"I am a Uniter not a divider" George Bush.
In a nutshell, Tom Delay doesnt like the way three Republican Judges drew the 2000 redistricting maps, and he urged the Repulican Govenor to redraw the maps. in his view he wants to cram Texas with Super Republican Districts in its wealthy suburbs that strip the rural and minority areas of any power.
Texas Democrat have spunk!
Texas Dems Flee in Redistricting Protest
Tue Jul 29, 1:24 PM ET Add Politics - AP to My Yahoo!
By NATALIE GOTT, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas - Senate Republicans urged their Democratic colleagues Tuesday to abandon their out-of-state walkout and work with them on a congressional redistricting plan.
"No Texas problem has ever been solved in New Mexico," said Republican Sen. Todd Staples.
In a move reminiscent of a walkout by House Democrats 2 1/2 months ago, 11 of the state Senate's 12 Democrats had fled Texas for Albuquerque, N.M., on Monday. The move they broke a Senate quorum and blocked consideration of the bitterly contested redistricting issue.
The Senate met briefly Tuesday morning but broke after a few minutes. Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said they would reconvene Wednesday morning. On the other side of the Capitol, the House met but also lacked a quorum, and the majority of absent members were Democrats.
In Albuquerque, the 11 senators met Tuesday morning at a hotel. Earlier, the Senate Democrats said they didn't take their decision to leave the state lightly.
"This is not about Democrats. It's about democracy and it's about civil rights," Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, Senate Democratic Caucus chairwoman, said at a news conference Monday night.
Van de Putte said more than 1.4 million minority group members in Texas would lose effective congressional representation if the redistricting occurs as Republicans wish.
Republicans are pressing for more seats in the state's 32-member delegation to the U.S. House. The Democrats hold a 17-15 advantage, which Republicans say does not reflect the state's increasingly Republican voting patterns. Most Democrats want to keep the congressional map drawn by a three-judge federal panel in 2001.
As the Democrats walked out Monday, the first special session called by Gov. Rick Perry to consider redistricting drew abruptly to a close. He then called a second special session, which began Monday afternoon.
The Democrats will have to stay out for as long as lawmakers are in session for the boycott to be effective. It takes two-thirds of the Senate's 31 members to form a quorum and allow the chamber to take up business.
"We are prepared to stay here for the duration of this special session," Van de Putte said. "We are going to take it a day at a time."
Republicans tried to push redistricting toward a vote in the GOP-controlled House during the regular session in May, but 51 House Democrats fled to Oklahoma to block a quorum, killing the bill.
At the time, Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick ordered state troopers to retrieve the representatives. The office of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay also got involved, asking the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) to locate one of the Democrats' plane.
Officials have said the sergeant-at-arms and his deputies have the authority to arrest AWOL senators, but as a practical matter, the missing members are out of reach in New Mexico.
The senators' exodus prompted Tom and Lisa Childress, Republicans who recently moved to New Mexico from Texas, to protest in front of the hotel in Albuquerque where the Democrats gathered.
"The Democrats are running away from their jobs again and they're getting away with it," said Lisa Childress. She had a sign saying, "What do you call a Democrat in Texas? You can't."
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