Redistricting Fallout: Aaron Pena is History

n India, it’s called karma. I call it justice. Aaron Pena just took a look at the district boundaries that the 3-judge federal panel redrew for him, converting it from a Republican-safe to a Democratic-safe district, and decided that there was no way he was going to win in the next election.

There was no way he could win as a Republican, and there was no way he was going to win by re-ratting, or returning to the Democratic fold.

Pena couldn’t be elected dog catcher and he knows it.

Pena, in deserting the Democratic Party at its darkest hour, enabled the Republicans to have a super majority, and enabled the passage of the worst laws in a long, long time.

And it is obvious to all what enabled the enabling. Pena was wooed into becoming a turncoat by being promised that his Democratic district would be “adjusted” into a district only a Republican could love.

That’s just another indication of how bad the new district maps were going to be for Democrats. Turning a Democratic-safe House district in the Rio Grande Valley into a Republican-safe district is no mean feat. They worked with a definite purpose.

And now Pena’s district has been returned to the Democratic majority.

And now there is dancing in the streets of Edinburgh, Texas.

Because now Aaron Pena is history.

Ritter Beats Peña to the Punch

Perhaps because of the news that was broken by Burka, or perhaps not, State Rep Allan Ritter (D-(for now) Nederland), of the 21^st house district has announced that he will be the 100^th Republican in the 2011 legislative session, giving Republicans a clear two-thirds majority. A majority that guarantees their being able to pass a constitutional amendment with no Democratic votes. A guarantee that they can now raid the “Rainy Day” fund without a single Democratic vote.

Peña must be pissed. While he sat and pondered in an out-of-state location, while he promised an announcement this Tuesday, Ritter acted. Ritter acted and in doing so turned the keys to the kingdom over to the Republican Party.

Yes, it’s true. The keys to freedom and the treasury in Texas have just been delivered into Republican hands for the first time in history.

Imagine a voter photo ID requirement not being just a new law that can be overturned. Imagine if it were part of the Texas Constitution. Imagine the “Rainy Day” fund simply going “Pfffft” next year. It is, after all rainy – at least it is as a result of failed Republican tax policies that practically guaranteed a magnified shortfall during economic hard times.

Imagine all of that and now you live in my world: the Half Empty world where things are definitely going to get worse before they get any better.

In Ritter’s defense, this was an inevitability. The only reason Ritter got re-elected this year was that there wasn’t a soul on the ballot opposing him in the past election. Why that is I cannot fathom. Ritter’s district, HD-21, voted for McCain over Obama by 55.4% to 43.6% in 2008. In 2010 every successful judicial candidate that ran for office was a Republican. HD-21 is solidly Republican so now it has a state rep that is one as well.

Not so Aaron Peña. Peña’s district is, was, and always has been a Democratic stronghold. Peña’s promise to switch rather than fight has evolved from another species, it seems. Peña’s promise can be seen only as one from an insider Austin politician. A move to kick it with the cool kids. The kids with all the marbles. The kids holding all the cards.

And now the wind seems to have disappeared from his sails, hasn’t it?

Oh well. Maybe there’s some political capital that can be gained by claiming to be Republican Number 101.

Aaron Peña and the Politics of Being Irrelevant

With the current head count in the Texas State House, currently at 99 Republicans to 51 Democrats, now we have one of those 51 Democrats seriously considering switching parties in order to regain relevance.

From the Texas Tribune:
Peña  explains that with a near-two-thirds majority, how does the Democratic Party function in the State House without being irrelevant? By joining the majority, he hopes, he can better serve his constituents.

“Speculation is growing that state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, will soon switch parties, giving the Republicans the supermajority they were barely denied on Election Night. Paul Burka blogged about the possibility earlier this week, pulled the post and then put up something tonight after Peña called him from out of town to say that he was indeed contemplating his options.”

Peña  is no stranger to serving himself and his constituents over serving his party’s interests. As one of the Craddick Democrats in the 80^th Legislature, Aaron Peña  was able to secure for himself a seat on the House Ways and Means Committee as well as being appointed by the Speaker to the chairmanship of the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee all because he threw his support to conservative Republican Tom Craddick to serve another term as House Speaker. It will be well-remembered that this particular legislature nearly dissolved in open revolt as it wound to a close in May 2007.

But this kind of thing, Peña  must think, is not in the cards this time. Democrats will not be able to have that much effect in the politics of legislating this year. Not with Republicans occupying nearly 2 out of 3 House seats. So rather than pondering how to stay relevant in the face of two to one odds, Peña  is simply considering ratting out on his own party.

Again.

So this comes as not much of a shock to me, nor should anyone else be very surprised.

