July 28th, 2003:

Some of these are AP wire reports, but they’re all different, so here you go:

Statesman
Morning News
Star-Telegram
Express-News
Chron

More tomorrow.

The special session is ending a day early, with another to start almost immediately afterwards. However, it may be a moot point, for it appears that 11 Democratic Senators have left town.

One Democratic senator who asked not to be named, told the Chronicle in a phone interview that senators were apparently on their way out of town.

“I have no idea where we’re going. I just know in a little bit we will be out of pocket,” the senator said.

He would not say how many senators had left but called it an “adequate” number to break a quorum and keep the Senate from conducting business.

The Senate requires two-thirds, or 21 senators, to be present to conduct business, meaning the absence of 11 senators could break a quorum. There are 12 Democrats in the Senate.

The senator said the action was precipitated by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s decision to bypass a traditional Senate rule that requires a two-thirds vote to debate any bill.

That rule, which has been in effect during the current special session, has so far blocked redistricting in the Senate.

The senator said the Democrats fled because they feared Perry would immediately call a second special session and Dewhurst would lock down the Senate chambers and prevent members from leaving.

The first session was to end by midnight Tuesday, but the Senate adjourned at 2:30 p.m. and the House was expected to adjourn minutes later.

Dewhurst earlier had told reporters Perry was expected to call a second special session minutes after both houses adjourned.

Of the 12 Democratic senators, the only one to show up for a 2 p.m. session today was Ken Armbrister of Victoria.

According to the Quorum Report, the House Democrats have also vamoosed. This is going to get out of hand in short order.

What happens next? According to the Quorum Report, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst will “put out a call on missing Democrats”, which I’m guessing means an announcement that if they come back now, he’ll pretend nothing happened, and if they don’t, he’ll take whatever steps are at his disposal to bring them back. He only needs one, after all. Judge Charles Campbell is expected to rule shortly whether or not Dewhurst can use DPS to find them.

If Campbell rules that DPS is off limits, I can’t really see what Dewhurst can reasonably do. I doubt he’ll send out bounty hunters, though at this point I’m leery to make any unqualified remark. If DPS is in play, then I’d expect this to be over quickly, though the apparent re-disappearance of the House Dems greatly complicates things.

If at some point both houses have a quorum, then a bill still has to be passed in each chamber. The House bill from the first session was rejected by the Senate, and the Senate bills did not create separate districts for Midland and Lubbock, a point of contention for House Speaker Tom Craddick, who wants two different districts, and almost everyone in Lubbock and Abilene, who likes things as they are.

Man. And I thought May was a crazy month.

UPDATE: Byron reports at Polstate that the Dems are off to New Mexico, another state with a Democratic Governor and Attorney General. Fasten your seat belts…

UPDATE: According to the Quorum Report, the House Dems did not walk out, they just were scattered at 2 PM. It’s just the Senators that have gone missing.

UPDATE: According to Byron, the renegade Dems are in contact with the Republicans in Austin and will come back if there is a blocker bill. That would be a major victory for the Dems, though I expect they’d have to agree to rescind their “unalterable opposition” letter in order for this to be worth the GOP’s consideration.

UPDATE: Here’s a partial statement from the “Texas 11” as posted on the Quorum Report:

“Today, we 11 Democratic senators have availed ourselves of the tool granted to us under the Texas constitution to break the quorum of the Texas Senate.

“This is not about Democrats or Republicans; this is about democracy. It’s about civil rights.

“This is not an action we take lightly. There are not many issues that would rise to the level of importance as this one, but we do not take giving minority Texans a voice lightly, either.

“When the congressional districts of those Democrats targeted by Republicans are eliminated, over 1.4 million minority Texans will have no advocates because their homes will be drawn into districts in which they will have no voice in choosing their member of Congress.

“In these targeted districts, minority Texans know that the Democrats who represent them, elected with a coalition of minorities and Republicans, are the last advocates in Congress they will ever have if the Republican leadership has its way.

Confirming what Byron noted earlier, they say they’ll be on the “first flight bacK” if the 2/3 rule is restored.