I suppose something like this was inevitable.
Texas House Democrats in Illinois to block GOP redistricting were evacuated from their hotel Wednesday morning due to a bomb threat, lawmakers and local police said.
A press conference scheduled for 12:30 p.m. with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin was cancelled as a result.
In a statement, Texas House Democratic leaders, including caucus chair Gene Wu of Houston, said the group is safe.
“We are safe, we are secure, and we are undeterred,” the statement read. “We are grateful for Governor Pritzker, local, and state law enforcement for their quick action to ensure our safety.”
[…]
State Rep. John Bucy, an Austin Democrat, in a statement blamed Texas GOP leaders for using rhetoric that put the Democrats’ safety at risk.
“Unfortunately, this is what happens when Republican leaders, like our corrupt Attorney General, call on their supporters to ‘hunt us down,’” he said. “We’ve been threatened by the governor, the attorney general, and our colleagues in the House. This harmful discourse emboldens bad actors and encourages violence. It’s unacceptable and needs to end.”
State Rep. Ann Johnson, of Houston, also blamed Republicans.
“I’ve had my life threatened before as a chief human trafficking prosecutor,” Johnson said. “I never expected those threats would come from the Governor or my colleagues in the Legislature.”
As the story notes, no bomb was found. I got the same press releases that are quoted above, and I agree with their sentiments. Use violent rhetoric, expect violent actions. Abbott knows this full well. It’s a very old story.
In yesterday’s post, I noted how Abbott had bypassed Ken Paxton to file a lawsuit against Rep. Gene Wu, making the ridiculous claim that Rep. Wu had abandoned his office and should be removed. A later version of the story indicates that Paxton did not care for that.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, who threatened to file similar legal actions earlier in the day against multiple House Democrats, followed Abbott’s emergency petition by sending his own letter to the state Supreme Court hours later, in which he argued that Abbott lacked the authority to request the removal.
Paxton wrote that while he “appreciates the Governor’s passion” for restoring a quorum, state law permits only the attorney general or a local county or district attorney to bring what’s known as a quo warranto proceeding, which seeks a member’s removal on the grounds that they have abandoned their office.
In the letter, Paxton said he would take action against the absent legislators if the House continued to lack a quorum on Friday, the deadline set by House Speaker Dustin Burrows.
Abbott clarified in a social media post later in the night that his filing sought quo warranto through a provision in the Texas Constitution and a separate portion of government code, which he said would give his office the proper authority. He also attached a letter addressed to the state Supreme Court in the post that stated “at least 500 years of common law” made it clear the governor’s office could make the filing.
Gotta love a little AG-versus-former-AG smackdown. If anyone on the Republican side were capable of feeling shame, I’d think that Abbott’s cheeks might be a little inflamed today. Thanks to Campos for the catch.
But don’t worry about Ken Paxton. He’s finding ways to stay busy.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into whether Beto O’Rourke’s political group, Powered by People, is breaking laws by funding Texas Democrats’ out-of-state travel attempting to stop the passage of the new Republican-favored congressional maps.
In a press release, Paxton cited The Texas Tribune’s reporting on Tuesday that O’Rourke’s group is funding the travel and fines for the more than 50 Democrats who left Texas this weekend to shut down the Legislature by depriving the House of a quorum.
The attorney general accused the organization of running a financial influence scheme that convinced Texas Democrats to leave the state, and vowed to investigate “any Democrat coward breaking the law by taking a Beto Bribe.”
He is using a statute called “request to examine” to demand documents and communications from the organization. While the legal tool has come under scrutiny, the Texas Supreme Court defended its use in a ruling earlier this year.
Paxton’s gonna do what he’s gonna do. He achieved his primary goal of getting a headline. The task is a lot harder from there.
And speaking of former AGs, Sen. John Cornyn had suggested that the FBI get involved in finding and detaining the quorum busters. Naturally, this found its audience.
During an unrelated event, Trump was asked whether the FBI should “get involved” in the quorum break. He answered that “they may have to” and “it almost looks like [Democrats have] abandoned the state.”
“I know they want them back. Not only the attorney general, the governor wants them back,” Trump said. “So a lot of people have demanded they come back. You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about.”
Typical word salad, so who knows what any of it means. But whether that happens or not, it won’t be because of a deliberate decision or compliance with any known processes.
