Abbott wrong to suspend election laws for Farenthold district
Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday called an emergency special election in the 27th Congressional District, to be held on June 30.
The district was formerly represented by Republican Blake Farenthold, who announced in December that he would not seek re-election, and resigned his seat on April 6. It will soon be represented by one of the four candidates facing off in next month’s primary runoffs, two of whom will proceed to the Nov. 6 general election. In the meantime, as a result of Abbott’s proclamation, the district might have a decent representative in Congress for a few months.
That’s good news, in a sense, because the district includes a number of counties, along the coastal bend, that were severely impacted by Hurricane Harvey. In fact, all of the counties in this congressional district are still covered under the disaster proclamation the governor issued after Harvey.
Disaster recovery should be a priority for all of the members of our state’s congressional delegation, regardless — but the 27th Congressional District, in particular, could use a representative who is focused on this issue.
With that said, the outcome of a special election is hard to predict. The Texans who actually vote in this district could easily end up electing someone like, say, Farenthold, who announced his decision to retire from Congress after the Republican Party of Texas sued the secretary of state in order to block him from appearing on this year’s primary ballot.
The counties — still struggling to recover from the storm — have now been tasked with administering a special election in June, in addition to the local elections that are currently underway and the primary runoffs next month.
And although the governor
has demanded that Farenthold help fund this exercise, the odds of that happening seem remote. So the counties will also have to pay for Abbott’s emergency special election, and any ensuing runoff.
All things considered, then, I find it hard to believe that Abbott’s decision was motivated by his altruistic concern for the Texans who live in this district.
What disturbs me, however, is that under the laws of Texas, the 27th Congressional District probably shouldn’t have a representative in Congress at all until January, when the candidate who wins the general election will be sworn into office.
I’ve always believed that the laws of Texas should not be dismissed as a technicality, or taken lightly, or suspended by the governor of Texas, whoever that might be.
Abbott has always cast himself as someone who believes in the rule of law. But in calling for this emergency special election, he has acted in a way that might — by his own account — exceed his constitutional authority.
“May I utilize my authority under section 418.016 of the Government Code to suspend relevant state election laws and order an emergency special election?” he asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a letter sent on Friday, April 19.
In Paxton’s opinion, Abbott may suspend state election laws. And in the opinion he issued on Monday, in response to the governor’s letter, he concluded that a court would likely agree.
Perhaps. But we don’t know that. And neither does Abbott, who responded to Paxton’s opinion by acting unilaterally on Tuesday.
We do know that the attorney general is part of the executive branch, not the judiciary. We also know that Paxton is under indictment as the result of an investigation that was triggered in 2014, when he publicly admitted to a violation of state securities law.
So we now know that the governor of Texas is willing to suspend state election law, using a disaster like Harvey as a pretext.
“It is imperative to restore representation for the people of that district as quickly as possible,” Abbott wrote in his letter to Paxton, which was sent two weeks after Farenthold stepped down.
“I remain committed to ensuring that the 27th Congressional District is fully represented as the recovery process continues,” he said a few days later, calling for the special election.
Abbott issued the proclamation Tuesday, the day the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a major Texas redistricting case that includes allegations that the 27th District, among others, was illegally gerrymandered to discourage minority voting and protect incumbent Republicans.