Andy Brown, Travis County Democratic Party Chair released the following letter, this afternoon regarding Voter Suppression Legislation (full letter in quoted section below).
One note is that I was told by a House Member that a Republican Representative is attending a wedding on Saturday, so my guess is that might not be voted on tomorrow, but in any case, please contact your representatve today and ask them to vote AGAINST Voter ID.
With Rep. Kuempel still recovering and assuming Speaker Straus does not vote, we have a 74 Dems to 74 Repubs match-up...
The Republican Voter Suppression legislation is scheduled to reach the House floor tomorrow. Senate Bill (SB) 362 is on the Texas House calendar for Saturday. It is critical that your State Representative and House Speaker Joe Straus hear your opposition to this unnecessary, partisan legislation.
The Republican controlled House and Senate both struggle to debate local bills and find solutions on important issues ranging from windstorm insurance, green jobs, and the use of the Federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act, among others. The Texas House is now slated to spend an entire day debating voter suppression legislation.
There are three things you can do to prevent this waste of time.
Call or e-mail House Speaker Joe Straus and tell him to focus the House's efforts on real priorities instead of threatening Texans right to vote. His capitol phone number is (512) 463-0686 and you can e-mail his office directly here.
Contact your State Representative and let them know you oppose SB 362 because; it has nothing to do with voter fraud and everything to do with using the reins of government to gain partisan advantage by making it harder for certain Texans to vote. You can find your State Representative online.
Show your support to our Democratic leaders by going to the House gallery, wearing blue, while they debate this bill on Saturday. Republicans have flooded the capitol wearing red in previous debates, and we need to support our Democrats while they spend the entire day debating this Republican voter suppression legislation.
Join in the fight to stop this restrictive and unnecessary bill.
Voter Suppression Legislation (Voter ID) is likely to hit the TX House Floor Thursday or Friday for a vote.
I've analyzed this from many angles, and each time it ends up within 1 vote - either for or against.
One of the big deciding factors is how much the bill might be amended before the final vote. That is still TBD.
We need everyone across the state to make a quick call to their reps and ask them to please vote AGAINST Voter ID.
All of our local Travis County Dem Reps are voting against it, and most Democrats are voting against it, but not all (latest #'s are 3 or 4 Dems can go either way. My sources report that Rep. Farabee will vote for it, yikes! Heflin voted for it in committee, but sources report he's on the fence and could go either way).
Some Repubs are voting against it (likely that Delwin Jones and Tommy Merritt will both do the right thing and vote against it...please thank them for this!!).
If you live outside of Travis County, PLEASE call your rep today and ask him/her to vote AGAINST voter ID!
Below is a msg from Terri Burke, Exec Dir ACLU released this morning:
Here are just a few reasons it's a bad bill:
Voter ID is an idea allegedly designed to eliminate voter impersonation. Except our state doesn't have a voter impersonation problem. Not one case of in-person voter fraud has been prosecuted in the state of Texas. The worst voter fraud problems have occurred with mail-in absentee ballots and this bill doesn't address those issues.
Voters without the required ID could cast provisional ballots, which would be counted later after the proof of identity is provided. Already, Texas has the highest rate of UNCOUNTED provisional ballots in the nation. What makes us think more provisional ballots added to the total will lead to more being counted?
It will require substantial expenditures by your county that will only be slightly compensated by the state. Other states that have implemented Voter ID have shown no proven benefits so why should we waste our taxpayer dollars in these tough economic times?
Voter ID is a bad idea. It's bad for Texas. It's bad for Texans.
Texas is one of several states subject to the Voter Rights Act Section 5 pre-clearance whereby election practices or procedures are frozen until the new proposed procedures have been subjected to review by the US Department of Justice. You wouldn't be too surprised by our state neighbors in the VRA Section 5 pool. You also wouldn't be too surprised that under the Bush administration DOJ pre-clearance has been relatively easy.
LA Times 3/25/2007 Justice Department tugged to the right
Under Bush, the department has been tainted by politics, many say.
(snip)
The Civil Rights Division veterans focused their criticism on major voting case decisions over the last six years that they say have generally benefited the GOP.
The most recent case concerned a 2005 Georgia law that required voters to provide photo identification. Staff attorneys raised concerns about the law after the Georgia secretary of state supplied data showing that tens of thousands of voters might not have driver's licenses or other prescribed forms of identification. They said the plan could effectively disenfranchise large numbers of black voters.
The primary date of March 4 has been set for quite some time in Texas. It is probably best that we vote for our presidential nominees before we are drunk at St Patrick's Day (Yes, I know. Kinky didn't swallow the Guinness at the Dallas parade. Brilliant!). However there are some who think we may need to vote for the nominee prior to buying your sweetheart some candy on Valentine's Day, even as early as February 5th.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, any change in date would have to go through Leo Berman's House Committee on Elections.
