Thread: TX: Lawmaker Fights Voter ID from Sick Bed

80TH LEGISLATURE

Ill senator settles in for voter ID fight
Gallegos legislating from bed near Senate despite warnings from his transplant doctors.
By Mark Lisheron

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Despite a growing threat that his body will reject a transplanted liver, Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr. said Monday that he was determined to stay in the Senate long enough to block a bill that would require Texas voters to provide identification at the polls.

"If not for voter ID, I wouldn't be here; that's how serious the issue is for me," said Gallegos, D-Houston. "It's very important for my community that we block this legislation."

Gallegos, who spent most of the day resting in the Senate lounge in a hospital bed brought in specially for him, said a biopsy Friday revealed indicators that his body was rejecting the liver he received this past winter.

The team of doctors treating Gallegos at St. Luke's Hospital in Houston increased his medication and urged him not to return to Austin. Gallegos had already told his fellow senators before the biopsy that he would be coming back.

Out of respect for Gallegos, the Senate agreed not to consider the voter identification bill Friday. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said, however, he would not guarantee that a bill that has unanimous Republican support in the Senate would not come up for a vote in Gallegos' absence.

"It was my understanding that he was ready to vote on it today," Gallegos said Monday of the lieutenant governor. "I understand. This is the Texas Senate. You have to be here to vote. That's why I'm here."

The bill has sharply divided Republicans and the 11 Democrats who have, with the help of Gallegos, stood together to keep the bill from getting to the Senate floor. Last week, Dewhurst and Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, a close friend of Gallegos', clashed over an attempt to hear the bill.

Republicans have said they think voters ought to show proof of who they are before casting a ballot. Democrats, including Gallegos, say the bill would, in effect, disenfranchise voters — particularly the poor and the elderly — for whom getting the necessary identification might discourage or prevent them from voting.

Republican Sen. Bob Deuell of Greenville, a doctor, paid to have a medical supply company put a hospital bed in a room adjacent to the Senate chamber so Gallegos can rest.

Deuell, who checked on Gallegos several times during the day, said Gallegos' health is more important than the issue requiring him to be here.

"He is a good friend," Deuell said.

Gallegos would not say how long he plans to remain in Austin. Wednesday is the deadline for the bill as written to be introduced in the Senate. The measure, however, could be attached in some form to a House bill that could be considered before Monday, when the Legislature is to adjourn.

"I'm going to play it by ear," said Gallegos, who rested in his hospital bed during a recess Monday afternoon. "If the doctors let me, I'd stay until we're done."

mlisheron@statesman.com

For your sake Mr. Gallegos, I hope God doesn't teach you a lesson about protecting fraudlent voters.

I've been praying for this bill to pass.

Dixie

"If not for voter ID, I wouldn't be here; that's how serious the issue is for me," said Gallegos, D-Houston. "It's very important for my community that we block this legislation."

This is exactly the reason why we need voter ID. Gallegos you probably got elected because of a large majority of votes being tainted by illegals voting. The poor and elderly will have valid ID's. They both need a valid ID to get perscription drugs, buy alcohold, etc.
I'm really sick of hearing this stupid argument. Illegals are the only ones who lose out on a bill like this. Scum bags such as gallegos are just pandering to the illegal market, plain and simple.

Originally Posted by sippy

"If not for voter ID, I wouldn't be here; that's how serious the issue is for me," said Gallegos, D-Houston. "It's very important for my community that we block this legislation."

This is exactly the reason why we need voter ID. Gallegos you probably got elected because of a large majority of votes being tainted by illegals voting. The poor and elderly will have valid ID's. They both need a valid ID to get perscription drugs, buy alcohold, etc.
I'm really sick of hearing this stupid argument. Illegals are the only ones who lose out on a bill like this. Scum bags such as gallegos are just pandering to the illegal market, plain and simple.

Yes, it is very important to 'his' community. I live in Harris County but not within Houston city limits. His community is comprised of many areas that house illegals.
I'm always putting my voter's registration card in a safe place but forget where I put it. I ALWAYS use my driver's license at the polls.

Same thing here in Illinois. Same excuses.

The great part is that they apparently think its ok to have a real id to work from what I can read of the new law, just not to vote.

