DALLAS Texas state Sen. John Whitmire on Tuesday returned to Texas from a 37-day stint in New Mexico, where he and 10 other Democrats have been holed up in a Marriott Hotel to break a quorum in the Texas Senate.
The return of Whitmire, the Senates longest-serving member, restores a quorum in that chamber.
By remaining outside the state lines, the runaway Democrats were able to break a quorum in the Texas Senate for the entirety of a 30-day special session adjourned by Gov. Rick Perry last week. The special session, which began July 28, was meant to have focused largely on redistricting.
On the Senate floor, Whitmire said he would fight redistricting which would give Republicans more seats than Democrats in the U.S. Congress for the first time since Reconstruction.
The 10 remaining evacuees said they would try to regroup and make a decision about their next move today.
Democrats hold 17 of the states 32 congressional seats under a plan drawn by the federal courts. Republicans maintain that because of voting trends, they should have 19 to 21 seats because of recent voting trends.
