TX redistricting OK'd; appeal to be made to USSC

The third special session on redistricting opened at noon today with Sen. John Whitmire giving Republicans something they have lacked since July 28 -- a Senate quorum.

The presence of Whitmire, D-Houston, cleared the path for Republicans to push a redistricting bill through the Senate. Eleven Democrats, including Whitmire, had blocked the bill through two special sessions by breaking the quorum. Senate Secretary Patsy Spaw called the roll with Whitmire present. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst immediately announced: "A quorum is present."....But at three minutes past 12 p.m. Whitmire moved that the Senate stand adjourned until 10 a.m. Tuesday. The crowd in the gallery burst into boos and jeers of: "Nazis. You're acting like Nazis!"

The other boycotting Senators walked into the empty chamber at 12:07 p.m. The gallery started cheering wildly.

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Meanwhile, League of United Latin American Citizens President Hector Flores and Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe announced they will sue to halt the implementation of any redistricting plan adopted by the Legislature.

"I don't think there is any question that what they will propose will violate the Voting Rights Act," Bledsoe said.

Texas Republicans, having finally muscled the Democrats into a corner in their four-month fight to redraw the state's congressional district lines, have moved on to a new phase of the operation: Now they are brawling among themselves over how to draw the map.

The internecine dispute has embarrassed Republican leaders and may imperil the party's plans to use its new dominance of the state legislature to push through a map designed to shift as many as six additional congressional seats into Republican hands....

But the House's version is unacceptable to some moderate Senate Republicans, and a public squabble over district boundaries between one west Texas state senator and the speaker of the Texas House -- both Republicans -- has stalled progress toward a new map, at least temporarily.

The intraparty dispute has become so intractable that Rep. Tom DeLay, the House majority leader who has been actively involved in pushing the redistricting idea in the state legislature, flew to Austin last week to broker a compromise among the Republicans. He failed....

Republicans insist they will find a compromise by next week. "There's a lot of ways to skin this cat," said David Beckwith, spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R).

But then, they were there, they woulda gotten their regularly scheduled chance the next time round - and the district system doesnt fairly represent voters' political preferences, period.

After 10 hours of debate, the Senate late Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a long-fought redistricting bill, a measure designed to bolster Republican strength in Congress.

"I understand my friends and colleagues may want to take this to the courts. Our job is to pass a respectful, careful, reasonable bill. And that's what we did today," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, predicting healing among lawmakers after a bruising fight.

Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, had less kind words for the process.

"This is a coup d'etat without elections and without bloodshed," he said, characterizing the vote as an element in a national GOP plan to gain a stranglehold on Congress. "What Republicans on this floor don't see is what Republicans in D.C. are doing nationwide."

The vote was 18-13 along party lines, with the exception of Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, who favors a House version of the map that treats his region differently.

After a final Senate vote expected Wednesday, the GOP-backed plan will go to a conference committee to tackle significant differences between House and Senate versions - notably in West Texas. Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, expressed hope for a compromise on the so-far unsolvable West Texas jigsaw.

"I'm the eternal optimist," said Mr. Duncan, who thinks an agreement can be worked out with with House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland.

Jes' talkin' to muhsef over hayere, don' mind me...

Admittedly, this topic is colloquial, especially for a board that has international participation.

A day after the Senate passed a bill redrawing congressional districts, House Speaker Tom Craddick declared that a last-minute amendment that would affect Bexar and Webb counties could cause the Justice Department to reject the entire state plan.

The amendment by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, would split Webb County into two districts and remove about 130,000 residents in South Bexar County from U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez's 28th Congressional District.

"It's simple. That amendment causes retrogression, and it will not pass Justice Department (scrutiny)," Craddick said.

Texas is one of 16 states required to get pre-clearance from the Justice Department before it can change political boundaries. The clearance is intended to verify that changes to political districts do not disenfranchise any of the state's minority voters.

Responding to Craddick's comments, Wentworth said the Republican House speaker was poorly advised.

"I've gotten very different legal advice from lawyers we pay a lot of money to," Wentworth said. "I'd like to know who is advising (Craddick), but it's not very good (advice)."

The redistricting plan faces other obstacles:

Using unusually strong language, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst accused House Speaker Tom Craddick of obstructing negotiations for a compromise on congressional redistricting that kept House and Senate members in the Capitol until past 3 a.m. today.

"At this late hour, we need to come together on a map… and stop playing the Iranian cab driver negotiations where you get what you want and then you start adding on two, three, more requests," an angry Dewhurst told reporters.

Dewhurst and Senate negotiators said they were at the bargaining table for 12 hours, starting Wednesday afternoon, and were frustrated that the process is stalled until middle ground on a West Texas district is reached.

Craddick, a Midland native, wants a Midland-based congressional district. Currently, Midland and the oil patch economy of the Permian Basin want to be separated from its current anchor, the agricultural-based economy in Lubbock.

Lead Senate negotiators said they had no progress to report this afternoon on the continuing standoff, which some feel may cause the current third special session to end without a redistricting bill passed.