Republican State Reps Back Police Hunt
for House Dems Who Are Out of Reach

Capitol Inside
July 13, 2021

With a campaign resume-puffing special session in a smoldering state of wreckage, Texas House Republicans ordered a statewide roundup of missing Democrats to bring back to Austin "under warrant of arrest if necessary" after the lion's share of them skipped work on Tuesday morning with no plans to return for several weeks.

While nine Democrats were no shows in the Senate today, the four who did show up made it possible for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and his GOP allies to debate an election bill that prompted their counterparts across the rotunda to boycott the summer session. But the vote on the voting plan in Senate Bill 1 was purely for show with the legislation on life support at best at this point.

Some of the Republicans in the House were disappointed today when they learned that GOP Speaker Dade Phelan would not have the ability to bust Democrats who've gone rogue from committee chairmanships and vice-chair posts on his leadership team as long as the Department of Public Safety is hunting them down across the state.

The Republicans approved a motion to "put a call on the House" in a 76-4 vote that featured three Democrats from border districts in the opposition with State Reps. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City, Tracy King of Uvalde and Eddie Morales of Eagle Pass all voting no. State Rep. John Turner of Dallas was the only other Democrat on the floor for the vote on the motion that he also opposed.

Sponsored by GOP State Rep. Will Metcalf of Conroe in his role as the Administration Committee chairman, the motion is a perfunctory move that's mostly symbolic in light of the fact that the Department of Public Safety only has the authority to apprehend lawmakers when they're in Texas.

The state police hunt would have to turn up at least 14 Democrats who've gone rogue to establish a quorum - an effort that's destined to fail as long as more than 50 colleagues stay outside of Texas where they are now as the toast of the town in the friendly confines of the nation's capital city.

While state troopers search for Democrats across Texas, the official call on the House could be an empty threat with none of the minority party's members who are in Washington D.C. now having been accused of any specific crimes that would merit arrests. The DPS has the authority to try to compel lawmakers to return to the Capitol on their own volition when they've been tracked down in Texas.

The House appeared to be taking a page today from the federal government's treatment of suspected foreign terrorists who will held for indefinite times without being charged with any particular offenses.

It will come as no surprise if they found a few Democrats at their residences in Austin where they're not trying to elude anyone. Former House Democrat Helen Giddings was escorted by state troopers to the Capitol from her apartment nearby in the regular session in 2003 when more than 50 colleagues fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma to block a vote on a congressional redistricting plan. Giddings had been on Republican Speaker Tom Craddick's team as the Business & Industry Committee chair at the time - and she knew that the House was quorum proof when she made no effort to hide from police.

The atmosphere was substantially more tense in 2003 when the Democrats disappeared in the middle of the night and caught the ruling Republicans by complete surprise with a creative power play that House leaders hadn't anticipated. There was no shock value on the House floor on Tuesday - no inflammatory rhetoric or visible anger or personal insults despite predictable frustration and the recycling of standard claims about Democrats abandoning their jobs.

Boredom already seemed to be setting in as House committee chairs found themselves having to cancel the hearings that they had scheduled as long as the chamber was under a call without a quorum.

more to come ...