Burnt Orange Report

Is Representative Democracy Dead in Texas?

By Byron LaMasters

Via Kuff,, Keir Murray of Houtopia writes of speaking with an unnamed state senator who says the Texas House GOP is likely to seat Heflin, dump Vo, and get on with the people's business:

I spoke last night with a state senator, who shall remain nameless, who now believes the State House GOP may decide to seat Heflin and bump Vo out, overturning Vo's legitimate win in District 149. Like most folks familiar with the Legislature, until recently he didn't think there was any chance of that happening. He's changed his mind. The reasoning is as follows:

The legislative session begins next week, and Democratic House members begin baiting Craddick from the back microphone -- "Mr. Speaker, if you are indicted, will you step down from your leadership post?" -- and so on. The session quickly dissolves into a partisan lockdown, and Vo loses on a party-line vote.

Sound far-fetched? Think for a moment about what the GOP, at both the state and federal level, has had the audacity to do in the last couple of years -- redistricting, ethics changes, now trying to eliminate the filibuster from the U.S. Senate, etc -- and you may reach the same conclusion the state senator has. "These guys just don't give a sh*t." Bad press? Who cares. Public outrage? They'll get over it. Politically dangerous? Not a chance -- all we have to do is win a GOP primary anyway. Democratic retribution? (After several moments of laughter) Who?

The senator (and I) believe the GOP will make every attempt to do this for one reason, they can. They have the votes and they value power above all else. If they can take a little bit more, they will, integrity and the public be damned.

The short term consequence of such action would be rather minimal. Democrats would be outraged, Asian-Americans would be outraged, and Talmadge Heflin would get his butt kicked in 2006. The long term consequences would probably see an alienation of the Asian-American community in Houston from the Republican Party for a generation, and significant challenges to Martha Wong and Joe Nixon for years to come. Is one seat really worth it to Republicans? Yeah, probably. They don't care. They consider lots of new people registering to vote to be a voting irregularity. They hate Democracy, and they've decided that Democrats are irrelevant.

More thoughts about this with Greg, Kuff and Houtopia.