Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would begin trying to remove Democratic lawmakers from office yesterday if they do not return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn US House of Representatives maps that US President Donald Trump wants before the midterm elections next year.
The revolt by the Democrats, many of whom went to Illinois or New York on Sunday, and Abbott giving them less than 24 hours to come home ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps that began in Texas, but has drawn in Democratic governors who have floated the possibility of rushing to redraw their own state’s maps in retaliation. However, their options are limited.
At the center of the escalating impasse is Trump’s pursuit of adding five more Republican-leaning congressional seats in Texas before next year that would bolster his party’s chances of preserving its slim majority in the US House of Representatives.
Photo: Reuters
The new congressional maps drawn by Texas Republicans would create five new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
A vote on the proposed maps had been set yesterday in the Texas House of Representatives, but it cannot proceed if the majority of Democratic members deny a quorum by not showing up.
After one group of Democrats landed in Chicago on Sunday, they were welcomed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, but declined to say how long they were prepared to stay out of Texas.
“We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don’t know,” said Representative Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader.
Legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, including in 2021 when many of the same Texas House Democrats left the state for 38 days in protest over new voting restrictions.
Abbott is taking a far more aggressive stance and swiftly warning Democrats that he would seek to remove them from office if they are not back when the House reconvened yesterday afternoon. He cited a non-binding 2021 legal opinion issued by Attorney General Ken Paxton, which suggested a court could determine that a lawmaker had forfeited their office.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS