2003: The last time Texas Democrats broke quorum in the House, they fled to Oklahoma

Editor’s note: This story was initially published in 2003 when Texas House Democrats broke quorum. On July 12, 2021, Texas House Democrats left for Washington D.C. in an effort to block passage of Republican-backed voter laws.

In a dimly lit motel bar somewhere south of the Arbuckle Mountains and north of the Thackerville cockfight barn, the Texas House’s “ace of clubs” sat slowly stirring a juice.

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, is now in the deck of Austin Republicans’ Most Wanted.

Four months ago, he stood alone as the only Texas House member — Democrat or Republican — voting against the election of an intensely partisan Republican as House speaker.

This week, he is sleeping in the same Holiday Inn Ardmore with 50 fellow Democrats who could no longer stand the steamroller leadership style of Tom Craddick.

Burnam and I don’t see eye-to-eye often. He’s almost always on the opposite side of an issue. Usually, he’s obnoxious about it.

This time, though, I think Burnam might be right.

“Sit down,” he said, admitting that he and the other Democrats had agreed not to go into The Gusher Bar, usually the heartbeat of social activity at the suddenly popular motel.

“Great,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “Now it’ll come out in the paper that I was up here in the bar.”

Burnam was on a break from the Democrats’ meeting in the hotel conference room across the hall. He was catching up with a Dallas voter while a grizzled cowboy in a battered straw hat sang “Neon Moon.”

The idea of walking out on Craddick and Texas Republicans had been brewing for two months, Burnam said.

“It was only a question of when, and over what issue,” he said. “When we saw they were going ahead with this [congressional] redistricting plan, regardless what anyone else thought — it was time.”

He’d like to keep Democrats such as U.S. Reps. Martin Frost and Charles Stenholm in Washington.

As usual, I don’t totally agree. I happen to think a new district map could be drawn to fairly elect two or three more Texas Republicans to Congress. That would more accurately reflect Texas voters’ 54-46 Republican split.

But I also agree with Texas Democrats that the Republicans’ current plan goes way too far.

It overloads the delegation with five new Republicans. Not only that, the map by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, goes to silly extremes. One early map put Galveston in the same district with Texarkana.

Most of all, I agree that the head count of Republicans in Washington is not an urgent issue for the Texas Legislature.

Craddick seems worried about the head count in Washington. He should have been worried about the head count in the House chamber in Austin.

Surely Craddick knew that he couldn’t work on insurance reform or school finance without keeping two-thirds of the House in the same room.

Their work isn’t ruined. Craddick simply will have to show the same diplomacy that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has in the Texas Senate.

Craddick will have a long way to go. Six of his own committee chairmen were among the Democrats who decided to walk out on him, solely over redistricting.

“They’re not all against Craddick,” Burnam said. “They’re simply against this bill, against this process, against the agenda.”

Other Democrats, Burnam said, have told him they now wish they had voted against Craddick.

“The leadership is so rigid,” Burnam said. “There is no negotiating.”

He used another word: “auto-Craddick.”

The cowboy singer struck up “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound.”

On two barstools by the door, a middle-aged woman with platinum hair and another in a tight floral-print halter top twirled longnecks of watered-down-by-law Oklahoma Coors Light.

“I think Tom Craddick is ethically challenged,” Burnam said.

“He’s shown it in the way he’s handled things this week,” Burnam said, referring to the use of law enforcement officers and alert systems to hunt down fleeing Democrats.

Burnam stopped and sipped his juice.

“I have nothing to lose,” he said.

“Will I wind up assigned to the Agriculture and Livestock Committee again next year?” He grinned. “Yes.”

But he will no longer be the only lawmaker in trouble for opposing Tom Craddick.