Guess the Senators don't think it is important that the minorities, under privileged, and disabled be employed. I imagine the people involved feel differently.

National news



May 22, 2007, 1:04PM
Texas lawmaker beds down at Capitol


By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

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AUSTIN, Texas — Against his doctor's advice, a stooped and feeble Sen. Mario Gallegos arrives at the state Capitol each day, just to make sure the Senate does not take up a bill that would require voters to produce ID at the polls.

And when the rigors of the job start to wear on the Houston Democrat, whose body is trying to reject a liver transplanted four months ago, he retires to a hospital-style bed — donated by a Republican colleague — in a room next to the Senate chamber.

From there, he can be summoned at a moment's notice should his vote be needed to keep the bill from reaching the floor.

In a life-and-death drama playing out under the Capitol dome, Gallegos is putting his health at risk to block a measure he and others say could prevent many minorities and the elderly from taking part in elections in Texas.

"If there was enough votes to block, I promise I wouldn't be here," he said from his bed, his slumped shoulders and tired, jaundiced eyes making him look much older than his 56 years. The once-burly lawmaker is now thin, his skin hanging loosely.

In the Texas Senate, bills cannot move forward unless 21 of the 31 senators vote to bring them up for debate. The Democrats hold 11 seats, just enough to block a bill if they stick together.

Gallegos, a recovering alcoholic whose liver was ruined by drink, received the transplant two weeks into the five-month legislative session that ends on Monday. He returned to the Capitol 13 weeks later just to stop the voter ID bill.

Now he is dealing with symptoms of organ rejection and the exhaustion of the job.

He is taking medication to keep the organ rejection under control. But his doctors say he should be resting and should be within 100 miles from the hospital where he received the transplant in case something goes wrong. Austin is about 160 miles from the hospital in Houston.

The Republicans pushing the voter ID bill say illegal immigrants are voting in Texas elections and must be stopped. But Democrats say thousands of legal residents will lose the right to vote because they lack proper identification. Opponents of the measure — including Gallegos, a Mexican-American — say minorities, the elderly and the poor are less likely than others to have driver's licenses or other documents.

Most of Gallegos' Houston-area constituents are black or Hispanic, and about a quarter of them live in poverty. About one in five speak little or no English.

So the retired firefighter starts his mornings with 10 pills and a visit to the Capitol nurse to check his blood glucose levels. He visits the nurse for similar blood tests twice more throughout the day, and periodically gives himself shots of insulin.

Then it's another seven pills before crashing into bed at his Austin apartment at about 8 p.m.

When the Senate is in session, he sometimes retires to his bed in the sergeant-at-arms' office, where it is quiet enough to get some rest.

"I just want to take care of him," said Sen. Robert Deuell, who provided the bed and is also a family physician. "He's going to come one way or another, so I just figured I'd make it easy for him."

It's a far cry from the past eight sessions Gallegos spent in Austin, before his heavy drinking led to an intervention by his Senate colleagues. He quit drinking and went into rehab last spring.

Under what is known as the Luna Precedent, named for a lawmaker who was hospitalized in the 1990s, legislators can ask for 24-hour notice that a bill is about to come up. Gallegos was given such notice early this month. But lawmakers can invoke the Luna Precedent only once during a session.

Gallegos' GOP colleagues agreed not to bring up the bill last Friday when he was in Houston for a biopsy that determined his liver wasn't infected. That act of courtesy followed days of rancor over Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's unsuccessful effort to push the bill through when another Democrat came down with the stomach flu.

Deuell said waiting was "just the decent thing to do."

"I hope he lives, but if for some reason he wouldn't, I couldn't in good conscience have him die thinking he failed," he said.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 25872.html

We had an election today in Ky. For the first time they asked for ID....it made me proud...they should have done this a long time ago.

All they wanted to see was a drivers license, but at least this year, they asked for ID.

Why would anyone in this country NOT want to know who is voting? It makes absolutely NO sense not to require someone who votes to show a picture ID. I have to, why not everyone else who votes.

What is this country coming to?

He reminds me of an accountant I used to work with who would NEVER take off from work. As it turned out, he was embezzling. What's wrong Senor Gallegos, afraid something might be uncovered?

I hope he slips into a temporary coma until the bill passes. I always have to present ID at the polls and thought it was already a requirement.