Christmas has come early for Democrats who loathe party-switching opportunists! State Rep. Aaron Pena, R-Himself, announced today that he's not seeking re-election to the Legislature! Why? Once the courts un-gerrymandered the maps, old Aaron realized he just can't win as a Republican.
Peña said he will not seek a sixth term in office in a court-drawn district he deemed unwinnable for any Republican candidate, nor will he move to a conservative-friendly district to vie for votes from the constituents of state Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen.
Instead, Peña's campaign to become the first Hidalgo County Republican elected to the state Legislature since Reconstruction has ended prematurely with the release of a statement saying he "accomplished as much as we set out to do when I ran for this office in 2002."
If those goals include switching parties and stumping for a malevolent Photo ID law that will disproportionately disenfranchise Latinos and his own constituents, then yes! He did a lot!
At least he's not trying to switch back to the Democrats, and being all "I'm so sorry baby, I'll never hurt you again."
Pena said his district "is too dynamic, too diverse to be dominated by a single party that lets bullies thrive and enrich themselves and their cronies." Ironically he's talking about Democrats, not Republicans in the entire state of Texas. Arguably Pena abandoned the party that actually cares about the people in the RGV for one that wants to take away their health care, access to education and job opportunities at best, and ship 'em back over the border at the worst. I, for one, am just disappointed that we never got to see Debbie Riddle and Leo Berman demand that Aaron Pena show his papers to be allowed onto the Legislature floor.
Good riddance, Aaron! Sorry that fair map lines make it impossible for you to keep misrepresenting your constituents.
Update! 10:17 a.m. -- State Rep. Jessica Farrar, Leader of the House Democratic caucus and all-around awesome homegirl, released this statement on her Facebook page:
Representative Aaron Peña's decision to retire reflects that his views are out of touch with his constituents who support funding for public schools and universities, as well as access to healthcare. His voting record as a Republican includes historic cuts to education funding and severe cuts to healthcare services for one of the state's most underserved areas.
We all know that the real intent of the Republicans' voter suppression legislation, strict requirements for a photo ID in order to vote, are intended to disenfranchise groups that tend to vote Democratic, especially Hispanics, African-Americans, young voters, students. After all, if the demographics suggest the state will turn blue within the decade, why not just throw up massive procedural hurdles to likely-Democratic voter participation?
One of the worst offenders on this issue is Aaron Pena, R-Himself, who switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party before this past Legislative session. Pena voted for the strict Photo ID requirements to vote, thus disenfranchising a sizable percentage of his own constituents.
According to the Secretary of State, more than 600,000 registered voters in Texas don't have a Texas driver's license or state-issued photo ID. In Hidalgo County, 22,769 - or 7.98% of total voters - lack this identification. Of these, 17,984 are Hispanic.
"Aaron Pena and his Republican colleagues are using every trick in the book to try and pre-determine the outcome of elections," said Boyd Richie, Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. "Pena voted for legislation that could disenfranchise more than 22,000 Hidalgo County voters. He knows he has a better chance at winning if less people vote."
In 2009 when Aaron Pena sat on the Elections Committee as a Democrat, he voted against the Republican voter suppression legislation. It was only after joining the Republican Party that he embraced proposals to disenfranchise voters.
"As Chairman of the Hispanic Republican Conference, Aaron Pena has taken the lead in disenfranchising Latinos," said Rebecca Acuña, spokeswoman for the Texas Democratic Party. "After a session of voting against the interests of Hispanics and his constituents, we understand why he's scared."
House District 40, which Aaron currently represents, has 204,340 Hispanics. The new House District 41, which Pena gerrymandered for himself, has 127,801 Hispanics, meaning that Aaron purged 76,539 Hispanics from his district.
The Department of Justice pointed to Pena's blatantly gerrymandered district when they objected to the Texas House Map as a Violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Aaron Pena literally voted for a law that will keep his constituents from voting him out of office. I guess that's the Republican way to do incumbent protection. I hope he totally bites the electoral dust, either in the Republican primary OR the general election.
Random fact, Pena (without the ~) means embarrassment in Spanish.
Sad fact, Peña is acting like an embarrassment. Not because of party politics, but he is continuing to give Texas and South Texas a bad name.
Nearly a week ago, political activist and social media guru, Mean Rachel Farris organized and launched, Call Out Aaron day. The Friday was spent encouraging Democrats, moderates and progressives to unfollow Aaron Peña on Facebook and Twitter. The idea, as Farris told press (links to KLRD), was to use the traditional Friday call to action on social networks, "Follow Friday", in reverse.
In the article, Peña mentions that there was no backlash in his district, well, it's a lie.
On son, Aron Peña's facebook page (After he friended me to debate on facebook but before he unfriended me), voters in HD40 had some strong words on Peña's party switch.
