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Out of Touch AND Out of Town?


by: Jose Blasquez

Mon Apr 23, 2007 at 06:24 PM CDT


Update 7:30 pm: Looks like some offices read the BOR as Pena and Kino just paired their votes with Goolsby and England.  Good job on the England/Goolsby pairing though guys, you just took those issues off the table for their '08 elections.

Just a quick update on House floor action for the Voter Disenfranchisement legislation currently on the floor.

Voting has begun to settle along party lines as members feels they need to get their say while everyone else tunes them out.

Of interest, however, are two absent legislators whose districts are directly affected by these bad pieces of legislation.

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Reps. Aaron Pena and Kino Flores are both absent from the house floor today despite the effect House Bills 218 (Voter ID) and 626 (Constitutional Voter Registration) could have in their overwhelmingly Latino commmunities.

It does look like that Rep. Pena attempted to influence the vote from afar by posting on his blog his remarks.

No reports as to how Kino Flores tried to swing some votes over to the D side on this issue.  But I'm sure he at least attempted to, right?  I mean, that's what the whole vote for Craddick was for, correct?  To gain influence and key committee assignments so that Craddick Ds could  better represent their district.

It also looks like neither one of them paired their vote with a Republican, which would have allowed Rep. Jim Dunnam's amendment to lower the age which senior citizens are exempt from House Bill 218 (Voter ID) from 80 to 65 to pass.

As it stands, that amendment failed 73-72.  Pairing votes would've allowed that vote to pass 71-72.  Or the two Representatives could have just shown up and done the people's business and the vote would have passed 73-74.

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They were paired (0.00 / 0)
Flores and Pena WERE paired. Both voted against  the bill.

thanks for the update. and a question... (0.00 / 0)
it seems this amendment was a low-hanging 14th amendment challenge all set up, with its un-equal (voting right) protection and all that, or is there a precedent for 14th amendment-exemptions on an age-basis?

did any Ds explain their strategy in this amendment vote, especially if they thought the bill would pass out eventually, and they could have added a poison pill, of sorts, to it.

just curious,
mario

-my comments at BOR are mine, and do not represent anything official from LFT.


I would agree with you Mario on 14th amendment (0.00 / 0)
Not only was there a class of 80+ exemptions but there was also an exemption for disabled veterans and widows of military servicemen and women. The amended bill that passed last night is a mess.  Brown initially wanted vote to table the military exemption, saying to vote on tabling was not a vote against our military.  She was quickly surrounded by her coaches, mainly Bohac, and she then retreated and accepted the amendment.

[ Parent ]
Vote (0.00 / 0)
So did Goolsby and England vote against this bill?

No. Sort of. (5.00 / 1)
They are officially listed as Present Not Voting.
They would have voted for the bill, but chose to sit out as a way of balancing the 'no' votes of two reps who could not attend.

[ Parent ]
to note... (5.00 / 1)
England was the supposed "swing" vote in Elections when this bill was in committee.  Him white-lighting on this bill buys him cover in a district that would be negatively impacted by its passage.  Think Martha Wong and HJR 6.

The same applies for Goolsby.  Two D's got to skip town and not incur any ill will by the Republican leadership while providing cover for two vulnerable R's.


[ Parent ]
I don't think they get a pass, their intention was clear (0.00 / 0)
Their intention was to vote yes.  Same as voting for the bill as far as I'm concerned.
Recorded vote HB218 page 52

[ Parent ]
Check the journal (0.00 / 0)
This is directly from yesterday's House Journal.  Here is the URL:
http://tlo2.tlc.stat...

According to the journal, Goolsby voted to table the amendment and England voted against tabling the amendment.  Only the Speaker was PNV.

Amendment No. 2

Representative Dunnam offered the following amendment to Amendment No.i1:

Amend Amendment No. 1 by Betty Brown to HB 218 on page 1, line 10 by striking "80" and substituting "65".

Representative B. Brown moved to table Amendment No. 2.

(Speaker in the chair)

A record vote was requested.

The vote of the house was taken on the motion to table Amendment No. 2 and the vote was announced yeas 71, nays 68.

A verification of the vote was requested and was granted.

The roll of those voting yea and nay was again called and the verified vote resulted, as follows (Record 604): 73 Yeas, 72 Nays, 1 Present, not voting.

Yeas - Anderson; Aycock; Berman; Bohac; Bonnen; Branch; Brown, B.; Brown, F.; Callegari; Chisum; Christian; Cook, B.; Corte; Crabb; Creighton; Crownover; Darby; Davis, J.; Delisi; Driver; Eissler; Elkins; Flynn; Gattis; Goolsby; Haggerty; Hancock; Hardcastle; Harless; Harper-Brown; Hartnett; Hilderbran; Hill; Howard, C.; Hughes; Isett; Jackson; Keffer; King, P.; King, S.; Kolkhorst; Kuempel; Latham; Laubenberg; Macias; Madden; McCall; Miller; Morrison; Mowery; Murphy; O'Day; Orr; Otto; Parker; Patrick; Paxton; Phillips; Pitts; Riddle; Smith, W.; Smithee; Solomons; Straus; Swinford; Talton; Taylor; Truitt; Van Arsdale; West; Woolley; Zedler; Zerwas.

Nays - Allen; Alonzo; Anchia; Bailey; Bolton; Burnam; Castro; Chavez; Cohen; Coleman; Cook, R.; Davis, Y.; Deshotel; Dukes; Dunnam; Dutton; Eiland; England; Escobar; Farabee; Farias; Farrar; Frost; Gallego; Garcia; Geren; Giddings; Gonzales; Gonzalez Toureilles; Guillen; Hamilton; Heflin; Hernandez; Herrero; Hochberg; Hodge; Homer; Hopson; Howard, D.; King, T.; Krusee; Leibowitz; Lucio; Mallory Caraway; Martinez; Martinez Fischer; McClendon; McReynolds; Menendez; Merritt; Miles; Naishtat; Noriega; Oliveira; Olivo; Ortiz; Pickett; Pierson; Puente; Quintanilla; Raymond; Ritter; Rodriguez; Rose; Smith, T.; Strama; Thompson; Turner; Vaught; Veasey; Villarreal; Vo.

Present, not voting - Mr. Speaker(C).

Absent, Excused - Flores; Moreno; Peña.

Absent - Jones.

The speaker stated that the motion to table prevailed by the above vote.


You're mixing up two votes (0.00 / 0)
The vote on the amendment above would have passed has Flores and Pena made it to Austin to vote.

The vote on the entirety of HB 218 had England and Gooslby pairing with Flores and Pena.


[ Parent ]
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