By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
State Rep Eddie Morales came out with guns blazing when Robert Garza, a Del Rio attorney and candidate for his seat in the Texas State House, accused him of not being around during a special legislative session.
Sunday, Oct. 4, Robert Garza missed The Border Organization’s candidate forum because he was attending family events surrounding his granddaughter’s christening. The christening was held Saturday. TBO assumed he’d try to return for the forum, but Garza felt nothing was going to tear him away from the family celebrations and church service the day after the event.
An Eagle Pass publication took aim at Garza and blasted him for not being at the TBO event.
Not surprisingly, Garza responded, and we posted his response and a comment from The Border Organization. The spat was never between TBO and Garza, but more Garza and the Eagle Pass publication.
In Garza’s 208-word Facebook post this sentence was the one Morales took issue with: “The News Leader also failed to mention State Rep. Eddie Morales’ absence from an important special legislative session on congressional redistricting at the Capitol in Austin, where he was needed to create a quorum and to represent his constituents.”
Morales took issue with this line. He was one of the few Democrats who never left the state during the spat with the governor.
Here is the statement he exclusively sent to The 830 Times Thursday.
“The Garza campaign is wrong and uninformed. There was no reporting that I was absent from the special session because I was there, being a voice for all of HD74, and fighting the redistricting scam. There was extensive reporting that I was one of the few Democrats who stayed to fight for fair representation. If the only attack they have is a lie, we must be doing something right.”
On paper, Morales did miss a Friday (Aug. 8) and Tuesday (Aug. 12) roll call according to the House Journal but in reality was one of the few Democrats who stuck around to fight the Republican redistricting effort, which eventually went through.
Morales said he had an okay from Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows. “I have a great working relationship with the Speaker of the House. With that, on August 7th, after being in Austin for a week without quorum, I had direct communication with him that I needed to get back to Eagle Pass for the weekend due to previously scheduled renovations to my small business.
He informed me on August 11th, when I was back in Austin, that it was the intent of the House to recess until my colleagues returned, which the House officially did on August 13th. There is a reason I was not issued a fine by the State of Texas for breaking quorum — it’s because I did not, and I have always continued to fight for all constituents of HD74. Anything suggesting otherwise is misleading and desperate.”
Here’s what CBS Austin said about his efforts: “Among those lawmakers (who stayed) was State Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., a Democrat from Eagle Pass, who said his decision not to break quorum was rooted in a belief that he owes it to his constituents to stay engaged, even during contentious political moments.”
