come up with a redistricting plan that would satisfy the concerns of Ratliff -- and other rural Republican senators who have the same fears but aren't willing to buck the party leadership. Failing that, Dewhurst might find some way around the longstanding rule that requires 21 votes to bring a bill up for Senate debate, though such a maneuver would entail a risk to his hard-won reputation for fairness and his mastery of the Senate's tradition of bipartisan governance.

The lieutenant governor suggested Tuesday that Perry might call another special session on redistricting if this one fails, and Perry declined to rule out that possibility.

Our preference is that the Legislature drop this unnecessary redistricting exercise and go home. Let the Republicans come up with candidates who can beat the likes of Stenholm and Edwards at the polls.

In the meantime, for those who bemoan the lack of backbone in state politicians, take a look at Ratliff. It doesn't get much stiffer than that.

The Dallas Morning News joined the Statesman in urging Dewhurst to maintain the senate tradition of the two thirds rule.

No telling what the pressure is like on Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Republican partisans must be twisting his arms as hard as Lyndon Johnson coerced legislators in Washington. They want their leader to break the Senate's rules during the special redistricting session, now that GOP Sen. Bill Ratliff has stalled the Republican push to create new congressional districts.

Mr. Dewhurst, don't bend.

Remember what you told this newspaper after the regular session ended. The Republican in you favors a special session on redistricting. But the leader of the Senate in you does not, because it would spoil the chamber's collegial atmosphere.

Mr. Dewhurst, apply that common sense now.

With the respected Mr. Ratliff deciding to join 10 Democrats in blocking the Senate from considering a GOP-friendly congressional map, Republicans will want you to end a very important Senate rule. It's the one that requires two-thirds of the Senate to approve bringing a bill to the floor.

Ending that rule, Mr. Dewhurst, will be like Adam biting into the apple. It looks juicy, but it will satisfy only for the moment. Bitterness will follow, and the Texas Senate never may be the same.

The two-thirds rule essentially demands that legislators from both parties shop their ideas around to Democratic and Republican legislators. They must line up support from both parties to get bills to the floor.

As Sen. Ratliff says, the rule explains why the Senate operates with a surprising sense of bipartisanship. If Mr. Dewhurst ends it to get a new map to the floor, Washington-style partisanship could become common. That would be doubly disastrous, because the GOP-led House already has lost much of the bipartisanship of the 1990s.

Ideally, Mr. Dewhurst would wipe his hands of "rolling redistricting" entirely. But if he wants a new congressional map or feels he must satisfy Gov. Rick Perry, House Speaker Tom Craddick and the state's GOP financial backers, we suggest he work with the Senate Jurisprudence Committee to come up with a map that can get the support of 21 senators.

That's a far better option than breaking a tradition that benefits Texans. Their legislature doesn't need a can of poison dumped into it. That's what we urge you to remember, Mr. Dewhurst.