By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX – The Senate Democrats are coming home. In a statement today, the 10 remaining members of the 'Texas 11,' who fled to New Mexico six weeks ago to break the Senate quorum, said their decision to return to Texas merely acknowledges that "the battlefield has changed." The 'Texas 11' crossed the Texas border into New Mexico on July 28, shortly after the end of the First Called Session of the 78th Texas Legislature and the beginning 30 minutes later of the Second Called Session. Their goal was to break the Senate quorum and keep a contentious congressional redistricting plan from coming to the Senate floor. Their plan worked...until last week when one of the 'Texas 11' - Sen. John Whitmire of Houston - abandoned ship and returned to the Lone Star State.
Whitmire said staying in New Mexico was pointless if Perry were to carry through on his promise to keep calling special sessions until the redistricting issue is taken up. He said he is prepared to fight the bill in Texas rather than from New Mexico - and on the floor of the Texas Senate. Those Democratic senators remaining in Albuquerque, now calling themselves the 'Texas 11 Minus One," viewed Whitmire's jumping ship as a "betrayal" and said he is "trading away the electoral voices of the millions of rural and minority Texans we are in Albuquerque to defend." They noted Whitmire's absence, which will give the Senate its quorum if he returns when another special session is called, moves the battlefield for the 'Texas 11 Minus One.Now they say they must return to Texas to fight both Whitmire and the Republican members of the Senate "to prevent this partisan power-grab." They accused Whitmire of "conflicting statements," saying first that he was returning to the Senate and later that he had "an escape plan." The 'Texas 11 Minus One' accuse Congressman Tom DeLay and Perry of trying three times to pass their "redistricting power grab" and failing all three times. "We will continue to fight on any front to protect Texans," they said today, "and we will win again." The Democrats will leave Albuquerque Wednesday and arrive in Laredo at 4:30 p.m. On Thursday they will attend a hearing by a three-judge panel on the Democrats' lawsuit in Federal Court there.The three-judge panel was appointed after U.S. District Judge George Kazen heard motions related to the case on Aug. 27 and then sought a three-judge panel to hear the case. He has since been appointed as a member of that panel and is joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham of Dallas and U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal of Houston. Among the items at issue are the request by the Democrats for a restraining order to prevent their arrest by Senate officers when they return to Texas if a special session is called. The court also will face the issue of whether the two-thirds rule must be used during any upcoming special session and if the Democrats must pay the fines imposed on them by their Republican counterparts. "If Gov. Perry calls yet another special session on redistricting, we intend to monitor the situation carefully," said the absent Democrats. "If the Senate achieves a quorum, we will return to the Senate floor to defend our constituents, rural Texans, and more than 1.4 million minorities in Texas who face complete disenfranchisement if Whitmire and the Republicans get their way."