Veronica N Mikayla Perez: I agree Adam. Abandoning a party you have been supposedly loyal to for a very long time. A party
that got you re-elected is something that I do not see as acceptable! Staying and helping fix the "broken" is what shows true character.
[...]
Adam Nieto: But it is not the Democratic party's fault its Hidalgo County. This as you know includes the Republican party. So your arguments on validity are wrong. Blame the people who have done wrong not the party.
Of course, the conversation went on, but the proof is there, residents of Hidalgo County aren't pleased.
One of those he shook hands with was Tom Haughey, executive director of the Hidalgo County Republican Party.
"I told Aaron it was a pleasure to shake the hands of the Winston Churchill of the Valley," Haughey told the Guardian, immediately after the encounter. "Winston Churchill changed parties. He did it as a matter of conviction because of what he saw. He took unpopular positions and he came out smelling like a rose. He basically saved the British Empire."
More spin but the facts simply don't support it.
Peña and his son have both been under siege on Facebook and Twitter from people in House District 40. Democrats and Republicans have asked Peña to follow Phil Gramm's precedent by resigning and allowing the district to vote to validate or repudiate Peña's claim the district supports his decision to abandon the Democratic Party for political gain.
Peña has had one thing to tout as unhidden proof that people support him and his choice to switch to the GOP - Twitter.
The Republican from the Valley boasts having nearly 2,000 followers on Twitter now and claims to have had the largest single day surge in followers during Call Out Aaron day. What the Republican fails to mention in his lies, is that he is padding his numbers by following Republican groups and individuals across the county in a ploy to lure them into following him.
When planning started on Call Out Aaron Peña day, the Democrat was following 1,388 people and had 1,879 followers. As of writing this, Peña is now following 1,826 people and has 1,998 followers. That is a 31% increase in the amount of people Peña is following but only a 6% increase in followers. Of that, few live inside his district or potential district. In fact, many live outside of Texas.
This solidifies why he doesn't want his 70% Democratic district to have a chance to vote before he can gerrymander, DeLay style, a district that is Republican and suppresses Hispanic turnout numbers.
Former Democratic Party Executive Director, and close friend to BOR for obvious reasons, Ed Martin, talked to Peggy Fikac at the Houston Chronicle about why Peña's party switch is troubling to the Democrats who elected him and his current constituents.
"The violation of principle is the same for both, but the impact of the Republican agenda on Peña's constituents is much harsher - on their educational and economic opportunity, health care, and even their rights to fully and freely participate in a country generations of Hispanics have fought to protect and defend. An overwhelming majority of his constituents felt that way and voted that way, and he turned his back on them," said Democratic strategist Ed Martin.
The tragedy here is Peña refuses to discuss with any party officials or voters why he switched to the GOP beyond using the Republican talking points Rick Perry and David Dewhurst handed him in Austin.
Peña has resorted to personal attacks and directly ignoring any person who is not a Republican or ongoing supporter. Peña is showing, he represents his friends and nobody else. So the thousands and thousands of people who aren't of Peña's like mind, are left out in the cold, hoping that Peña won't sell them out to the special interests and lobbyist that dominate the Republican Party of Texas.
Maybe that is why we are already hearing of multiple challengers on both the right and left of Peña.
If you're on twitter, you should also enjoy the satircal stylings of Fake Aaron Peña (@AaronForAaron) Who, during the Call Out Aaron campaign, was able to get to 108 followers while only following 300 people. Better growth numbers than the real, Republican Aaron Peña.
With Austin Rep. Donna Howard winning her recount by 12 votes, Democrats thought they had locked in their important 51st vote in the Texas House, denying the GOP a 100 vote supermajority in the lower chamber. A 2/3rds majority is largely symbolic as there are few provisions that require a 2/3rds vote in the House- tapping the Rainy Day Fund, constitutional amendments, and overriding a gubernatorial veto or, in extreme cases, breaking quorum.
On Election Night, I remarked that Democrats were lucky that Democratic Representative Allan Ritter did not have a Republican opponent as he would have likely lost like the rest of his East Texas Anglo Democratic colleagues. I even remarked privately to folks in Austin that because of the slim margin we would be wise to keep an eye out for GOP pressure to garner a party switch from the Democratic caucus.
It appears that may be happening, but from an unlikely source.
Today, Rep. Aaron Pena of Hidalgo County, which still has no Republican officeholders, announced that he will issue a statement in the coming days to address swirling speculation that he may switch parties. From the Rio Grande Guardian...
"I am out of state with my wife on a mini-vacation. With so many calls coming in, I cannot simply ignore the speculation any more. As a result of the devastation in the general election, where Texas Democrats lost their conservative and much of the moderate wing of their party, I responded to questions posed by the Rio Grande Guardian as to what the future holds for the party.
