July 26, 2021      12:30 PM

SB: When negotiations are over before they even start

It appears negotiations on an elections bill might have been floated prior to the special session but fell apart; the bottom line is that the Texas Constitution’s quorum rule coupled with the Democratic legislative gains of the last decade necessitate compromise and power sharing

This is just a guess, but Republicans’ non-stop mocking of Democrats trying to send care packages to Texas House members in Washington this weekend probably did not help even modest attempts at bipartisan negotiations on an elections bill.

This weekend, Rep. Philip Cortez, D-San Antonio, announced he had returned to DC after spending several days in Austin with Republicans trying to find common ground on House Bill 3, the special’s elections bill. No dice. Since original publication of this column Sunday evening, a civil warrant has been signed for his arrest.

Cortez never revealed the full list of those Democrats he was working with, and the list changed depending on who you asked. Maybe those talks weren’t going anywhere anyway. But some Republicans have acknowledged the nasty attacks among members on social media and elsewhere lately have amounted to totally unproductive theater.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright July 26, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved