OPINION:
Democratic state lawmakers are on the run from the cops in the Lone Star State. Over the weekend, a gaggle of liberal legislators huddled on luxurious private jets and diesel-powered buses on the way to sanctuary in blue states such as Illinois and New York.
In their haste to sabotage the special legislative session Monday in Austin, they didn’t pause to consider how their reckless actions would contribute to climate change. Their sole concern was denying the quorum needed to advance a redistricting proposal that would enhance Republican prospects in the next election cycle.
Democrats across the country are upset because Republican gerrymandering in Texas would counter the gains Democrats achieved through their own gerrymandering in states they control. Although the redistricting process is a bit untidy, whomever the voters put in charge get to tilt the playing field, at least until a court declares the shenanigans have gone too far.
The Republican blueprint is reasonable. Electoral boundaries align with county limits. It displays no obvious trickery, but fairness was never the real issue for Democrats. So, the Texas House voted Monday to dispatch lawmen to round them up. Gov. Greg Abbott upped the stakes, saying the opposition party’s shirking of duty is potentially felonious.
“It seems to me that the only way some of the fleeing Democrats can avoid bribery charges is to not break quorum. It seems that would eliminate any potential quid pro quo connected to any payment they received to deny a quorum and skip a vote,” Mr. Abbott wrote on X on Sunday.
He refers to offers from left-wing benefactors to cover the $500-per-day no-show fines imposed on delinquent members. If the $30,000 chartered flight was a freebie, that could also invite legal scrutiny.
“These jet-setting runaways abandoned Texas and sacrificed their constituents for a publicity stunt. It’s imperative that they be swiftly arrested, punished, and face the full force of the law,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on X.
On Monday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference with absconders where she threatened to engage in retaliatory redistricting in the Empire State to offset the five seats the Texas Republican Party intends to capture. The Democratic leader’s scheme would take effect in 2028, if she goes forward with it.
This exposes that the complaint against the Republican plan is not about principle. Democrats are just cranky because they won’t be wielding the pen when the new lines are drawn.
Channeling hypocrisy of his own, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker hosted a separate band of renegades to call the Texas Republicans “cheaters” over the proposed congressional map. He said this as if he didn’t preside over the creation of the nation’s most rigged set of legislative borders.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, for instance, represents a district in Illinois that was restyled in 2021 to bisect the 15th Congressional District, ensuring rural, downstate Republicans have their representative determined by the votes of Democrats in faraway urban centers.
Of course, map manipulation is a sideshow compared with the damage done when President Biden enticed 10 million illegal aliens to flood this country. Whether or not any of these intruders improperly vote, they count in the census, which pads the number used to determine how many congressional seats dying states such as California and Illinois will receive.
If Republicans want to truly address the problem, fixing the census must top the agenda.
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