The surprise, you could say, will be if Pena’s constituents will send him back to Austin in 2012, should he run for re-election – as a Republican. Hidalgo County, you see, has never elected a Republican to any office. Peña  has always run unopposed on the general election ballot, but has had primary opponents in the “two Eddies,” Eddie Saenz (twice) and Eddy Gonzalez (once).

If either or both of these Eddies don’t see an opportunity here, now that would surprise me.

Jessica’s Law Stalls in Texas – Needs a Rethink on Punishment

So what didn’t happen in the Texas House today is presentation of HB 8 on the floor of the House (as previously announced). Cooler heads prevailed and they are going to let this one, which flew through Aaron Peña’s Criminal Jurisprudence committee, sit awhile.

Jessica’s Laws are being presented and proposed in state legislatures all over America. These are laws modeled after the Jessica Lunsford Law passed in Florida in response to the kidnap, rape and murder of 9-year old Jessica Lunsford by a sexual predator that had been previously convicted of raping a child, and then freed from prison 3 years later. Typically, these laws require that those convicted of these types of crimes complete the entire length of their sentence with no parole or time off for good behavior.

So why do we always go one better in the Texas House? Debbie Riddle’s (R - Tomball) version of “Jessica’s Laws”, HB 8, which was slated to be presented to the House today, is anomalously extreme in its punishment. I’ve checked around, and only 4 states have passed a Jessica Law in the United States that goes to the extreme of requiring courts to classify punishment of those convicted in a 2nd offense for sexual assault on a child under the age of 14 as a “capitol felony”.

Meaning of course that a person convicted of sexual assault on a child under 14 years of age must serve his entire sentence. And those who are convicted a second time for the same offense has a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole, or a death sentence imposed on him.

Yee-haw! Now that’s showing those perverts! Get on the extremist band wagon, stick a needle in them and punch in a death cocktail.

Trouble is, no one thought to look at case law. Executing someone for the offense of rape is unconstitutional.

Trouble is, no one thought about what these criminals would do if sexual assault and murder are both crimes that are treated with the same consequences. Why not kill your victim? Dead girls (or boys) tell no tales. Those were probably the lines of reasoning followed by Jessica’s killer.

Aren’t there better ways to punish 2nd time loser sexual assault felons?

Hey, what about surgical removal of all sex organs of these people? They go on living, but they can’t, you know, do it anymore. Ah, there’s more to it than that. That’s right.

Well then I’m at a loss. Wait, this is a religion-loving legislature, isn’t it? Why not look up some punishments in the good book? You can’t declare the good book unconstitutional, can you? Oh, that’s right – the Establishment Clause again. No Judeo-Christian ideals can be legislated – legally at least.

That leaves Buddhism, I think. It’s the one religion that doesn’t profess the existence of a supreme being.

Bet you didn’t know that the Buddhists are experts on criminal jurisprudence.

It’s true and maybe Peña’s committee, and even the entire Texas Legislature can take a page from “Basic Principles of Burmese Buddhism”. It’s a religious tract specific to Theravada Buddhism.

I quote:

32 Kamma Karana (32 Tortures)

1. Flog with whips
2. Flog with sticks
3. Flog with split rods
4. Cut off hands
5. Cut off feet
6. Cut of hands and feet
7. Cut off ears
8. Cut off nose
9. Cut off ears and nose
10. Pour boiling gruel into the head from which the skull bone has been removed
11. Rub the scalp with gravel to become smooth like a polished shell
12. Open the mouth by iron pins and put oil in it and a wick lighted therein
13. Wrap up the body in oily cloths and set on fire
14. Wrap up the hands in oily cloths and set on fire
15. Skinned in strips from the neck to the lips which falls in strips around the legs
16. Skinned alive from the neck downwards and the strip tied to the hair to form a veil
17. Tie knees and elbows together and let squat on a hot iron plate
18. Hang up on a row of iron hooks
19. Cut out bits of flesh the size of pennies all over the body
20. Cut all over the body with knives or sharp points and pour salt and caustic iquids over the wounds
21. Transfix an iron bar to the ground passing through the root of the ear and drag round and round by the leg
22. Beat with clubs to break the bones and to make the body like a heap of straw
23. Anoint with boiling oil
24. Let the dogs bite
25. Impale alive
26. Behead with sword
27. Put the red hot ball in the hand
28. Put the red hot ball in the second hand
29. Put the red hot ball on the foot
30. Put the red hot ball on the second foot
31. Put the red hot ball in the breast
32. The hell-guards drag him out and chop the body with axes.

Take your pick guys. I think you could find a few of these will be applicable. And once again Texas can show the rest of the country how we are more serious about punishing our criminals than the rest of the states.