Ken Paxton asks Texas Supreme Court to strip absent Democratic lawmakers of their seats

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked his state’s Supreme Court to boot some Texas Democrat “cowards” out of their legislative seats after they failed to show up for business Friday, breaking an unofficial deadline.

Mr. Paxton, a Republican, said the Democrats have abandoned their seats by fleeing the state to block action on a hard-nosed GOP congressional redistricting plan.

The lawsuit is the latest escalation in a battle of wills that shows little sign of ending.

“These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold,” Mr. Paxton said. “I have asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare what has been clear from the beginning: that the runaway members have officially vacated their offices in the Texas House.”

Mr. Paxton on Friday also filed a petition in a state court to try to obtain a temporary restraining order against former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Texas Democrat, whose Powered by People organization has been raising money to pay fines the lawmakers are incurring by being absent.

Mr. Paxton said called the money a “bribe” but his legal complaint is based on campaign finance laws, saying Mr. O’Rourke is characterizing the money as for political purposes, but in fact the fines are personal expenses.

The Democrats have fled to blue states and have shown no sign of relenting. Instead, they are being celebrated as heroes by fellow Democrats.

The Democrats abandoned the state in order to deny the legislature a quorum to do business during a special session where they were supposed to consider new congressional maps that could net the GOP as many as five seats in the U.S. House.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who called the special session, said Friday that if the Democrats don’t return now, he’ll offer up even more aggressive maps that could net Republicans as many as eight seats.

Mr. Abbott had previously sued state Rep. Gene Wu, leader of the state house Democratic caucus, in the Supreme Court. Mr. Wu has until Friday evening to respond to that lawsuit, which could give an indication of how the legal battle will play out.

Mr. Paxton has also filed a petition in state court in Illinois, where some of the Democrats have fled, asking for local assistance in executing civil arrest warrants against the runaway lawmakers.

The Democrats already face $500-a-day fines, and the speaker of the House in Texas announced this week that lawmakers who wanted to collect their paychecks must show up in person.

Mr. Abbott’s demand for mid-decade redistricting follows the lead of New York, where Democrats last year adopted a new map that netted them three seats in last year’s House elections.

That helped to cut the GOP to a razor-thin majority in the House.

Now Democrats in New York and other blue states say they’ll re-retaliate by pursuing still more partisan redistricting efforts if the GOP gets its way in Texas.