"That article caused a lot of speculation and the Texas Tribune, in a podcast, and Texas Monthly's Paul Burka, in a blog, asked questions about my future. Although Paul took his post down soon afterwards, it opened up the floodgates and I have received over 50 calls, from Democrats and Republicans alike.
"Many of the Democrats are still thinking the party can be reformed and that perhaps, in a decade, we can be competitive again.
"Many of the calls from Republicans, including lawmakers, were that our community can still have a seat at the table now. Why wait a decade when you can have opportunities now?
"And so, after the large number of calls today and the growing speculation, I can say I am taking the matter under consideration and I will issue a public statement in the coming days, one way or the other. I am who I am and my intention is to represent my community and to give them the best possible advantage under the current environment."
Peña added that when he gets back home he will talk to family, close friends and community leaders before issuing his public statement.
While Pena isn't the only Democrat to be disappointed with the Texas Democratic Party, this is a poor way of resolving those concerns if he's seriously considering becoming a Republican.
First, aligning yourself with the Republicans for the sake of "the best interests of your district" aka "access" is something we've heard before- from the sellout Craddick Democrats. I don't have the list handy, but I think that most of them have been now been defeated in primaries, generals, or retired. Given that Rep. Pena is already a pledge to Speaker Strauss, switching parties doesn't change the speaker math unless he's planning to throw his support behind Rep. Paxton which would be a whole other level of bizarre. Maybe Strauss could claim that he enabled the GOP 100 vote supermajority but that seems largely irrelevant from the real dynamics in the current anti-Strauss campaign. Does Strauss have any spare Chairmanships to hand out to Pena if he switches? He's already chair of the Select Committee on Emergency Preparedness and I doubt that the GOP caucus would stand for Strauss elevating him from Vice Chair to Chair of Elections when Voter ID is on the top of the agenda. Pena already has seats on the Redistricting and Ways & Means Committees so I'm puzzled by how much more he can extract by switching parties.
Second, the 100 vote supermajority is a lot like when Democrats got their "60th vote in the Senate" with Al Franken. We know that because of the ideology of those 60 Senators, which included 2 Independents, that Democrats never really had an effective 60 vote coalition. The same thing is true of the Texas GOP where the ideological spectrum of 100 will make it hard to wrangle party-line votes on a number of issues.
Plus, there is no filibuster in the Texas House; the few things which 100 votes are needed for (tapping the Rainy Day Fund, constitutional amendments, and overriding a gubernatorial veto) will probably end up being cross-party votes unless Pena is suddenly going to vote for hard right constitutional amendments. It's just as likely there are still a couple of votes in the Democratic caucus that will replace some GOP moderate votes on 100-vote type of issues. Having 100 votes for veto overrides is kind of pointless so long as we still have a Republican Governor. Tapping the Rainey Day Fund is something that Democrats want, not Republicans (according to the Tea Party and GOP budget writing leadership) 100 votes is equally meaningless there. The ability to break quorum might be the biggest, but it was hard to get 51 members to do that when Democrats had nearly a dozen more seats available as a buffer- with 51 seats there no margin for error and that includes Democratic members that did not participate in the quorum busting during the redistricting debate in 2003.
Third, we have the electoral issue. Rep. Chuck Hopson switched parties because he was in the most Republican district held by a Democrat in the Texas House. He switched out of self preservation and was successful in winning a GOP primary and general. Rep. Pena is from Hidalgo County which has no other elected Republicans. Switching might earn him some love from a GOP drawn redistricting and as such he'd have to count on somehow getting a GOP leaning district drawn in Hidalgo County. If that somehow happens, it will be the 'most Anglo' district you can draw in Hidalgo which would open up Pena to primary challengers that will never see him as conservative enough. Hopson was already conservative when he switched and didn't have to move much ideologically in his voting. Pena would have to really change his voting behavior to accomodate GOP primary voters, however few of them there are in Hidalgo. And if he does get out of the primary, he'll have to face a 2012 general election electorate in Hidalgo County.
I guess the silver lining in a Pena party switch would be that he'd finally give Democrats a contested general election race in Hidalgo County in 2012- a presidential year where KBH's US Senate seat will be up.
Since giving the GOP a 100 vote supermajority doesn't actually have that many practical effects on the 2011 legislative session, maybe we should let Pena go. The irony would be exquisit if Pena's party switch led to the very rebuilding the Democratic Party, particularly in South Texas, that is being given as the rationale for him becoming a Republican.
Update: Rick Perry vs The World ran the numbers. Basically, there is no way Pena wins as a Republican.
The ghost of Tom Craddick lives on. The once tyrannical House Speaker is still making news. Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission today alleging that the Texas Jobs & Opportunity PAC served as an illegal conduit in 2008 for contributions from then-Speaker Tom Craddick to three Democratic House candidates.
