Ok, so you may wonder why the name "Chickencrats".  It all began in May, 2003 when 51 Texas House Democrats fled the state to Ardmore, Oklahoma to avoid a vote on redistricting.  The battle started when House Republicans presented a redistricting plan to better reflct the votes of the citizens.  For years more Texas voters had been voting for Republicans over Democrats, but more Democrats were being sent to the U.S. House of Representatives than Republicans.  The redistricing plan was designed to reflect the will of the Texas voters - how dare them!  (Check out these articles for more information: (http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/13/texas.legislature/) or (http://texasweekly.com/newsletter/tw20030519.html).

Texas state law says that if a quorum isn't present then a vote can't be taken, but at the same time gave the Speaker of the House (Tom Craddick-R) the authority to have the Texas Rangers round up the fleeing politicians and forcefully bring them to the State Capitol to exercise their responsbilities.  Since state troopers don't have authority outside the state of Texas, the Democrats avoided this law by fleeing the state all together; this in my estimation was a very "chicken" move and how the term "chickencrats" was created.

The Texas Democrats pulled this stunt once more in August, 2003, fleeing to a more Democrat friendly state of New Mexico.  (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEED9153EF932A3575BC0A9659C8B63)  It was all entirely too much and didn't provide the service they were voted to do.  It showed they were more interested in winning than working within the system to honor the votes of the citizens of Texas.  They were and still are today - CHICKENCRATS!