Douglas Johnson wrote:
"HeyBub" wrote:

Desertion in the face of enemy fire, or going absent without leave
is a classic Democratic ploy.

I don't know of another time it's happened. Do you? At the time, I
thought it was pretty clever tactic. The redistricting was partisan
politics at its worst. The leadership was even blocking parking
places for staffers of decamped representatives.

The leadership did other things, too, like cancel the Democratic member's
cell phones. The theory was that if the members were in New Mexico or
Oklahoma and not attending to state business, they didn't need parking
places or state cell phones.

Redistricting IS partisan. Before redistricting, the breakdown was 17-15 in
favor of the Democrats. After redistricting, the result was 21-11 in favor
of the Republicans.



When the Democratic members of the House decamped
to New Mexico, their compatriots from Colorado made a provisioning
run to bring them sustenance and succor. Several carloads of beer
and peaches (I'm not making this up) sustained the crew until they
could bear New Mexico not a minute longer (I think it was about two
days, or until they ran out of beer).

Yeah. And then they went to Oklahoma. Good gawd. How desperate can
you get? They survived there a week or two. Now that's real
fortitude.

I think they split up. House members went to a motel in New Mexico, Senate
members went to a member's dacha in Oklahoma. Or vice-versa.