Hi folks:

I'm new to Texas having just moved here from Alaska where the Republican-controlled State legislature is even more crazed than it is here.

Question I have is this: What chance would the Democrats have in killing a vote to delay the primary? It looks like they won't be able to hold off redistricting forever, but it seems to me that the Democrats could walk out of a vote to delay the primary, forcing the State to use the existing map through 2004 elections. Is that even conceivable?

I'm no longer certain whether failure to produce a quorum would stop anything at this point, since Craddick in particular seems determined to force something (anything?) through at this point.

At the risk of jinxing things, I hope the Killer D's are seriously considering not showing up on Wednesday (this time, Shreveport should be chosen, just so no favoritism is shown). I THINK that would end this special session, forcing yet another one. Eventually, it'll be too late to get the lines in place for 2004 (it probably is already, given the legal war that will take place instantly upon passage of ANY new plan, since the feds will probably enjoin any changes pending a SCOTUS decision in the Pennsylvania case, and, potentially, a referral back of the Georgia Senate case that was decided earlier this year).

To a certain extent, the need to change the primary date is just wishful thinking by the R's, since it's hard to realistically expect any new plan to get over the legal hurdles in time for the 2004 election.

Well, they can jack off all they want without a quorum, but anything they produce won't be worth the paper it's written on. Even the most Republican court in the state will be forced to invalidate any law passed without a quorum. That much I DO know.

Excuse my ignorance but when does the regular session start in Texas? Seems to me that the Democrats won't be able to really block anything that comes up in the regular sesson because they'll be obligated to be there for the budget and other essential work.

Excuse my ignorance but when does the regular session start in Texas?

I haven't lived here much longer than you, so I don't know exactly. But I do know the regular sessions run from about February through May of odd-numbered years. (Hopefully someone else can be more precise.) The Texas Lege doesn't have a regular session in even-numbered years.

Texas has a biennial Lege. Only meeting every other year in odd years for a few months. Some say we did it so that the Lege could only screw us over as little as possible.

So basically if they don't delay the primary now, they have to wait until 2005?

Seems like the Democrats could certainly prevent the GOP from delaying the primary if they played hard ball again.

Am I missing something?

No, they don't have to wait till 2005 to DeLay the primary. Our wonderful state has given the Guv the power to call as many special sessions as he or she sees fit. Guv. Goodhair could call another special session of the Lege that deals with redistricting, but the Lege could then also vote to move back the date of the primary. But any new map that comes out will have to be approved by the Justice Dept. as well as withtstand the almost certain lawsuits against it. I'm 99% sure that's how it would work. Of course, with the way this state has been transformed into a banana republic, nothing outrageous would surprise me.