For the Texas date to change, Berman said, "it's going to have to be a total bipartisan push. It's going to take a large majority of both sides of the aisle to do something like this."
While most Legislators are not entirely sure the date should be moved up to compete with other states for clout, the Texas Democratic Party would support a move up as close as February 5. If Texas moved it's Democratic primary date, it would have more sway in how the rest of the country may vote. As it stands right now this is the schedule for the Democratic primaries by state:
* January 14 2008 - Iowa * January 19 2008 - Nevada * January 22 2008 - New Hampshire * January 29 2008 - South Carolina * February 5 2008 - Delaware, Missouri * February 12 2008 - District of Columbia, Tennessee, Virginia * February 19 2008 - Wisconsin * February 26 2008 - Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, New Jersey * March 2008 (date to be determined) - American Samoa, Democrats Abroad, Guam, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Virgin Islands, Wyoming * March 4 2008 - Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Texas * March 7 2008 - Colorado, Utah * March 8 2008 - Kansas * March 11 2008 - Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma * March 18 2008 - Illinois, Oregon * April 2008 (date to be determined) - Alaska * April 1 2008 - Pennsylvania * May 6 2008 - Indiana, North Carolina * May 13 2008 - Nebraska, West Virginia * May 20 2008 - Arkansas, Kentucky * May 27 2008 - Washington * June 3 2008 - Alabama, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, California
The impact of a change in date could also upset voters who are used to having a March primary. It could also impact the campaigns of local and state candidates. Having a shorter primary race means a much longer political campaign against incumbents who sit on their pots of gold. In that same regard, it also means less time spent battling your primary opponent and wasting your campaign money.
While we may not hold the key to who we sway the American public to vote for in the primaries, we must remember Texas is the key to any presidential winner in 2008 in the general election. Maybe we should just rest on those laurels before we ditch the leprechaun for cupid.
We all knew the Texas Legislature was drunk on power. But now we have reason to believe that they may just be drunk.
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the major liquor distributors in Texas have donated a total of $1.7 million to our politicians in the Governor's office, on down the line in the House and Senate.
The objective: Glazer's Distributors of Dallas (no relation to Matt I hope) and Republic Beverage Co. of San Antonio want to be able to sell directly from wholesale to restaurants and bars. As the law currently stands, only package stores can sell to these establishments for liquor by the drink. The solution: Donate millions of dollars to every representative in Texas and get the law changed. Below is the listed liquor money:
$100,000: Gov. Rick Perry
$100,000: House Speaker Tom Craddick
$75,000: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
$40,000: Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, chairman of the Sunset Advisory Commission, which recently reviewed whether to extend the life of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
$40,000: Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, chairman of the Senate business and commerce committee
$40,000: Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, dean of the Senate and member of Sunset Advisory Commission.
$20,000: to 23 of 31 senators
$10,000: to 26 House members, including 9 committee chairmen
$6,000: to 27 House members
$4,500: to 9 House members
$3,000: to 39 House members
$1,500: to 17 House members
SOURCE: Texas Ethics Commission filings. Three other senators and 11 other House members received contributions in different amounts, ranging from $1,000 to $15,000 each.
Personally I do not care how the liquor gets from the barrel to my glass. But if it means bribing elected officials so your company can cut out the middle man, and possibly create a monopoly on liquor distribution, thus causing my $3 happy hour drink to cost me more, then we have a problem!!
If this is not a good example of the "pay to play" system in Austin, I don't know what is. While most every member of the Legislature looks guilty in this situation, once again the usual suspects lead the way by example: Rick Perry, David Dewhurst, and Tom Craddick. Though, I am curious to find out who the sacrificial lamb will be that files the bill to change the current system. If the bill is not filed, the liquor giants just lost a $1.7 million gamble by betting it all on red.
(Our Summer writers might still be getting used to that 'post to front page' button. =) - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
In case you missed it, the US Senate denied our country a raise in the minimum wage standards yet again. The vote was 52-46 in favor, 8 votes shy of the needed majority, even with some Republicans breaking ranks to vote in favor.
Senator Edward Kennedy only proposed a hike to $6.25 (compromised from an earlier $7.25). The current minimum wage is only $5.15, which is has been since 1997. Instead, the Senate has decided it needs to raise it's own pay for the 8th time since that year - a total of $31,000!
15 other states and D.C. have set standards above the federal level. When is the state of Texas going to realize that we can not sit by and wait for the federal government to increase the living wages of our citizens?
I would like to call on the next session of the state legislature to increase the minimum wage in Texas.
