Analysis: Texas map fight shifts to courts

DALLAS, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The Texas standoff over congressional redistricting has shifted to the courts with 11 Democratic state senators continuing to holdout in a New Mexico hotel and a famous former governor named Bush trying to steer clear of the bitter fight.

Only hours after the Texas 11 made a fruitless appeal to President George W. Bush to use his brand of bipartisan persuasion to settle the dispute in Austin, a lawyer for the band of maverick Democrats filed another new lawsuit Monday in a Laredo federal court.

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In the latest legal salvo, the Democrats argue that Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's decision to suspend the traditional two-thirds vote necessary to bring up legislation in the Senate may have violated the Federal Voting Rights Act.

The Texas 11 bolted for Albuquerque on July 28 when Dewhurst suspended the rule after failing to pass a Republican-backed redistricting plan in the first special session. Their flight prevented a quorum for business and brought the Legislature at a standstill.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Dewhurst want new congressional districts because they don't believe the current breakdown of 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans reflects current GOP strength in Texas. The GOP controls the Legislature for the first time in 130 years.

Democrats claim that Bush adviser Karl Rove and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, are the orchestrating "a power grab" to gain as many as six additional GOP House seats. Republicans want to strengthen their grip on the U.S. House where they have a 229-205 advantage with one independent.

Democrats argue that redistricting is not an urgent issue because a federal court panel approved the current remap two years ago after the Legislature failed to act. They contend most states address redistricting immediately after the federal census every 10 years, not in mid-decade.

The Texas 11 say they will return to Austin only when Dewhurst returns the two-thirds rule, which enables them to block redistricting on the floor, or Perry removes redistricting from the agenda for the current special session.

Last weekend, the Democratic senators wrote to Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch and appealed for him to intervene in the dispute with some of the bipartisan appeal he used during his nearly six years as Texas governor.

"As Texas senators, we worked with you as governor of our home state," the senators wrote. "Now we ask you to rise above the mean-spirited partisanship exhibited by some in your party. You can stop the politics of racial division and this unfair scheme. Mr. President, the eyes of Texas and America are upon you now. We urge you to lead by example in your own home state. It's time to do the right thing."

A Bush spokesman responded, "That's a matter for the state of Texas to address."

As governor, Bush worked closely with the Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and then-House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center. He often praised their cooperation in moving legislation during his administration in Austin.

The new Democrat lawsuit filed in Laredo alleges the suspension of the two-thirds rule was a possible violation of the Federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution, according to Renea Hicks, an Austin attorney representing the senators.

"These are changes in the pattern and practice and traditions of Texas electoral law and administration of this law that must be pre-cleared under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act with the Justice Department or federal court in Washington, D.C., before they can be implemented and they haven't been cleared," he said.

Hicks said the suspension of the rule has the potential to adversely affect minority voting rights in Texas. Democrats have charged that the latest proposed GOP congressional lines adversely impact minority voters in several districts.

Last week, Democrats and Republicans each filed legal action. The Democrats sought a state court order that would shield them from arrest if they return to the state. The GOP asked the Texas Supreme Court to order the senators to return to the state Capitol.

The Supreme Court refused to issue the order late Monday without comment after the Democrats argued in a written response that the court had no jurisdiction and its entry into the fight would violate separation of powers. "I think the court agreed with us pretty quickly," Hicks said.

Perry was disappointed that the all-Republican Supreme Court did not resolve "the constitutional crisis" and he warned that the lack of a legal solution to the Democrat's holdout tactic was a dangerous precedent.

"The bottom line issue remains the same: These 11 Democrats continue to abdicate their responsibilities," he said. "They need to return to Texas and get back to work on important issues facing Texas. I remain committed to addressing redistricting and firmly believe that the vast majority of Texans expected their elected officials to draw congressional district lines, rather than leaving the work to federal judges. Other important work affecting education, health care and transportation also must be addressed."

In Albuquerque, the leader of the Democrat walkout again called on the GOP leadership in Austin to take redistricting off the table for the current special session.

"The Republicans took their best shot, they picked the venue mostly likely to side with them, and the court said no," said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio.

The state district court has yet to rule on an order to shield the Democratic senators from arrest. Thirty-one Democratic House members fled to Oklahoma in May to avoid state troopers dispatched to return them to Texas. Their four-day holdout during the regular session was successful in defeating redistricting in the first round.

A regular session and two, 30-day special sessions have failed to pass a redistricting bill and there is no end in sight at this point. Each of the special sessions cost the state about $1.7 million and leaders of the two political parties blame the other for the drain on the state budget.

Dewhurst, the presiding officer in the Senate, has threatened possible sanctions, such as fines, to force the Texas 11 to return to Austin, but Southern Methodist University Political Science Professor Cal Jillson says that will not end the impasse.

"The only way that you could get a resolution is either for the Republicans to just wait them out, special session after special session until they have to come back, or to have some kind of actual compromise, which is to sit down and try to figure out a set of new districts that both sides can live with, but they may well have both dug themselves into such deep political holes that they can't find a way to find some compromise middle ground," he said.