IN THE NEWS

HOYER LAUDS COLORADO DECISION REBUKING GOP EFFORT TO REDRAW CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) released the following statement this morning regarding the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision today invalidating new Congressional Districts redrawn by the state’s Republican legislature:

“The Court’s decision today is an enormous rebuke to the Republican Party for engaging in a blatant power grab in Colorado.  The Colorado Supreme Court has pronounced the Republican effort to redraw the state’s Congressional Districts ‘illegal.’  You can bet that Republicans will complain that this decision is somehow ‘judicial activism,’ but that’s the excuse Republicans use whenever they don’t get their way in the courts.

“Anyone who believes that the ‘win-at-all-costs’ strategy employed by Colorado Republicans is an isolated occurrence is not paying attention to what is occurring across the nation and even in Congress.  Republicans have demonstrated time and again that they will seize power when they can and break rules if that’s what it takes to win.

“In Congress, they have employed all sorts of procedural tactics to subvert the will of the majority and foreclose real deliberation on issues.  That’s precisely what happened 10 days ago on the House Floor, where the Republican Majority held a vote open for three hours in the middle of the night to twist arms and ‘win’ a vote on the Medicare Conference Report.  That’s what we saw in Colorado.  And that’s what we see right now in Texas, where Republicans – under the direction of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay – are pulling the same stunt that they tried in Colorado.

“Anyone who cares about fairness in democracy and the rule of law should hope that the Texas Republicans who have hijacked that state’s redistricting process meet the same fate as their brethren in Colorado.”

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