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Borderland
Sunday, May 18, 2003
House walkout likely to become an indelible part of Texas history
Gary Scharrer
Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- Historians will have rich fodder, given the spectacle last week of Oklahoma
police protecting Texas lawmakers from Texas state troopers.
Just the fact that Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick ordered Texas Department of
Public Safety troopers to arrest 51 AWOL Democrats who hightailed it to Oklahoma for a
week should be enough backdrop for historians to chronicle the weeklong escapade.
The "Dirty Thirty" of the early 1970s and the "Killer Bees" of 1979 are already firmly
etched in the state's political folklore. The 51 "Killer D's" probably created an even larger
and more memorable chapter.
On national TV, the comedic "Daily Show" had a field day at the expense of Texas.
Before Texas leaders knew where the runaway Democrats had landed, New Mexico
Attorney General Patricia Madrid offered "to put out an all-points bulletin for law
enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favor of health care for the needy and
against tax cuts for the wealthy."
The 51 Democrats returned to the Texas Capitol on Friday after hiding out in an Ardmore,
Okla., Holiday Inn for four days. Their extraordinary action was triggered by their
opposition to Republican leadership's attempt to push a bill creating new congressional
districts.
Historian and government scholar Bruce Buchanan at the University of Texas at Austin
views the Democrats' action as a legitimate response by a "frustrated minority, who finds
procedures and uses them to express that frustration and also to affect policies when they
couldn't do so through normal means."
Retired Republican state Sen. Buster Brown took office after defeating a "Killer Bee,"
Babe Schwartz, in the 1980 election. Schwartz and 11 other Texas senators shut down the
Texas Senate for five days when they went into hiding to protest a special bill favoring
former Vice President John Connally, who was gearing up for a presidential candidacy.
Brown, now a Capitol lobbyist, speculated that historians will view the Democrats' self-
imposed exile to Oklahoma "as what it is -- a final resort at stopping legislation."
"You use amendments. You use debate. You use all the things you can, and the final resort
is you break a quorum," Brown said.
The 51 House Democrats were just enough to deprive their colleagues of a quorum needed
to do business. Few organizations have a means to restore quorum. Texas Senate and
House leaders can order Texas DPS troopers to arrest missing members and haul them
back to the chamber. And that power increased the drama.
"But when the session is over, as is usually the case, the animosity and bad feelings will
disappear -- and both sides will look back at it fondly," Brown said of the week-long
walkout.
El Paso state Rep. Paul Moreno and Speaker Craddick were part of the 1971 "Dirty Thirty"
that forced out Speaker Gus Mutscher during the infamous Sharpstown stock-fraud
scandal. Moreno was very much a part of the "Killer D's" last week.
"Historians will say this group had guts. We took on a very strong system in a very tough
political era in the president's home state controlled by Republicans," Moreno said. "We
really had the guts to fight this situation head-on."
State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, was author of the redistricting bill that caused the
Democrats' walkout. King predicted historians "will say that the whole session was a
perfect storm and (the redistricting issue) was probably the time the hurricane hit the
coast."
Emotions spilled over earlier in the session for tort reform and deep budget cuts -- and the
homeowners insurance and school finance crises are still hovering over lawmakers.
"We have all these major issues plus a first Republican majority ever, a new speaker and a
whole bunch of us who were committee chairs trying to feel our way around and learn how
to be committee chairs," King said. "A lot of emotions came together. The perfect storm is
the best analogy.
"Historians will look back and say they're surprised that we got anything done," King said.
Of his role, King speculated that he would tell his grandkids: "I'm still not quite sure how I
ended up being the sponsor of the bill, but it worked out that way."
He hopes to tell them that eventually his redistricting map took effect "and the United
States survived and Texas survived and I survived."
Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, is one of the leaders of the House Black Caucus. She said
lawmakers were not thinking about the distant future when they decided to skip town.
Their only interest, she said, was to stop a plan they considered unfair to minority
communities and inappropriate given that courts had already settled congressional districts
after the 2000 Census.
Hodge and other Democrats wanted the Legislature to tackle issues affecting real people,
such as homeowners insurance, education and health care.
"We didn't do this for history," Hodge said. "History did not enter my mind."
House Black Caucus Chairman Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, said the historians' assessment
will be guided by the final outcome of the redistricting battle.
Gov. Rick Perry could reopen the fight if he decides to add it to a special session with
school finance -- or with any other unfinished business from the regular session that ends
June 2.
"Our simple goal was to kill redistricting, and if we do that, I think they will remember it
for many, many years to come," Deshotel said.
Perry has said he will call a special session to discuss school finance, but has not made any
statement regarding redistricting.
Gary Scharrer may be reached at gscharrer@elpasotimes.com
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