Both Mother Jones and The Downballot get into the question of how blue states and governors can try to fight back against what Texas Republicans are doing. To the extent that the answer is “redraw our own maps to boot out Republicans”, the options are limited (some blue states have only one member or already have all Democratic caucuses) and difficult to achieve thanks to nonpartisan redistricting commissions and other legal obstacles. To the extent that the answer is “take the fight seriously and restore some trust in the Democratic brand with its disenchanted base”, there’s a lot that can and hopefully will be done.
The 19th talks to a couple of the Dems who are now out of state.
“We can’t go gently, we have to fight,” [Rep. Erin] Zwiener told The 19th earlier this week from New York, where she decamped after holding a Saturday town hall on the proposed redistricting with her constituents.
“I haven’t gotten to have much of a summer with [my daughter] because I’ve been studying for the bar,” she added, “but I had made her a big promise that we would go to a water park after I finished the bar, and I was able to do that this weekend before leaving — so I’m grateful we got to have our big summer adventure.”
The Texas lawmakers are now at the center of a national debate about how Democrats should respond to the White House-driven push to shore up Republicans’ slim and endangered U.S. House majority with unprecedented, mid-decade redistrictings that many believe run afoul of state constitutions.
Though leaders in the Democratic Party are more likely than Republicans to favor nonpartisan redistricting done by commissions and other independent entities, Texas lawmakers like Zwiener are warning that if Democrats do not respond by redrawing maps in Democratic-led states like Illinois, Massachusetts and New York with large left-leaning populations, the GOP will be able to cement a House majority that does not reflect the electorate. It would also allow the Trump administration to avoid accountability: The presidential impeachment process, for example, begins in the House.
“If Texas is going to try and break the democratic process in this way, then other states are going to have to counterbalance that in order for our democracy to survive,” Zwiener said. As they began what she described as “outreach” in their chosen states, Republicans in Missouri indicated they are considering redrawing maps there as well.
“Make no mistake about this,” Zwiener said: “This is an attempt for Donald Trump to avoid accountability in Congress.”
[…]
When state Rep. Linda Garcia, a first-term Democrat who represents parts of east Dallas and nearby Mesquite, decided that she would bring her 9-year-old son with her to Illinois — she thought being away from him for the regular, 140-day legislative session was already too much — she “did my absolute best to prepare him for any possible scenario that would take place,” she said. Garcia is prepared to enroll her son in school in Illinois or home school him if the lawmakers remain outside of Texas as the school year begins.
“If we get to the airport, there may be people with cameras; there may be flashing lights. You may be printed on paper or on TV, and your friends might see it, and people may criticize what we’re doing. They’re going to say I’m a criminal; I could get arrested in front of you,” Garcia told him. “I went through the best and the worst, absolute worst case scenario, which the ultimate worst case would be getting removed as a member — and he turned and looked at me, and he’s like: ‘That doesn’t really sound like the worst case to me.’”
Still, Garcia said, she did not hesitate to commit to leaving Texas when it became clear it was their best option to draw attention to what is happening in her state — or about bringing her son along for a real-life lesson in civics and democracy.
“I really understood that this isn’t about me, and that I will have to face those consequences when those consequences come. This is about my constituents, but also the state of Texas, and it is about the United States of America and where it is headed,” Garcia said. “I cannot live in a world where I think out into the future and look back and didn’t take this step over money.”
Just a reminder that most of these legislators are pretty regular folks, and what they’re doing is hard on them and their families. However this ends, when we’re all very likely to feel at least some disappointment, please do keep that in mind.
That’s it for now. Coming up next, Indiana, maybe.
It is beyond irony that the indicte AG[sic] K Paxton is investigating and suing the Texas Democrats. This is from the man claiming 3 homestead exemptions, as well.
More importantly, I have been saying for weeks that we have a civil rights crisis. Now we see and hear threats of violence against the Texas Democrats who’ve held the line and left the state to prevent yet another illegal redistricting map.
In spite of the weakened Voting Rights Act, there are still laws in place, IF the courts enforce them. What will it take? Another triple murder like that of Cheney, Goodman, and Schwerner (1964), or another Edmund Petttus Bridge (1965)? How far will the Republicans go to hold onto power?
*indicted