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AUSTIN Rep. Harold Dutton returned to the House floor in Austin on Tuesday after joining breakaway Democrats in Washington last week and even launched a solo effort to wrest concessions in a GOP-backed election bill.

Dutton, the third longest-serving member of the Texas House and one whos not afraid to defy his fellow Democrats surprised Republican colleagues with his return.

Hed missed seven days of the special session, and his absence helped Democrats block action on the voting bill and all other items that Gov. Greg Abbott has placed on the agenda.

In an interview at his Capitol office, Dutton explained that he decamped from Washington, D.C., on Saturday for family reasons his sister, who lives in Phoenix, Ariz., is staying at Duttons home in Houston while she undergoes chemotherapy.

Over the weekend, after tending to domestic items such as having a broken garage-door opener repaired, Dutton said he heard about the outbreak of coronavirus infections among his Democratic colleagues in Washington.

Dutton said he decided it was unwise for him to return to the nations capital.

I thought, I cant do that because I cant expose myself [to COVID-19] and then I come back home to her because her white blood cell count is down because shes taking chemotherapy, he recounted.

So I thought, I cant go back there. So I thought, Well, OK, maybe Ill just go to Austin. Ill go to see Murr.

Dutton was referring to Junction GOP Rep. Andrew Murr, the Houses lead author of the election integrity bill for the special session, House Bill 3. Republicans say the bill is needed to prevent voter fraud, while Democrats say it would suppress the votes of minorities and give credence to former President Donald Trumps unfounded claims the 2020 election was stolen.

In Washington, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner of Grand Prairie on Tuesday noted that Dutton stopped short of signaling early last week that hed be AWOL for the remainder of the 30-day session. It must end no later than Aug. 6.

Representative Dutton was with us for a few days in DC, Turner said. He was not, however, one of the 57 members who signed a letter last week when we left [Austin], instructing the journal clerk at the Texas House of Representatives to lock our voting machines until we returned.

Dutton suggested one reason he was free to return to Austin was that his sisters son finally arrived in Houston.

Im taking it day by day, he said when asked what he plans to do for the rest of the special session.

Although Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and most of the 83 House Republicans who have remained in Austin have voted to ask the chambers sergeant-at-arms go find the missing Democrats, and use peace officers if necessary to compel their return, Dutton said the Texas Department of Public Safety didnt find him after he returned to Houston.

Nor did they catch him speeding as he drove to Austin early Tuesday, he quipped.

In the regular session, Dutton, 76, whos served in the chamber for 36 years, clashed with many fellow Democrats over a Senate-passed measure that would bar transgender children from competing in athletic contests with members of a sex different from the one listed on their birth certificates.

Dutton, whom Phelan this year appointed as chairman of the Public Education Committee, helped Republicans revive the bill, which was believed to be dead, in early May.

LGBTQ advocates said Dutton did so to retaliate against members of his own party whod derailed his bill to virtually guarantee replacement of Houston school trustees with a state-appointed board. Dutton disputed that accusation, telling the Texas Tribune he had been consistent in putting bills up for a vote if they had the support to pass the committee.

Recriminations continued for several days, though the transgender sports bill died because the full House didnt take it up before a bill-passing deadline in late May.

On Tuesday, Dutton said he decided to take a stab at wresting some concessions on the voting bill.

The bill constricts access, even though it does it in sort of a benign way, he said. But the reality is it has a disproportionate impact on Black and brown people.

Asked what specifically hed ask Murr to change, Dutton cited a provision that would give freedom of movement at polling places to partisan poll watchers.

It gives more authority on Election Day to a poll watcher than it does to a precinct judge, he said.

Dutton also objects, he said, to the bills prohibition on experiments to expand participation, such as Harris Countys allowance last fall of drive-through voting and 24-hour voting at a few locations.

The people who benefitted from that were more Black and brown than they were white, he said.

Link:
Breakaway Texas Democrat returns for family reasons, goes to Austin to seek voting bill changes - The Dallas Morning News