The 3-judge panel in San Antonio Federal Court hearing the Texas Redistricting case today decided to put everyone back into purgatory. Essentially, pending a written order confirming verbal instructions expected Wednesday at noon, unless the counsel for the Texas Democratic Party and Texas Republican Party come to a different overnight agreement, are everyone running for any office will need to continue filing through, for now, December 19:
Both parties emphasized that the deal affects the candidate filing deadlines only, leaving the issue of whether all or some of the state's primaries should be delayed unresolved.
The 3-judge panel will meet again on January 12 and, if the Supreme Court does not continue its stay on the interim maps, they could put everything back in motion as if nothing happened, or as is more likely order a single primary on the first Tuesday in April.
If you are running for office or intend to run for office. It is advised that you file ASAP lest the courts decide you missed your window.
If the SCOTUS continues its stay on January 9 then all bets are off.
The one thing that seems to be guaranteed is that the Texas GOP is screwing itself out of a chance at having relevance in the GOP Presidential sweepstakes as the chances of Texas taking place in Super Tuesday are slim to none.
As you may have heard, on Friday the Supreme Court of the United States stepped in a giant pile of poo by blocking the court ordered districts for Congress, state House, and state Senate in Texas because in a state that only votes 55%-45% in favor of the GOP giving the GOP a 2-1 advantage in Congressional and Legislative seats simply wasn't generous enough.
With 36 Congressional seats up for grabs 16 of those seats should have been Democrat-safe or leaning. The court gave us just 12, but that 25% reduction simply wasn't good enough for the Texas GOP (except for State Sen. Jeff Wentworth R-SD25 who feels this process is "divisive and highly partisan exercise that always results in bad blood, expensive lawsuits, and gerrymandered Congressional districts, which are a disservice to Texans").
None of this would matter if Texas were like New York or Massachusetts and had scheduled primaries in September, there would be plenty of time to sort out the mess. But Texas has scheduled its primaries on Super Tuesday, March 6, 2012. And with the Federal MOVE Act requiring that ballots be in the hands of overseas military personnel 45 days before the election (or January 19, 2012) a Supreme Court hearing on January 9 makes it impossible to have a filing period, have a ballot draw, print ballots and get ballots mailed by January 19.
And some of this wouldn't matter if in Texas, Democratic and GOP party offices weren't constitutional offices requiring election along with other offices. None of this would matter if Texas weren't in the midst of a giant budget shortfall and could actually afford to hold multiple elections.
So today the San Antonio Federal court that redrew the boundaries is holding a hearing on the dates of the election. By law all primaries are supposed to be held on the first Tuesday in March. In his filing for the stay with the SCOTUS, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked for bifurcated primary with most races being held in March, but other races being moved to May. The Republican Party of Texas proposed that primaries for legislative, congressional seats, state board of education and county commission seats as well as justice of the peace, sheriff, and constable primaries be held on May 29, with run-offs on August 14. Of course, the big reason for bifurcating the primaries in the GOP's estimation are to ensure that Texas does not lose its prime position in the Republican Presidential sweepstakes and so that they don't have to undergo the expense of rescheduling their June convention (who care about the cost to the state and counties for holding multiple elections).
Obviously the Texas Democratic Party disagrees:
Lawyers for the Texas Democratic Party and for some of the minorities who sued the state over the Legislature’s maps say the elections should be left alone until the courts settle on a map. If that turns out to be the map drawn by the San Antonio court, there’s no reason to delay the primary, they argue. If it’s not, all of the primaries could be postponed and held on a single date. “Let’s give the election a chance to go ahead until we know something different,” said Chad Dunn, an attorney for the Democratic Party. “If there are major adjustments to the maps, then we can adjust the dates.”
In court today Dunn argued that bifurcating the primary is unconstitutional. TDP Executive Director Bill Brannon pointed out that having 3 elections in May (municipal races are the second Saturday with run-offs two weeks after, but
by law cannot be held on the same day as a primary) would lead to massive voter confusion. He also noted that changing the
delegate selection plan would also require pre-clearance (delegates for the TDC and DNC are first supposed to selected at precinct conventions the evening of the primary March 6 then at Senate District conventions two weeks later which cannot be held if there aren't valid state Senate Districts).
GOP Congresscritters and state Senators are apparently opposed to a split primary because lowering the turnout leaves them vulnerable to Tea Party challenges.
Election officials from Bexar, Dallas, Maverick, and Travis counties all took the stand to protest the cost of funding each election. Bexar figures that each election costs $650-700k with the state picking up roughly two-fiths of that amount. In Dallas elections cost over $1 million. An election only costs Maverick County $89,000, but that's enough of an expense to force 3-4 people to be laid off. The Travis County clerk suggested a unified primary on April 3, which would require lines be settled by January 28. He also pointed out to the judges that if precinct lines were redrawn, but a precinct chair had already been elected that legally they'd no longer be in place.
So what did the court decide today? No much, and a whole lot of purgatory.
The filing deadline is now December 19. Anyone can file for any office, but if the office filed for requires a map, then the candidate must state which map they're filing under and they will be allowed to withdraw without malice if their desired map is not ultimately used. The filing period will be re-opened again after maps are set. All residency requirements will now be suspended because there are no lines.
The San Antonio Federal Court will reconvene on January 12 to cover and issues not decided in today's hearing, and mainly see whether the SCOTUS does anything on January 9.
And from January 17-26 the D.C. Federal District Court is set to hear Texas' lawsuit on the constitutionality of the maps the legislature drew back in the summer.
The main guarantee is a continued mess.