Current Events > Democratic Rep. locked inside state house chamber by Texas Republicans

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-democrat-nicole-collier-locked-inside-house-chamber-returning-texas-capitol/

Her name is Nicole Collier. They won't let her leave without signing "permission slip" and a forced police escort. She is refusing.

Well that sounds only marginally illegal

She was one of the ones who walked out? Why on earth would she come back?

Hexenherz posted...

Well that sounds only marginally illegal

Marginally? It's false imprisonment at best, kidnapping at worst.

Also, Texas is really stupid in letting her become a martyr on this.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

She was one of the ones who walked out? Why on earth would she come back?

They all did. And all of them signed the slip and accepted the police escort, except her, if my facts are correct.

Takuya_Lee posted...

Marginally? It's false imprisonment at best, kidnapping at worst.

Also, Texas is really stupid in letting her become a martyr on this.

It was sarcasm. Or perhaps hypoboly (is that a thing)

Republicans have a woman locked in a room until she does whatever they force her to do? Sounds very on brand right there.

MorbidFaithless posted...

They all did.

What the hell was the point of walking out if they were just gonna come back a few weeks later? Won't the Texas state Congress just take the new map up again?

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

What the hell was the point of walking out if they were just gonna come back a few weeks later? Won't the Texas state Congress just take the new map up again?

Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said their efforts to block the potential five Republican-leaning seats have now moved into their second phase, the legal phase.
Now that a quorum is again present in the House, the House redistricting committee will meet to consider the new maps. They are expected to approve them along party lines and send them to the full House as early as Wednesday.
The Texas Senate redistricting committee approved the maps on Sunday, and the full Senate will take them up sometime this week.

Whatever all that means.

MorbidFaithless posted...

Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said their efforts to block the potential five Republican-leaning seats have now moved into their second phase, the legal phase.

Oh, right, because the law has been very successful in blocking Trump thus far.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/275173dd.jpg

This is like getting stuffed in your locker by your high school bully.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

What the hell was the point of walking out if they were just gonna come back a few weeks later?

it proves too costly and they'll keep putting special session after special session till they come back. also to note: hopefully california rids of the independant comission to redraw those maps. it'll negate what texas is doing.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

Oh, right, because the law has been very successful in blocking Trump thus far.

They don't have the numbers to stop what's happening, only to gum up the works and stall for time. That's what they're doing.

kingdrake2 posted...

it proves too costly and they'll keep putting special session after special session till they come back. also to note: hopefully california rids of the independant comission to redraw those maps. it'll negate what texas is doing.

If Texas gets away with what they're doing then all the red states are just going to follow suit and Dems don't get a House majority ever again.

Unknown5uspect posted...

If Texas gets away with what they're doing then all the red states are just going to follow suit and Dems don't get a House majority ever again.

You meant "when", right?

Ohio is already going to do it

SpawnShadow posted...

You meant "when", right?

Well ... Hopefully not, but probably >.>

Unknown5uspect posted...

Well ... Hopefully not, but probably >.>

You're right, nothing ever catches on with Republicans. Here's your raw milk.

This is about how well they handled it last time.

At least they have Newsom and the other governors standing ul for them.

MorbidFaithless posted...

Whatever all that means.

Just BS to justify giving up.

bluezero posted...

You're right, nothing ever catches on with Republicans. Here's your raw milk.

One would think they'd thin themselves out with shit like that

Bump, because this is seriously fucked up that it is happening on not getting more exposure.

devilminion posted...

Bump, because this is seriously fucked up that it is happening on not getting more exposure.

Why would it get exposure? Republicans doing something vile never gets the attention it deserves.

Strider102 posted...

Why would it get exposure? Republicans doing something vile never gets the attention it deserves.

They own everything the courts the police the military the media they have it all and they know it

A_Good_Boy posted...

Republicans have a woman locked in a room until she does whatever they force her to do? Sounds very on brand right there.

a black woman

tremain07 posted...

They own everything the courts the police the military the media they have it all and they know it

Exactly.

It's much easier to just not hold them accountable and find some way to blame everything on Democrats, just like this will be.

