Democrats across the country must rally around the 11 Texas state senators who are holed up in a downtown Marriott in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If Texas Republicans succeed in crushing minority resistance against their Congressional redistricting plan, G.O.P. partisans in Washington may soon be taking their cue from the Lone Star State.

In the nation’s capitol, Senate Republicans have openly fumed for months about Democratic filibusters against some of George W. Bush’s right-wing judicial nominees. Some Republican senators have suggested that they should suspend the procedural rules for filibustering, allowing fewer and fewer votes needed to end debate. Eventually a filibuster could be ended by the vote of a simple majority. Washington observers have labeled this strategy, the “nuclear option.”

Democrats and even a few Republicans have criticized the nuclear option. They fear that a suspension of procedural safeguards for filibustering could permanently damage the Senate and effectively silence whichever group or political party happens to be in the minority. Not surprisingly, the G.O.P. appears to be tilting in favor of the nuclear option, apparently less concerned about the Senate’s time-honored procedural safeguards, than G.O.P. leaders are about ramming through their conservative agenda and pleasing the Bush Administration. Former Majority Leader Trent Lott favors the nuclear option and current Majority Leader Bill Frist said he is considering it.

But in Texas, Republicans have already threatened to “drop the bomb” as soon as the State Senate opens for a second, special legislative session to consider the issue of Congressional redistricting. (Republican Governor Rick Perry’s first special session ended without enough votes to pass a G.O.P. redistricting plan. As soon as the first special session ended, Republican Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst announced that he would suspend the State Senate’s normal requirement of two-thirds vote necessary to pass a bill during special session, thereby allowing the G.O.P. to ram through a plan that would only require a simple majority vote.)

Democrats had no choice but to flee their own state, in order to keep their constituents from getting trampled.

Texas Redistricting Issue

As in most states, Texas generally re-draws its Congressional districts every 10 years following the national census. In 2001, the Texas legislature could not agree on a redistricting plan and had to turn the issue over to a panel of federal judges. The judges approved the plan that is now in place.

But Texas Republicans are dissatisfied with the current plan. Texas Democrats in the United States Congress presently outnumber Republicans 17-15. (Texas has 32 congressional seats and 32 electoral votes.) According to Texas Republicans, who have pushed this issue at the urging of ultra-right-wing Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX), Republicans deserve more Congressional seats than their Democratic counterparts, because more people voted for Republican candidates in the 2002 state elections.

Democrats have pointed out that the number of seats in a representative democracy often has little to do with a popular vote. After all, Al Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election, but lost overall because he and Joe Lieberman did not win the electoral vote.

In addition to breaking tradition by pursuing redistricting before another 10 years has lapsed, Texas Republicans are pushing several versions of a plan that could split the City of Austin, Texas into several, unrelated districts, while disenfranchising up to 1.4 million rural and minority voters. The various G.O.P. plans are so ill-conceived, that the normally conservative Texas media has dubbed the overall Republican redistricting effort as ,“Perrymandering,” in honor of the state’s ultra-conservative governor, who is spending millions of taxpayer dollars by calling back-to-back special sessions after the 2003 legislature has recessed.

Rallying for the Texas Democrats

On Saturday, August 9, 2003, several thousand citizens rallied for the Texas Democrats on the lawn outside of the Capitol Building in Austin, Texas. We sincerely hope that the nation was watching. If Texas’ 11 courageous senators can hold out and defeat the G.O.P. redistricting plan – while appearing to have the strong support of the public -- it will send a clear message to Republican partisans in Washington that a “nuclear option” might blow up in their collective face.

If you don't live in Texas but would like to show your support for the Texas Democrats, there is a simple way that you can do this. Send an email to Texas11@txdemocrats.org . You may also post encouraging messages in the discussion forum here at www.democrats.us We will pass your comments along and the public can view your messages as well.

The Texas 11 have risked their political careers to take on a right-wing establishment that stretches from Austin to Washington. Now is the time for Democrats across the nation to rally around these courageous public servants.