Capitol Chronicle

Here We Go Again: The Road to New Mexico, Abandoning All Hope (and Crosby)

If this is Tuesday, the Texas Senate must be in Albuquerque.

That was the destination chosen by the self-dubbed "Texas 11," those Democratic state senators (all but Victoria's Ken Armbrister) who quietly disappeared from the Capitol and then Austin Monday afternoon, when it abruptly became clear that the Republican leadership intended to call yet another special session to pursue congressional redistricting. Since the first special session wasn't scheduled to end until Tuesday, the call issued by Gov. Rick Perry was a ham-fisted maneuver to catch the Dems napping. By the end of last week the Capitol had already been abuzz that Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst might try a lightning adjournment-and-recall in the hopes of locking the Senate doors before the Dems could book.

As it turned out, the Democrats were long gone by 4pm, when Dewhurst formally adjourned Special Called Session No. 1 and attempted to convene Special Called Session No. 2. "We were walking literally to the Senate floor," said Houston Democrat John Whitmire, "when Republicans and Democrats notified us that the governor would call the special immediately after sine die. I'm too old and too smart to stick around where they are fixing to lock me up." (The tip-off suggests more than one elephant is not devoted to the program.) In the absence of a quorum, Palestine's Todd Staples made the pro forma motion to put a call on absent members, the Senate doors were symbolically locked, and Dewhurst issued passes to those still in attendance. "I don't know if there's any precedent for this," said Armbrister tentatively, "but I'd like to make a motion for the Senate to stand at ease [it couldn't adjourn since it hadn't convened] in memory of Bob Hope."


A Majority of 11

A few minutes later, Dewhurst could have used some of Hope's material as he wanly tried to defend Perry's determination to hold his breath until the Democrats turn blue. "I've got to share with you that I am very disappointed," Dewhurst told reporters, saying he had spent "hours and hours" trying to persuade Senate Democrats not to break the quorum but instead to join their Republican colleagues in producing "a fair map."

"I told you two weeks ago," said Dewhurst, "when Senator Ratliff had changed his mind ... that I expected this to be a bump in the road. I can still see the destination [of congressional redistricting]." Bill Ratliff, the East Texas Republican who had then signed the Democrats' declaration "unalterably" opposing redistricting, tells a different story -- that he duly considered the proposed maps and the divisive process required to produce them and decided to "fall on his sword" on behalf of his colleagues and the Senate itself.

Ratliff gave the Dems the 11 votes they needed under the Senate's two-thirds rule to keep redistricting from the floor through Session No. 1 -- just as Senate Republicans, led by David Sibley, had done in 2001. Dewhurst threw in the towel last Friday, and in the meantime Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, had joined his fellows, musing sagely, "Anybody with input from the district that is running 99 percent opposed, there is only one way you can vote." (Armbrister said Monday night that he is staying in Austin to protect the interests of his rural -- and generally Republican -- district but that he supports his Democratic colleagues.) So Dewhurst let it be known that in any future sessions -- and Perry promises to keep calling them until the Democrats surrender -- the two-thirds rule will not apply. Dewhurst claimed Monday that the two-thirds rule (which depends on a "blocker bill" at the top of the calendar) had been abandoned in 20 previous sessions but said he didn't know if that was ever true of a special redistricting session not subject to a court order. (In previous redistricting sessions, with the courts watching, the blocker bill was dropped by mutual consent of both parties.) Said the lite guv, "I'll get back to you on that."


Thanks for the Memories

Dewhurst was even more vague on why the decision was made to end the special session a day early, even though he (and later the governor) complained that the Democrats' sudden absence meant bills worth $800 million had been left hanging (although the money remains in the bank). That allegation, to put it politely, makes no sense. Not only was it the Republicans' decision to end the first session prematurely, the leadership had made no attempt (if the bills had been in real jeopardy) to work through the weekend. Moreover, on the House side, Speaker Tom Craddick had engaged in a display of final-days bumbling and authoritarian pettiness that easily outstripped his similar performance in the regular session.

The House had no quorum on either Friday or Monday, and it was not because of AWOL Democrats. Despite personal recalls from the speaker's office, enough Republicans stayed at a San Francisco convention over the weekend, then moved on to a D.C. convention Monday, to make all the House business officially vulnerable to a quorum call. All day Friday, the Dems resisted the urge to upset the apple cart. Then Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, refused to accept as friendly to his transportation bill (SB 21, still trying to fix the governor's bungled Trans-Texas Corridors) an amendment by Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, that would allow undocumented immigrants to receive driver licenses using Mexican consular IDs, and Democrats suddenly began wandering off. Krusee got his bill passed -- 88 to 11 -- but then Alonzo called a point of order on the quorum, and that was that.

Monday things turned even nastier, as Craddick still had only a token quorum when HB 5 (McCall), a comptroller's cash-management bill, came to the floor amid a farrago of Democratic objections. The Dems didn't have the votes to amend the bill without Republican help (not forthcoming under the Duke of Midland), so they steadily made themselves scarce. When Craddick put the measure to a vote, the board lit brightly green, but it was abundantly apparent there was no actual quorum on the floor. Yet the speaker first ignored, then simply refused, numerous demands for a "verification" vote that would have killed the measure. The House clerk now shows HB 5 as "enrolled" -- although by what legal action of the Legislature is anybody's guess.

If there is a precedent for the speaker of the Texas House to ignore direct, valid parliamentary requests from the members, nobody on the floor could recall it. Craddick and Garnet Coleman engaged in a brief shouting match, and a few moments later, Craddick adjourned the House -- for lack of a quorum. Between that action and the sine die declaration a couple of hours later, according to Dewhurst, "Speaker Craddick concluded that there was not enough time to advance the government reorganization bill, and so Governor Perry made the decision [to call a special session] this afternoon."

Although Monday's House lacked a quorum every bit as much as the Senate, Craddick made no attempt to "put a call" on the House. "It would have been interesting," said Jim Dunnam later, "to see him send the DPS out to arrest Republicans."

"The first called special session," concluded Coleman, "accomplished absolutely nothing and cost $1.7 million."

Hang on to your lottery tickets. The fun has just begun. end story

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KEYWORDS FOR THIS STORY

78th Legislature, Ken Armbrister, Texas 11, Rick Perry, redistricting, David Dewhurst, John Whitmire, Todd Staples, Bill Ratliff, David Sibley, Frank Madla, Tom Craddick, quorum, Mike Krusee, SB 21, Robert Alonzo, HB 5, Garnet Coleman, Jim Dunnam

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