Well, that escalated quickly.
As recently reported by multiple media outlets, several state lawmakers fled the state of Texas in a bid to stave off redistricting efforts before the midterms.
By leaving prematurely, lawmakers were able to break quorum, which means that various legislative processes could not proceed in a lawful manner.
In essence, Texas is currently at an impasse, at least from a legislative standpoint.
And Texas Governor Greg Abbott is hardly thrilled. To put it mildly.
“Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber. To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans. This order will remain in effect until all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol,” Abbott asserted.
In other words, Abbott is threatening imminent arrest of other Democrats. And these Democrats apparently remain unconcerned about heavy fines.
Even when the fines swell to six figures, according to a report from Politico.
“Texas Democrats stand to be fined nearly $400,000 for fleeing the state in a gambit to stop Republican-led redistricting. And should they stay away during potential successive legislative sessions this year, they’d face more than $3.2 million in penalties,” Politico gravely intoned.
Yikes.
“Those figures, which POLITICO calculated based on the fewest lawmakers needed to break quorum, the anticipated length of their out-of-state trips and the $500-per-day fine they’re incurring, reveal how much pain Democrats are willing to sustain in order to thwart President Donald Trump’s push to remap Texas to create five more Republican seats,” Politico continued.
Meh. Those Dems are likely betting that J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire Governor of Illinois, will bail them out.
Though such bail may be immaterial if the fines do not proceed as planned.
Andrew Cates, a campaign finance lawyer in Texas, noted that it could be difficult to collect fines from the lawmakers.
“This is a house rule … This is not a law. … How the hell are they going to collect it? How are they going to enforce it?” Cates mused.
Well, when there’s a will, there can oftentimes be a way.
A sentiment clearly shared by both sides, given the commentary of Texas Representative John Bucy.
“We’ll deal with the consequences later … That’s not the important thing right now. It’s stopping Donald Trump from stealing the congressional map and winning the midterm elections through cheating,” the Bucy declared.
Well, the “consequences” might be arriving more rapidly and aggressively than anticipated, to put it mildly.
As reported by Newsweek, Republican Senator John Cornyn is a rather forthright Texan, given his highly publicized call for FBI involvement.
Cornyn, who hails from Texas, made it abundantly clear that such “assistance” would be necessary, given the unfortunate instances of Democrats “acting in violation of the law.”
“Out-of-state actors have made public comments about protecting the Texas legislators who are currently hiding out of state from any accountability for their actions. I request the FBI’s assistance, as federal resources are necessary to locate the out-of-state Texas legislators who are potentially acting in violation of the law,” Cornyn asserted.
Apparently, the sentiments of Cornyn were shared by none other than President Donald Trump.
“Well, I think they have abandoned the state. Nobody has seen anything like it even though they’ve done it twice before. And in a certain way it almost looks like they’ve abandoned the state. It looks very bad,” Trump boomed.
Fair enough point. The entire situation does appear very bad, indeed.
When Trump was pressured as to whether or not the feds would become involved, he became even blunter.
“Well, [the FBI] may have to. They may have to,” Trump responded.
Double yikes.
For the sake of greater internal stability, one can only hope that state legislative sessions will make a greater effort towards civility.
Author: Jane Jones
