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[Cees Binkhorst]

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Troopers Sent to Find Texas Dems in Okla.
Troopers Sent to Find Texas Democratic Lawmakers Who Skipped Legislative Session

The Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas May 13 —
State troopers found Democratic lawmakers in Oklahoma after they brought the Texas
House to a standstill by going into hiding, but the legislators declined to return to the
state Capitol.

The Republican leaders sent the troopers to Ardmore, Okla., on Monday to ask the
Democrats to return. The lawmakers left Austin on Sunday, after days of strategizing to
waylay a contentious GOP-led battle to redraw the state's congressional lines.

The absence of the 58 Democrats denied the House its required 100-member quorum.
The boycott capped months of tension between Democrats and the newly-in-control
Republicans over a bill to limit lawsuits and a GOP budget that would make deep
spending cuts without raising taxes.

The missing Democratic lawmakers spent Monday in a hotel conference room, where
large sheets of paper taped to the walls were used as makeshift chalkboards and long
tables were filled with laptop computers, stacks of papers and notebooks.

They said they discussed school financing, homeowners insurance and other issues and
planned to resume the work sessions Tuesday.

"It was a working day," said Rep. Pete Gallego.

The Texas House cannot convene without at least 100 of the 150 members present, and
58 of the 62 Democrats were absent Monday. There are 88 Republicans.

The Democrats' presence at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore, about 30 miles north of the
Texas border, was discovered late Monday. It wasn't clear how many of the 58 were
there.

Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick called the move disgraceful and said Texas
Department of Public Safety troopers were sent to the hotel to tell the Democrats to
return to Austin. House rules allow for the arrest of members who intentionally thwart a
quorum.

Craddick said he made a plane available to Democrats who choose to come back. The
troopers have no legal authority to arrest them since they are outside Texas; the
Democrats declined to return.

The Democrats said they were taking a stand for fair treatment of the minority party.
They said U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, had pushing the Texas
House to take up the issue of Congressional redistricting instead of more pressing
matters.
(Cees: Dat kunnen wij mogelijk ook krijgen als we een districtenstelsel invoeren en de
grenzen daarvan van tijd tot tijd herzien, zodat 'we' een voordeel krijgen door te spelen
met de samenstelling van aanhangers binnen een district.)

"There are some issues that are important to us, important to all Texans," Gallego said.
"If the leadership will agree to take up those issues and agree to put redistricting aside, it
would make it a lot easier."

Redistricting had been scheduled on the House calendar for Monday. According to
House rules, the deadline for preliminarily votes on House bills is midnight Wednesday.
After that, it would take a favorable vote by two-thirds of the House to get legislation to
the floor for a vote.

Missing the deadline will stymie several bills that have been dubbed as emergency
legislation, including an insurance reform measure. A budget-balancing government
reorganization proposal also has been put on hold.

Midnight Monday was the deadline for legislation to get out of committee. That
deadline came and went without meetings, said Rep. Dan Branch, a Dallas Republican.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry lambasted the Democrats for deserting the Legislature,
saying "we might as well shut this building down and let it become a museum because
the work of the people is through."

The remaining House Republicans spent hours of idle time locked in the chamber
constructing signs and gimmicks ridiculing their Democratic colleagues. A pair of milk
cartons circulated around the chamber, plastered with the faces of missing Democrats.

Several Republicans complained that they never used such drastic measures when the
GOP was the minority party.

With three weeks left in the legislative session, Craddick said Perry assured him he
would call a special session after the regular session ends June 2 if it's needed.

Senate president Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, said his chamber would pick up
the pace to try to pass some revenue-generating bills and legislation authorizing the
continued existence of several state agencies. Those measures had been scheduled in the
House this week.

The walkout came 24 years to the month since a group of 12 Texas state senators defied
then-Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby by refusing to show up at the Capitol.

Some of the "Killer Bees," as the 12 Democrats came to be known, hid out in a west
Austin garage apartment while troopers, Texas Rangers and legislative sergeants-at-arms
unsuccessfully combed the state for them.

Groet,

Cees Binkhorst - cees at binkhorst.xs4all.nl

Thucides (on Secr. Powel's desk): "Of all the manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most."

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