Caucus Chief Raises Specter of Sessions
Until 2023 as Rinaldi Polls on Dems Fate

Capitol Inside
July 13, 2021

The leader of the Texas House GOP Caucus contended on Tuesday that Democratic colleagues were killing legislation that Texans "desperately need" and Republicans are determined to pass even if means meeting in non-stop special sessions until the next regular gathering convenes in 2023.

"There actions show a lack of respect for their constituents who elected them," State Rep. Jim Murphy of Houston said as the current caucus boss. "We denounce that decision to flee the state and to avoid voting on critical legislation that Texans desperately need and care about."

The 58 House Democrats who GOP leaders and lawmakers condemned appeared to be ignoring the criticism from a lonely lower chamber back home - basking instead in the glow of newfound national fame while being hailed from coast to coast as gladiators in an epic fight to save democracy from a dismantling by the Republicans.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and the Senate Republicans went about business as usual today with four of the chamber's 13 Democrats on the floor when election and retired teacher pay bills were approved by the majority party's members. Patrick accused Democrats in the House of spreading lies about the election bill to justify the dramatic antics that have left the summer session in suspended limbo without little or no hope for a successful outcome based on the Republicans' initial expectations.

Patrick acknowledged that the Legislature cannot pass the election measure that's wrapped into Senate Bill 1 as long as the House lacks a quorum. But the lieutenant governor warned that he and the Republicans in the upper chamber have no plans to back down before the Democrats return to the statehouse eventually and remove the blockade. "If they do not, this bill will die, but the Senate will continue to pass SB 1 over and over again until the House finally has a quorum. I congratulate Sen. Hughes for his leadership and hard work on SB 1.” 

Brand new Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi tapped into the chorus of outrage and threats over the Democrats' flights out of state to Washington D.C. and other destinations - giving loyalists an opportunity to vote in a poll on whether the missing Democrats should be arrested when they return to Texas for "blatantly neglecting their duties and abandoning our state."

"YES, they should be punished for not doing their job" is the first of two potential answers on the Rinaldi multiple choice test. GOP to dismantle. "NO, they should be rewarded" is the alternative.

In what appeared to be a rare case of a state political party chair giving the enemy an opportunity to make its case, Rinaldi forwarded a tweet from Democratic State Rep. Julie Johnson of Dallas complete with a selfie that she snapped with a charter jet filled with fellow House Democrats in the seats behind her as background.

"When it comes to protecting our right to vote, all cards are on the table," Johnson said on Monday night in the social media post. "We broke #quorum again today because the Gov & #txlege Repubs chose to bully Texans out of our constitutional rights instead of finding solutions to problems that really exist. #SuppressionSession #DemsOut

Johnson unseated Rinaldi in 2018 when Democrats flipped a dozen Texas House seats. While Rinaldi didn't go after Johnson individually, he issued a scathing assessment of the disappearing act that turned a special session into a wasteland overnight.

Murphy appeared to be going off the same script as Governor Greg Abbott with an attempt at a caucus press conference to lure the Democrats back to Austin by making them feel guilty about the eventual death of legislation to give retired teachers a bonus and bills in the summer call to increase funding for foster care, family violence prevention and local law enforcement.

But the Republicans hadn't shown much or any recent interest in any of the surprise items in the governor's initial special session agenda. That makes their credibility suspect with the newfound interest in a few traditional Democratic priorities.

Rinaldi, who captured the partisan leadership post on Sunday, wasted no time in an attempt to gauge the opinion of grassroots base loyalists on whether the Democrats who are cracking the quorum should suffer punishment or be glorified.

"And, Friend, I don’t know what is more insulting . . . The fact that they abandoned millions of Texans in order to grandstand in Washington, D.C., and score cheap political points; The fact that they willfully neglected their constitutional duties to serve their constituents; Or the fact that they did so with bright, smiling faces," Rinaldi said in an email with the poll question on punishment versus prizes.

The Democrats from Texas plan to spend their time in the nation's capital city with a full-court press on Democratic President Joe Biden and U.S. Senate Democrats to do whatever it takes to pass federal voting rights legislation that would nullify the restrictions that Republicans here and in other major battleground states have rallied behind this year.

Biden acknowledged the defensive stands in the states in a speech on voting rights in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

"We'll be asking my Republican friends in Congress and states and cities and counties to stand up, for God's sake, and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election and the sacred right to vote," Biden said. "Have you no shame?"

more to come ...