Trump got what he wanted in Texas, Ohio to follow
https://apnews.com/article/texas-redistricting-congressional-map-882eae23a280a68dd6e0fc5a3bf11a0d

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The Texas House on Wednesday approved redrawn congressional maps that would give Republicans a bigger edge in 2026, muscling through a partisan gerrymander that launched weeks of protests by Democrats and a widening national battle over redistricting.

The approval came at the urging of President Donald Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding onto the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable seats, need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott before they become official.

But the Texas House vote had presented the best chance for Democrats to derail the redraw.
Democratic legislators delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest, and they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesdays session.
The approval of the Texas maps on an 88-52 party-line vote is likely to prompt Californias Democratic-controlled state Legislature this week to approve of a new House map creating five new Democratic-leaning districts. But the California map would require voter approval in November.
Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month.

Texas maps openly made to help GOP
Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their partys interest. State Rep. Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes.
The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance, Hunter, a Republican, said on the floor. After nearly eight hours of debate, Hunter took the floor again to sum up the entire dispute as nothing more than a partisan fight. Whats the difference, to the whole world listening? Republicans like it, and Democrats do not.
Democrats said the disagreement was about more than partisanship.
In a democracy, people choose their representatives, State Rep. Chris Turner said. This bill flips that on its head and lets politicians in Washington, D.C., choose their voters.
State Rep. John H. Bucy blamed the president. This is Donald Trumps map, Bucy said. It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows that the voters are rejecting his agenda.

Redistricting becomes tool nationwide in battle for US House
The Republican power play has already triggered a national tit-for-tat battle as Democratic state lawmakers prepared to gather in California on Thursday to revise that states map to create five new Democratic seats.
This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country, Californias Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. And were going to fight fire with fire.
A new California map would need to be approved by voters in a special election in November because that state normally operates with a nonpartisan commission drawing the map to avoid the very sort of political brawl that is playing out. Newsom himself backed the 2008 ballot measure to create that process, as did former President Barack Obama. But in a sign of Democrats stiffening resolve, Obama Tuesday night backed Newsoms bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOPs Texas move.
I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Partys main redistricting arm.
The incumbent presidents party usually loses seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes. Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. Hes pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Marylands and New Yorks maps as well.
However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like Californias or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, cant draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval.

Texas Democrats decry the new maps
In Texas, there was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice.
Democrats noted that, in every decade since the 1970s, courts have found that Texas legislature did violate the Voting Rights Act in redistricting, and that civil rights groups had an active lawsuit making similar allegations against the 2021 map that Republicans drew up.
Republicans contend the new map creates more new majority-minority seats than the previous one. Democrats and some civil rights groups have countered that the GOP does that through mainly a numbers game that leads to halving the number of the states House seats that will be represented by a Black representative.
State Rep. Ron Reynolds noted the country just marked the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Acts passage and warned GOP members about how theyd be remembered if they voted for what he called this racial gerrymander.
Just like the people who were on the wrong side of history in 1965, history will be looking at the people who made the decisions in the body this day, Reynolds, a Democrat, said.

Republicans hit back at criticism
Republicans spent far less time talking on Wednesday, content to let their numbers do the talking in the lopsided vote. As the day dragged on, a handful hit back against Democratic complaints.
You call my voters racist, you call my party racist and yet were expected to follow the rules, said State Rep. Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson. There are Black and Hispanic and Asian Republicans in this chamber who were elected just like you.
House Republicans frustration at the Democrats flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable. The GOP used a parliamentary maneuver to take a second and final vote on the map so it wouldnt have to reconvene for one more vote after Senate approval.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later. One Democrat who refused the 24-hour police monitoring, State Rep. Nicole Collier, had been confined to the House floor since Monday night.
Some Democratic state lawmakers joined Collier Tuesday night for what Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez dubbed a sleepover for democracy.
Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.

Time for California to do the their thing. And make Mike Johnson cry in a corner.

Very dark path ahead. One the Dems need to walk of course, because the Republicans are leading the way. But fucked up nonetheless.

name_unknown posted...

You call my voters racist, you call my party racist and yet were expected to follow the rules, said State Rep. Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson. There are Black and Hispanic and Asian Republicans in this chamber who were elected just like you.

What a piece of shit.

I'm sure she leads a peaceful existence.

She chickened out and is failing the rest of the country by extension. No sympathy.

GrandConjuraton posted...

She chickened out and is failing the rest of the country by extension. No sympathy.

them coming back is part of the plan