Emergency: Democracy under attack in Texas

Impeachment. The 2000 Election. The California Recall. The pattern is becoming clear: Republicans will do anything to consolidate their power, including undermining our democratic institutions. It's time to fight back. In Texas, Democrats are fighting back hard, but with the world focused on California, they've been fighting alone. They need our help, and the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org PAC are partnering to offer these brave Democrats support.

A partisan plan pushed by Karl Rove and Tom DeLay in the Texas legislature will redistrict between five and seven Democrats out of Congress, putting the U.S. House of Representatives more firmly in Republican control. That's right. While George W. Bush talks about reaching out to new voters, his henchmen are attempting to pull off a disenfranchisement of historic proportions.

But right now, 11 Democratic State Senators are hiding across state lines -- with the Texas Governor calling for their arrest -- to prevent this illegitimate plan from being strong-armed into law. They have put their reputations and careers on the line for all of us.

A letter below from State Senator Rodney Ellis explains the situation. Please read it, and then please help us launch a hard-hitting ad campaign to fight back in Texas. Whether you donate $5 or $5,000, you will help hold accountable reckless Republicans who think they can get away with anything. Please contribute to this effort now.

Act now, because time is running out. The special session that was called to gerrymander the Texas congressional districts ends early next week, and the pressure is building. These courageous Democratic leaders need to see real support now, or they won't be able to hold out.

We need to fight back effectively against these attacks on democracy. Please get even more people involved by forwarding this email to everyone you think would like to help.

Below is the letter from State Senator Rodney Ellis, Texas State Senator from Houston:

August 18, 2003

Dear friends,

I am writing to you from a hotel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I and 10 of my colleagues in the Texas Senate have been forced to reside for the past 20 days. If we return to our homes, families, friends, and constituents, the Governor of Texas will have us arrested.

I know, it sounds more like a banana republic than the dignified democracy on which we have long prided ourselves. We are effectively exiled from the state due to our unalterable opposition to a Republican effort -- pushed by Tom DeLay and Karl Rove, and led by Texas Governor Rick Perry -- that would rewrite the map of Texas Congressional districts in order to elect at least 5 more Republicans to Congress.

You may not have heard much about the current breakdown in Texas politics. The Republican power play in California has obscured the Republican power play in Texas that has forced my colleagues and me to leave the state.

Recognizing that public pressure is the only thing that can break the current stalemate, our friends at the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org PAC have offered to support our efforts by sharing this email with you.

The Republican redistricting effort shatters the tradition of performing redistricting only once a decade immediately after the Census -- making redistricting a perpetual partisan process. It elevates partisan politics above minority voting rights, in contravention of the federal Voting Rights Act. It intends to decimate the Democratic Party in Texas, and lock in a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. And Republican efforts to force a vote on this issue by changing the rules of legislative procedure threaten to undermine the rule of law in Texas.

We do not take lightly our decision to leave the state. It was the only means left to us under the rules of procedure in Texas to block this injustice. We are fighting for our principles and beliefs, and we can win this fight with your support.

Sincerely,

Rodney Ellis
Texas State Senator (Houston)

What's at stake?

At stake, on the surface, is whether Tom DeLay and Karl Rove will succeed in exploiting Republican control of the Texas Legislature to add to the Republican majority in the United States Congress. But deeper issues are also at stake.

• If the Republicans succeed in redrawing the Texas Congressional lines to guarantee the election of five to seven more Republicans, it will ensure that Republicans hold the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the entire decade and will likely result in Tom DeLay becoming Speaker of the House.
• The Republican advantage would be gained by removing many African American and Hispanic voters from their current Congressional districts and "packing" them into a few districts that already have Democratic majorities. The voting power of these minority voters would be dramatically diluted by the Republican plan, in contravention of the federal Voting Rights Act. If the Republicans succeed, over 1.4 million African American and Hispanic voters will be harmed. It would be the largest disenfranchisement of minority voters since the Voting Rights Act was passed.
• Redistricting has always been conducted immediately following the U.S. Census's decennial population reports. Tom DeLay and Karl Rove now propose a new redistricting plan two years after the Census report simply because Republicans gained control over the Texas Legislature in 2002 and now have the power to enact a much more Republican-friendly plan than the one drawn by the federal courts two years ago. This is an unprecedented approach to redistricting, one that subordinates its original purpose of ensuring the principle of "one person, one vote" to the purpose of perpetual partisan politics. Redistricting, in this model, would never be a settled matter, and districts would constantly be in flux depending on the balance of political power in the Legislature.

Help stop this Republican abuse of power by making an emergency contribution to the "Defend Democracy" campaign.