History shows several previous quorum breaks Analysis from Dr. Smith about quorum breaking by legislators and last updated 2021-07-13 19:40:26-04 CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas â KRIS-TV political analyst Dr. David Smith provided his thoughts on the Texas Democratic departure. Smith, a political science professor at Sam Houston State University and a former professor at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, met with KRIS-TV anchor Katia Uriarte to provide his thoughts about this national story about Texas politics. This is not the first time Texas Democrats have broken the quorum by leaving Austin. A group of 12 state senators went into hiding in 1979 to prevent the Texas Senate from reaching quorum on two bills related to Texas presidential primary elections.