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Dear Texas Democrat, 

In lieu of talking solely about what we’ve been up to

at TDP in this month’s newsletter, I want to use this

opportunity to give you an update on three veryimportant issues that will have a tremendous effecton both our primary elections and the November

general election.

Below you will find important updates on:

  Where we are in the redistricting process,including the various scenarios which have

been discussed in court and the implications

on our Democratic Primary for each. 

  The status of Senate Bill 14, commonly

known as the Voter ID bill, which is still notyet in effect but could potentially requirevoters to present photo ID in order to vote.

  Republican budget cuts to public school

funding which are hitting home in a big way.Teachers are being laid off by the tens of thousands, classroom sizes are exploding,

and as we learned from a recent report, theworst is yet to come.

I hope you’ll take the time to read the informationbelow and we’ll work to make sure we keep you

updated as developments happen.

Democratically Yours,

Boyd RichieChairman

Texas Democratic Party 

Austin Happy Hour.

Join us from 5:30 to7:00pm on Thursday,February 9th at Gibson

Bar. Click here formore info. 

Promesa Project The second phase of the Promesa Project,includes a Fellowship

Program that will placefellows in at leasteleven campuses

across Texas,including: UTEP, UT-

Pan Am, UTSA, UT, Uof H, A&M-

International, UT-Brownsville, UT-Arlington, UNT-Dallas,

UH-Downtown, andA&M CC. Click here if you are interested in

applying or if youwant to learn more. 

In This Month's

Report 

  Redistricting 

  Voter ID 

  Public Education 

  Party Insider & Compliance Blog

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Redistricting 

Yesterday a federal DC court heard closing arguments in the Texas redistrictingpre-clearance case. So far, there have been two panels of federal judges and a

hearing before the United States Supreme Court on Texas redistricting. Everycourt that has examined the redistricting maps enacted by the legislature hasfound the maps to be discriminatory in some way. 

As you’ll recall, a previous court order stated that we would have a second

candidate filing period which would conclude on February 1st. Because there arestill no maps that date has been postponed by a court order issued over theweekend and the second filing period will now take place on a date to bedetermined. Once interim maps are released, we will re-open the filing period for

all candidates.

At last week’s redistricting trial in San Antonio, the court gave all parties to thislawsuit a deadline of February 6 to agree on interim maps in order to make an

April 3 primary possible. If there is not an agreement on maps prior to February6th, the April 3rd Primary date will no longer be possible.

We’ll make sure to update you on redistricting developments as well as on the

second candidate-filing period. 

Voter ID During the last legislative session the Texas Legislature passed a bill (SB 14) that

would require voters to show a photo ID when they vote. However, Texas is one of the states subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which means that before

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any changes to voting procedures can be implemented, they must be approvedeither by the Department of Justice (DOJ) or by a federal court in a process known

as “preclearance”.

As of right now, the DOJ has not issued an opinion one way or the other on the

voter ID bill. They have until mid-March to do so. While no one knows for certain,most people who follow these sorts of things believe the DOJ will denypreclearance to the Texas law just as they did to the South Carolina voter ID law. 

Instead of waiting for the DOJ to issue an opinion, the State of Texas has filed an

Expedited Complaint for Declaratory Judgment in U.S. District court asking for thecourt to grant preclearance to the voter ID bill. We do not know what the court’s

decision will be, how long it will take to make a decision, or if there will be furtherlegal action in a higher court once the District Court acts.

Bottom line, we still don’t know if voter i.d. will be in place for any of theelections held in Texas this year. However, in an effort to be prepared just in

case photo identification becomes a requirement for voting at some point, thereare some things you need to know and/or do. Even if you already have therequired photo ID please share this information with others so that those voterswho may not have photo ID can be informed and prepared.

Details can be found by reading the latest post on our Party Insider bloghere. 

Public Education Funding 

The Texas Education Agency recently approved requests from 286 school districtsacross Texas to be exempted from the 22-student per classroom ratio mandate for

the 2011 – 2012 school year, this would apply to 8,243 classrooms (up from2,238 in 2010 – 2011). The dramatic increase in waivers is directly attributable to

unnecessary budget cuts made by the Republican majority in the TexasLegislature over the vehement opposition of Democrats.

In addition, the Texas AFT recently released the results of a survey in which 241

superintendents from across the state expressed dire concerns about their currentbudget situation as well as scary predictions about how much worse the situation

may get.

The following is a statement from Texas Democratic Party spokesman Anthony

Gutierrez:

“These teacher layoffs and exploding classroom sizes all over Texas are

the inevitable result of unnecessary Republican budget cuts. 

Democrats proposed alternatives that would have prevented this situationwithout raising taxes or harming the state’s bond rating. Tragically, the

Republicans chose to side with corporate special interests and a governorwhose sole concern was positioning for a presidential run. 

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 We fought to prevent these teacher layoffs and Republicans ran over us to

make them happen so now we’re going to make them own it. Given the

choice, we would vastly prefer an adequately funded education system asopposed to a campaign issue but Republicans did irreparable harm to our

state and they deserve to be held accountable.” 

Party Insider 

Our Party Insider blog and email list contains talking points, important newsstories and educational posts from political professionals. Most recently, our

Comptroller, Sarah Joyner wrote a series on campaign finance focusing on helpful

reporting tips leading up to the campaign finance reporting deadline earlier thismonth. Many of you called and emailed thanking us for the series so she’ll be

continuing these posts in the future including a post intended for new candidates

called “Getting Your Campaign Started: Campaign Finance Basics”. In the futureyou can also keep an eye out for a series on the top mistakes found in TEC Semi-

Annual Reports and a look into good bookkeeping practices to keep you frommaking common mistakes.

You can sign up for the Party Insider email list here 

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