In an extraordinary move brokered with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, dozens of Texas House Democrats aim to deny a quorum as the GOP is set to draw new maps.
The roughly 30 Democrats are expected to stay for the week in a plan brokered with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who had met with the Texas caucus late last month and has directed staff to provide logistical support for their stay. A news conference with the governor and Texas Democrats is expected later Sunday.
Last week, Texas Republicans released a proposed new congressional map that would give the GOP a path to pick up five seats in next year’s midterm elections. It followed President Donald Trump’s public pressure for a new map in the state as he works to retain a majority in Congress in what historically is a difficult year for the party holding the White House.
The proposed map would shift district lines in ways that would target current Democratic members of Congress in and around Austin, Dallas and Houston, as well as two already endangered Democrats representing south Texas districts that Trump carried last year.
The Texas Democrats, however, face the risk of a $500-a-day fine and even possible arrest for fleeing the state.
Sounds like a GoFundMe that I’d kick in to.
Worth every penny
Really though, Pritzker could pay it out of his pocket change. $500 x 30 members = $15,000/day or $450,000 per month. That would be $5,400,000 if they stayed in Illinois for a full year. Pritzker is worth $3.7 billion. He could pay it without blinking.
$5.4 million is about 0.15% of $3.7 billion. That’s like the average American (median net worth $192,700 based on a quick search) paying $281.24. Hell, I’m below that and I would gladly pay $241.24 to keep TX from fucking the rest of the country.
According to the article they already had funds set aside to pay the fine. They fundraised specifically for it.
The republicans are trying to steal 5 US House of Reps seats, this is awesome.
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States have been paying attention to the will and representation of their people?
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Tbf at this point Im ready for the end of the Union. Fuck a shit ton of people here.
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Once that happens, it’s kind of the beginning of the end of the Union.
Eh, not really. States could all choose to give 100% of their representatives to their majority party. That’s basically how the Electoral College works, and while it’s not optimal it also isn’t the end of the Union.
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The fact that Illinois is helping them makes it less likely the Texas rangers will kidnap them and render them back to Texas.
Pretty sure the Texas rangers have zero jurisdiction outside of Texas.
Pretty sure if they tried to do anything outside of Texas the local PD would probably be justified in arresting them or even just shooting them.
Justified? Sure. I suspect “professional courtesy” would prevent any such thing, though.
Some cops especially sheriffs can be very very territorial, plenty of them are bastards to those outside their region but are chill for those from within the region. A jumped up Texas ranger would be well within the “They aren’t gonna find your bodies” area.
Why do you think the local PD would be on the side of democracy?
Don’t think they would be, but they are far more likely to shoot some jumped up out of stater.
History says they’ll side with power/authoritarian. Don’t put any faith in westernized law enforcement. Their job is to keep the workers in line. Not to question orders.
If there is one thing that can get deputies and local PD twitchy its tribalism especially if that triablism is being agitated by someone else’s tribe. Fact of the matter is that Texas Rangers don’t have power or authority outside of Texas, and frankly speaking cops are just as aware of their paycheque as everyone else. If they work with the Texas rangers without higher approval from within the state they risk getting their pay cut for basically nothing.
They didn’t care last time. And the time before that… As long as they are going after marginalized people the local authorities will at best be passive bystanders, at worst they’ll actively help the authoritarian.
Isn’t jurisdiction something that departments fight over fairly regularly?
Would Texas Republicans care about what’s legal at this point?
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Seems like this is starting to shed more light on the GOP’s plans.
We’re headed for civil war. But way dumber than the last one.
Idk, I think it’s pretty dumb to start a war because you want to keep owning people.
Not if you are lazy.
In an extraordinary move
The problem is it’s not ordinary…
We tell voters were fighting fascism and that’s all that matters when it’s time to vote, then they get in office and don’t do shit
Spend two years doing this type of stuff and it won’t be so hard to convince voters to fight when it’s their turn
It’s not enough for voters to turn out every two years. We need the politicians we elect to actually do shit like this. This gets more votes than 10 million from a billionaire.
Good news doesn’t break through half as much as bad news does. State dems have often (though not always) shown much more resolve to do stuff like this than the national party has
Earlier this year in Maine, the governor challenged Trump to his face on his illegal attempts to cut school lunch money funding over a single digit number of trans athletes in the state. She won in court and Trump folded and gave the money back
Earlier this year in Minnesota, a judge ruled a dem wasn’t able to go to office on a technicality (that Republicans only brought up after he won). That seat changed the house from tied to 1 seat GOP, and so Dems then did not show up to deny quorum until after a special election took place. The republicans tried to force operations and operated without a quorum. Dems sued and got a judge to rule every single one of the republican’s actions was invalid because it was without quorum. They then won the special election and only then started back up state legislative operations
There are people willing to do the work. Show up to every damn primary and vote to make sure they are the dominant force in the party
First rule of hide and seek.
Don’t hide all in one spot.
