Burnt Orange Report (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} orangereport) wrote,@ 2003-05-13 20:24:00 |
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Ardmore Trip Summary (Part #22)
My friend David and I left Dallas around 11:30. We had originally planned to arrive in Ardmore, OK around 1 PM, but we took a little detour and didn't get there until closer to 2 PM. We arrived there, exit #31A off I-35, 31 miles north of the Oklahoma border. The Holiday Inn was right off the highway and easy to find once we arrived in Ardmore. We missed the 1 PM press conference, but heard it all on KRLD 1080. The press conference was led by Jim Dunnam and followed by several other Texas House Democratic leaders. All 51 House Democrats in Ardmore lined up behind Dunnam outside the Ardmore Holiday Inn. As for the conference:
When David and I arrived with our signs "Thanks for fighting Tom Delay Re-Redistricting" and "Thanks Texas Dems! Fighting for Us!", we quickly found several state Represenatives in the center of the complex where there was a pool and a patio. Jim Dunnam was talking to several reporters, as was Garnett Coleman. We saw our State Rep. Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin) walking out of his hotel room and spoke to him for awhile and met with other Texas Democrats and some labor folks that had come up for the day.
We walked into the conference room where there was about 15 state reps holding some sort of caucus meeting. The House Democrats used the conference room today to hold caucus meetings, write statements for the press and conduct other business. Inside, we ran into a young man - probably early to mid twenties who weared jeans and a coat and tie and identified himself as a "volunteer staffer". We asked who he worked for, and he answered again with a smile, that he was a "volunteer staffer". He invited us inside for a few minutes and let us take a copy of all the press materials. One was a packet nearly 100 pages long labeled "Press Clips: Tuesday morning" of the local, Texas and national and international press (the guardian carried the story) that the story had received. The second packet was several dozen pages of the supportive emails that had been sent from across the country to the holidayinnardmore@yahoo.com address. There were four single sheet press briefing papers. One was titled "We do not stand alone" and listed the editorial support of the House Dems across Texas. The next was their press release from Monday entitled "Why we are here, Working to protect Texas". Another sheet listed eight talking points and a fourth listed some "Q and A for the press". Look for more details in following posts. A final sheet was a picture faxed to them in Ardmore of a superman-like figure with a big "D" on his chest entitled "The Killer D's". Under the figure was the caption "Fighting for truth, justice and fair play in the 78th Texas Legislature!"
David and I ate lunch at about 3 PM at the Denny's in the Holiday Inn where Democrats had been discovered the night before.
Afterwards, we spoke with several State Representatives. One spoke a little bit about strategy. The plan had been in the works for several days, and was spurred into motion by lots of small conversations late last week. With the House rules such as they are, House Democrats knew that breaking the quorum was the only way in which they could prevent redistricting from being passed. By the weekend, they realized that they had enough state representatives on board for it to work, so then they looked at the options. They could stay in Texas like the Killer Bees in 1979. But hiding 53 Representatives is a lot harder than hiding 12 Senators. So they looked at the nearby states. They did anticipate an attempt to extradite them, so for that reason they eliminated states with Republicans governors of Republican attorneys general. That eliminated Arkansas and Louisiana. However, New Mexico and Oklahoma both have Democratic governors and attorneys general. So the Democrats made plans. 51 would go to Oklahoma on chartered buses on Sunday night. Several others would go to New Mexico - not sure exactly where, but I did hear Las Cruces mentioned. So, while they were discovered, although it may have been through a leak by the House Dems, they are safely outside the control of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Former Speaker and Rep. Pete Laney who worked very well with Governor Bush joined the House Democrats in Ardmore. He was quoted in several newspapers as saying that Speaker "Tom Craddick has united the Democratic Party much better than I was ever able to".
Another State Representative commented that these two days "have been the best this session".
Another was excited to learn that the Texas Republican Party had formed playing cards of them. He thought that it was a great fundraising opportunity and was looking forward to letting his district know that Republicans considered him to be an ace, king, etc.
