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January 13, 2009
Away We Go With The 81st
Today began the 81st session of the Texas Legislature, and in a reversal of recent history, the House got started amid calm and near unanimity, while the normally more collegial Senate immediately divided along partisan lines.
Republican Joe Straus of San Antonio was elected Speaker of the House by acclamation - remarkable considering the drama surrounding the demise of former Speaker Tom Craddick just days ago. Straus pledged to bring the House's 150 members together and foster a new spirit of cooperation. A welcome change, to say the least, especially considering there is nearly equal representation by the two parties in the body.
By contrast, the Senate quickly frayed over the "two-thirds rule" for considering legislation. Designed to protect the minority party, this long-standing agreement requires two-thirds of the Senate's approval to consider bills. Readers will recall that Lt. Governor David Dewhurst (who presides over the Senate) tried to take advantage of two Democratic senators' ill health last session and skirt the rule to pass a voter ID bill. He was thwarted when the two Democrats dramatically returned to the Senate floor.
Well, Dewhurst is at it again. He wants the two-thirds rule exempted for consideration of, once again, a voter ID bill, and for redistricting, an extraordinarily divisive process that ripped the Legislature apart last time it came up. Not surprisingly, Senate Democrats are less than enthused with this beginning to the session.
This development is especially interesting in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act. The case, which originated in Austin, seeks to undo the Justice Department's power of "preclearance".
The preclearance provision -- Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act -- empowers the Justice Department to review and approve (or disapprove) in advance of any changes to voting procedures (including apportionment of voting districts, otherwise known as redistricting) in states, mostly in the South, with a history of racial discrimination. Should the court decide to overturn the preclearance provision, the consequences are potentially profound in a state like Texas.
If, in 2011 after the next Census, Republicans still at least mostly control state government (which we have to assume is likely at this point), they will, de facto, control the redistricting process for state legislative and Congressional districts in Texas. The one safeguard against adoption of another draconian Republican plan, like the one Tom DeLay orchestrated several years ago, would be an Obama Justice Department's power of preclearance. Absent the preclearance provision, Texas could be subjected to a royal GOP gerrymander screw-job that we'd be stuck with for another decade. Perish the thought.
Abolishing the two-thirds rule for voter ID and redistricting; abolishing the Justice Department's preclearance power. It is crystal clear that Republicans understand that maintaining partisan dominance in Texas (the GOP's largest electoral vote state) is crucial to their future political viability. Clearly, they also realize the state is changing underneath them and are working feverishly to keep the Texas deck stacked in their favor.
Pay attention, folks. The future of our state depends on it.
Posted by houtopia at January 13, 2009 11:06 PM
Comments
Dear Houtopia
So you are saying that you were against the suspension of the 2/3rd rule when Bullock did it in 1990? Specifically to redistrict the state?
Posted by: EricPWJohnson at January 17, 2009 09:30 PM
Yes.
Posted by: houtopia at January 18, 2009 06:32 PM