The Democrats prevailed again in Austin during the second attempt by the Republicans to carve up the state into bizarre districts designed to create a Republican stronghold in Congress:
A White House-backed power play to grab more Republican congressional seats from Texas has been derailed by Democratic opposition, at least temporarily.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) told reporters today that a redistricting plan that is expected to add seven Republican seats in the House did not have the votes to pass in a special session of the Texas Legislature that ends next week.
A similar effort in May led Democratic state legislators to flee to Oklahoma to break a quorum and prevent a vote on it.
Texas has 17 Democrats in Congress and 15 Republicans, but a proposed plan would give the Republicans 22 seats to the Democrats’ 10.
But the battle is not over:
Gov. Rick Perry (R), at the urging of Republican national leaders, called a special session this month to revive redistricting, but Democrats in the state Senate rallied enough support to scuttle it.
They have 11 seats in the 31-member Senate, but needed only that many votes because of a procedural tradition requiring two-thirds of the body to agree to take up a bill.
The current session will end Tuesday, but Perry has threatened to quickly call another special session. Dewhurst has said he may change procedures so that only a simple majority is needed to approve a vote on a bill.
Democrats are threatening to flee the state again if Republicans do not drop the plan.
It’s very interesting to note how the exact same thing happened two years ago Illinois, only it was the Democrats that re-drew the lines with the republicans playing defence (in an eventual loosing battle). Where was the national media for this mess? Looking for another right-winged conspiracy I suppose.