A group of labor activists arrived and they started marching around the complex with signs of "Redistricting, NO!" among others. The state represenatives would generally come out in groups of two or three and mingle with the crowd. I didn't have an opportunity to speak with Rep. Dunnam. He was speaking on his cell phone most of the time. So was Rep. Coleman and others.
We left around 5:30. On the way home we listened to conservative talk radio blast the House Democrats. One caller, the Cook County Republican County Chair said that a group of Republican activists from Sherman and Dennison were headed up to Ardmore to "talk some sense into the Democrats" up there. There were no Republican protesters in Ardmore while we were there, however. Others followed on Tom Delay's quote today that the House Democrats were "disloyal to the state of Texas". Listeners called the Dems unpatriotic. Entertaining stuff. We got back to Dallas around 7 PM.
Posted by: Byron L.
My friend David and I left Dallas around 11:30. We had originally planned to arrive in Ardmore, OK around 1 PM, but we took a little detour and didn't get there until closer to 2 PM. We arrived there, exit #31A off I-35, 31 miles north of the Oklahoma border. The Holiday Inn was right off the highway and easy to find once we arrived in Ardmore. We missed the 1 PM press conference, but heard it all on KRLD 1080. The press conference was led by Jim Dunnam and followed by several other Texas House Democratic leaders. All 51 House Democrats in Ardmore lined up behind Dunnam outside the Ardmore Holiday Inn. As for the conference:
- House Democratic leaders, Rep Jim Dunnam (D-Waco) began by saying "Thank you to our families, friends and supporters". He addressed the House Republicans saying, "We know that many of you privately agree with us", and to Tom Delay, Dunnam said, "Don't mess with Texas". Dunnam then thanked his fellow House Democrats for their "principles, courage, conviction, heart and dedication to the people that they sent them here". He went on to say that House Democrats would like to be able to address the real problems of Texas, but that those problems had been cast aside by Tom Delay in a Republican power play.
- House Redistricting committee member Rep. Richard Raymond (D-Laredo) spoke next. Raymond, we would later learn is the Democrat that personally fronted the bill for the chartered buses from Austin to Ardmore, and also the hotel rooms. Raymond had been a vocal critic of House Redistricting Committee Chair Joe Crabb, and yesterday filed a suit against the redistricting bill for not posting a notice of the hearings in Spanish. At the press conference, Raymond said that "one member of congress has attempted to usurp the power of the Texas House to claim a solid hold in Washington politics".
- Next, State Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) said how she was outraged and that "we need to keep the people's agenda first, not partisan politics".
- Then, State Rep. Barry Telford (D-DeKalb) spoke on how the proposed re-redistricting map affected rural Texas. He said that the Delay map "makes rural Texas totally beholden to suburbia". He went on to say speak on the proposed districts that would move northeast Texas out of the first congressional district, a heavily rural district held by Rep Max Sandlin (D-Marshall) and into a district rooted in the Dallas suburbs where rural issues would be ignored and put into direct conflict with suburban issues. He said that the map did the same thing to other rural districts in East and Central Texas.
- State Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine), State Rep. Garnett Coleman (D-Houston) and State Rep. Steve Wolens (D-Dallas) all spoke briefly as well.
- Jim Dunnam took questions at the end. The first was "How long will you stay?". Dunnam said that the House Democrats would stay as long as it takes and until the Republicans made the "right decision". "What would it take for them to return to Austin?" Dunnam said that Democrats would return to Austin the minute that Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Tom Craddick pledged to not take up redistricting in Texas until mandated after the 2010 census. As Jim posted earlier, another question was his reaction to the statement from Gov. Perry that the Democrats were cowards. Dunnam said that it was cowardly to send the DPS officers across state lines and to harass member's spouses and children. Interesting, KRLD also reported that Dallas Mayor Laura Miller (wife of State Rep. Steve Wolens (D-Dallas)) had two state troopers outside of her home all night in the event that Wolens would show up.
- KRLD reported that Oklahoma Democratic governor Brad Henry said that he had no authority to compel the Texas Democrats to leave.
