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DANIA BEACH - Three Texas legislators visited South Florida on Monday to say Republicans have shown a "national pattern of abuse of power" by trying to scrap Democratic congressional districts and overturn elections the GOP lost.
Texas state Sens. Mario Gallegos, Eliot Shapleigh and Gonzalo Barrientos, who left their state to block a vote on a Republican-backed congressional redistricting plan, were joined by several Florida Democratic legislators, who wore small Texas flag pins.
Monday's visit came a day before President Bush visits Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale. Several of the other 10 senators who left Texas for Albuquerque, N.M., spoke at a similar event Monday in Philadelphia.
"We're here to tell the story of recount, recall and re-redistricting, the new three R's of Republican extremism," said Shapleigh of El Paso.
Shapleigh said the recount in Florida during the 2000 presidential election, redistricting conflicts in Colorado and Texas and the California gubernatorial recall are all examples of Republicans trying to make a power grab in several states.
"Democracy matters," Shapleigh said. "If a majority can change the rules any time it wants to win, democracy loses."
The Democrats said they are trying to expose involvement of the president, presidential adviser Karl Rove and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in the Texas redistricting effort and the last-minute redrawing of a congressional map in Colorado.
But David Beckwith, Republican Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's spokesman, said the senators are off base in their accusations. Democrats hold 17 of Texas' 32 House seats in Congress. Republicans say they should have a majority of the seats to reflect Republican voting trends in the state.
"Bush and Rove have nothing to do with this redistricting plan," he said. "The fact is, our congressional delegation does not reflect voting patterns in Texas."
The Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to reduce the voting power of minorities in the affected districts. They say more than 1.4-million minority group members in Texas would lose effective congressional representation if the redistricting occurs as Republicans wish.
New radio and TV ads saying Bush has abandoned Latino voters will begin running in the next two weeks in swing presidential states, including Florida. The ads were paid for from funds raised by Moveon.org, an Internet group formed in the late 1990s to oppose President Clinton's impeachment.
Texas Republicans criticized the national swing and the support of Moveon.org. "They're off on this national fundraising tour for Moveon.org, which is a hard-left, anti-Bush organization that is using them for their purposes," Beckwith said.
Florida legislators, including Sen. Ron Klein of Boca Raton, Sen. Frederica Wilson of Miami and Rep. Stacy Ritter of Coral Springs, offered to raise money for the Texas Democrats' legal fight as well.