The complaint specifically cites $150,000 in contributions from Tom Craddick to Democrats Kevin Bailey, Kino Flores and Aaron Pena. Rep. Bailey was defeated by Armando Walle in the 2008 primary, Kino Flores has recently resigned, making Pena the only active Representative to receive a $50,000 check from the Texas Jobs & Opportunity PAC.
According to TPJ, the timeline is clear.
Jobs PAC reported that it received $250,000 from Tom Craddick's campaign committee on January 10, 2008. According to news reports, around that time Craddick campaign employee Christi Craddick also provided Texas Jobs with written instructions to distribute the funds to Democratic Reps. Kevin Bailey, Dawnna Dukes, Kino Flores and Aaron Pena. All four incumbents previously supported Republican Speaker Craddick and faced challengers in the 2008 Democratic primary.2 According to its own reports, Jobs PAC wrote three checks of $50,000 apiece to the campaigns of Reps. Bailey, Flores and Pena on January 11, 2008. By its own accounting, at the time Texas Jobs wrote these checks its sole source of funding was the $250,000 that it received the day before from the Craddick campaign. Rep. Dukes, the fourth lawmaker, told the Austin American-Statesman that she rejected an offer to receive $50,000 from Texas Jobs because her opponent already was making her Craddick ties a campaign issue.
"Tom Craddick wanted to move tens of thousands of dollars to his favorite Democrats without letting voters know," said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. "Hiding the true source of campaign funds is illegal. Craddick could have contributed the money directly and openly. Instead, he used Texas Jobs to launder his money and keep Texans in dark."
TPJ alleges the Texas Jobs & Opportunity PAC violated Chapter 253.001 of the Texas Election Code which directly prohibits individuals or political committees from secretly acting as conduits for other donors. Because Craddick employee Christi Craddick gave Texas Jobs & Opportunity PAC with a letter detailing instructions on who and how to distribute the original $250,000 donation, the recipients were obligated to disclose the original source of the donations-- then-speaker Tom Craddick.
According to TPJ, "The Craddick campaign used Texas Jobs to try to keep its large campaign contributions anonymous."
State Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas), the chairman of the committee appointed to the Texas Democratic Party's primary/caucus system, told the Austin American-Statesman he didn't expect any "dramatic" changes to the system.
West, who conceded their needed to be some "retooling" of the system to allow for greater participation, said his committee would recommend that the State Democratic Executive Committee keep the system.
State Rep. Aaron Pena (D-Edinburg) had hoped the committee would recommend changes to the current system.
"This system cannot continue," Peña said, because many voters are unlikely to attend evening caucuses.
"The average citizen, the silent majority, they pay their taxes, go to church, raise their kids, go to soccer games and the PTA," Peña said. "The average citizen does not get involved in the nuances of party affairs. ... We are grooming a leadership of party hacks and party bosses instead of average folks."
I was hoping to see some significant changes, but perhaps it will be better to wait until the 2008 primary is even further in the rearview mirrow. The fact that Gardner Selby felt compelled to identify West as an "Obama supporter" and Pena as a "Clinton supporter" is distressing to me because that is really not what this should be about.
If that is what is driving some people, they should get over it; or rather, they should have gotten over it a year ago. Having attended one of the hearings in Austin, I know that there were supporters from both primary candidates on each side of the issue.
We will keep an eye on what the SDEC does on this at their June 1 meeting.
On Monday, the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee will hold a public hearing on a bill which will give Texas bloggers and citizen journalists some much-needed protections under Texas law.
The committee will take public testimony on House Bill 4237 by State Rep. Aaron Pena (D-Edinburg).
This bill gives bloggers and citizen journalists the same protections that the mainstream media has when it comes to covering matters of "public concern," such as legislative proceedings, school board meetings, and the actions of state officials.
Aaron Pena's twitter feed has been solid since the Speaker race started moving.
Pena points out Quorum Reports point that Rep. Senfronia Thompson has withdrawn from the race and thrown her support behind Republican Joe Straus.
Meanwhile, Speaker candidate QR Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) has withdrawn her speaker candidacy and is contacting her supporters endorsing Straus.
Thompson told QR, "I am going to support this guy. I looked at the other candidates but he is the best. I think it might be the beginning of something different."
In addition, Pena confirms rumors that John Smithee has faxed in his paperwork to the Texas Ethics Commission to be a candidate for Speaker. However, sources are reporting Smithee's candidacy is a day late and a dollar short. It appears that Straus has locked this up. The question is who will be last to the Straus camp.
Here in Texas, there's been a major split around the controversial Speaker of the House, Rep. Tom Craddick. These four Democrats (highlighted in red), who supported Speaker Craddick, drew challengers, and whether or not they win or lose -- coupled with other key TX House races we're watching in other threads -- could signal the potential defeat of Speaker Craddick.
To see a full list of how the TX House candidates are doing tonight, follow this link:
