Abbott Puts Democrats in Driver's Seat
on Redistricting with Veto on Article 10

Capitol Inside
July 15, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott has given Democrats the ultimate gift by putting them in position to control redistricting in 2021 with a veto of the Texas Legislature's funding that's set to expire at the end of August.

Texas House Democrats would be making a monumental mistake as a result if they came home before September after hijacking a special session with a brilliantly choreographed walkout on an election bill that's left Abbott and the Republicans in a helpless state of bitter stagnation with no end in sight.

If at least 51 Democratic representatives can hold out through the fall, they will be making it all but impossible for the Republicans to redraw the Texas legislative and congressional maps without staffs or support on which they depend from agencies like the Legislative Budget Board and the bill-drafting Texas Legislative Council.

That would send the task to a federal court that wouldn't be as generous in the crafting of voting districts for the Texas election in 2022. Abbott and his GOP allies in Austin could bellow and bawl like never before about Democrats abandoning their duties, disrespecting constituents and behaving in ways that merit their arrests - a superficial threat at best in light of the fact that they haven't violated any laws while breaking a quorum with an exodus to other states that left their GOP colleagues behind in a tizzy.

But the official record would show that the Republican governor shut down the GOP-controlled Legislature for all practical purposes right when the ruling party was on the verge of crafting new maps for next year's vote.

Abbott has given the Democrats a golden opportunity to go for the jugular in a brutal battle on a controversial GOP election bill that Republicans thought their minority party colleagues could stall and delay with no chance to kill. in the final analysis. Thanks to Abbott's red pen strike on Article 10, Texas House Democrats have a shot to give the governor and the Republicans an ultimatum they would find hard to refuse.

The Democrats could tell the Republicans that won't be coming back to Austin until they have blood-oath guarantees in writing that they will give up on the bid to pass an election bills that the minority party's representatives and senator see as a blatant attack on voter rights and democracy in general.

Abbott has promised to keep calling special sessions until the Democrats capitulate and come back to have the voting legislation shoved down their throats. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has vowed to pass the election bill out of the Texas Senate over and over until the Democrats return to the Capitol to take their medicine.

The Democrats could give the governor and the Republicans a simple choice between a radically conservative summer session agenda or redistricting if they can stay gone for at least two more months.

Abbott vetoed the Legislature's budget in a risky show of gamesmanship that gave him a billy club and carrot in an apparent attempt to manipulate lawmakers on both sides of the aisle during the special session that began a week ago. But Abbott apparently failed to anticipate the potential consequences of the red pen assassination of more than $400 million in Article 10.

GOP leaders and legislators here have been assuming that the Democrats would be back on the House floor in time to keep the money flowing to their staffs and support agencies. The Republicans started spreading the word on Wednesday that Comptroller Glenn Hegar has privately stated that legislation that would restore the Legislature's funding must be approved no later than August 7 to give his office time to ensure that the money keeps flowing without interruption.

With the special session set to end on August 8, the timing of such a warning will look like a disingenuous bluff to lure them back in time to get their money after the Republicans pass the election bill.

The Democrats are in the driver's seat now with nothing that the Republicans can do but ramp up the rhetorical lashings and threaten punishment that they really have no power to inflict. But they appear to be in the driver's seat now with a chance to make the ultimate statement by holding out as long as it takes to back Abbott and the Republicans off the voting bill and other measures in the summer call that are based on fabricated issues like critical race theory and voter fraud.

The governor said he vetoed Article 10 to punish Democrats for killing the election bill with a walkout in the House on the final weekend of regular session. That didn't make sense on paper in light of the fact that Republicans will be forced to pay for the Democratic maneuvering after going along with the Legislature budget veto without apparent consideration of potential consequences.

more to come ...