When David and I arrived with our signs "Thanks for fighting Tom Delay Re-Redistricting" and "Thanks Texas Dems! Fighting for Us!", we quickly found several state Represenatives in the center of the complex where there was a pool and a patio. Jim Dunnam was talking to several reporters, as was Garnett Coleman. We saw our State Rep. Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin) walking out of his hotel room and spoke to him for awhile and met with other Texas Democrats and some labor folks that had come up for the day.
We walked into the conference room where there was about 15 state reps holding some sort of caucus meeting. The House Democrats used the conference room today to hold caucus meetings, write statements for the press and conduct other business. Inside, we ran into a young man - probably early to mid twenties who weared jeans and a coat and tie and identified himself as a "volunteer staffer". We asked who he worked for, and he answered again with a smile, that he was a "volunteer staffer". He invited us inside for a few minutes and let us take a copy of all the press materials. One was a packet nearly 100 pages long labeled "Press Clips: Tuesday morning" of the local, Texas and national and international press (the guardian carried the story) that the story had received. The second packet was several dozen pages of the supportive emails that had been sent from across the country to the holidayinnardmore@yahoo.com address. There were four single sheet press briefing papers. One was titled "We do not stand alone" and listed the editorial support of the House Dems across Texas. The next was their press release from Monday entitled "Why we are here, Working to protect Texas". Another sheet listed eight talking points and a fourth listed some "Q and A for the press". Look for more details in following posts. A final sheet was a picture faxed to them in Ardmore of a superman-like figure with a big "D" on his chest entitled "The Killer D's". Under the figure was the caption "Fighting for truth, justice and fair play in the 78th Texas Legislature!"
David and I ate lunch at about 3 PM at the Denny's in the Holiday Inn where Democrats had been discovered the night before.
Afterwards, we spoke with several State Representatives. One spoke a little bit about strategy. The plan had been in the works for several days, and was spurred into motion by lots of small conversations late last week. With the House rules such as they are, House Democrats knew that breaking the quorum was the only way in which they could prevent redistricting from being passed. By the weekend, they realized that they had enough state representatives on board for it to work, so then they looked at the options. They could stay in Texas like the Killer Bees in 1979. But hiding 53 Representatives is a lot harder than hiding 12 Senators. So they looked at the nearby states. They did anticipate an attempt to extradite them, so for that reason they eliminated states with Republicans governors of Republican attorneys general. That eliminated Arkansas and Louisiana. However, New Mexico and Oklahoma both have Democratic governors and attorneys general. So the Democrats made plans. 51 would go to Oklahoma on chartered buses on Sunday night. Several others would go to New Mexico - not sure exactly where, but I did hear Las Cruces mentioned. So, while they were discovered, although it may have been through a leak by the House Dems, they are safely outside the control of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Former Speaker and Rep. Pete Laney who worked very well with Governor Bush joined the House Democrats in Ardmore. He was quoted in several newspapers as saying that Speaker "Tom Craddick has united the Democratic Party much better than I was ever able to".
Another State Representative commented that these two days "have been the best this session".
Another was excited to learn that the Texas Republican Party had formed playing cards of them. He thought that it was a great fundraising opportunity and was looking forward to letting his district know that Republicans considered him to be an ace, king, etc.
A group of labor activists arrived and they started marching around the complex with signs of "Redistricting, NO!" among others. The state represenatives would generally come out in groups of two or three and mingle with the crowd. I didn't have an opportunity to speak with Rep. Dunnam. He was speaking on his cell phone most of the time. So was Rep. Coleman and others.
We left around 5:30. On the way home we listened to conservative talk radio blast the House Democrats. One caller, the Cook County Republican County Chair said that a group of Republican activists from Sherman and Dennison were headed up to Ardmore to "talk some sense into the Democrats" up there. There were no Republican protesters in Ardmore while we were there, however. Others followed on Tom Delay's quote today that the House Democrats were "disloyal to the state of Texas". Listeners called the Dems unpatriotic. Entertaining stuff. We got back to Dallas around 7 PM.
Posted by: Byron L.
