Final Texas Redistricting Stage

I've been following this story for months (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13) and have grown more weary and apathetic towards the entire enterprise over time. It seems something of a breakthrough has occured in the Senate:

The Senate voted 17-14 Sunday on a Republican-backed plan to redraw the map for the state's congressional districts.

The vote, delayed since Friday while the House debated an unrelated bill, ends the legislative fight on redistricting that has been waged for six months. Democrats blocked redistricting three times, including a boycott from the House and a boycott from the Senate.

In the third special session called on the subject, Republicans found themselves fighting each other. Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, won his battle to create a district that could be won by someone from his hometown. That effort was opposed by other West Texas lawmakers, including Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock.

Creating the district Craddick wanted, however, caused a ripple effect through other districts and dire opposition from as many as four Senate Republicans on Friday. With that opposition, Senate Republican leaders began debate on the final map one vote shy of the 16 votes needed to pass it.

In the end, Sens. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, and Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, voted for the map.

Travis County, currently represented as a whole in Congress by Democrat Lloyd Doggett, is getting split up three ways

Representative Doggett will remain mine if the plan goes through.

Republicans are not shy in saying that the map they bring to the Legislature today targets white Democrats in Congress.

But Travis County, represented by white Democrat Lloyd Doggett, also was doomed to sweeping changes by attempts to improve the election odds of a Latino Republican, the creation of a new Latino-dominated district and a lack of defenders in the room.

In the end, Central Texas was a victim of geography, and Austinites might struggle to send one of their own to Congress next year.

"My goal was to defeat as many Democratic incumbents as possible in order to give us five or six additional seats," said state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the House's chief mapmaker. "I would suspect that (any Democrat) who is not in a minority district would have a very competitive race."

Doggett, D-Austin, is among those. He moves from a district representing Austin and eastern Travis County to a district that takes in northeastern Travis, northern Bastrop and all or parts of six counties that lead to Houston. The new district takes in many more Republicans, according to past elections.

Copyright 2001-2003 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

PDF map and RedViewer available. The map is PLAN01374C. The current map is PLAN01151C (PDF).

The districts that look the most ridiculous are 19 (like a freakin' crossword puzzle), 28 & 15 (huge north-south columns), and 20 & 29 (in San Antonio and Houston respectively; weird bulbous semi-circles). The map in power now has smiliar problems, don't get me wrong. Districts 15 and 28 are only less north-south elongated, 4 looks like a huge reverse 'J', and just about all of Houston's eastern districts look hackneyed.

The Austin-American Statesman as a historical recap up for those who need a backgrounder.

And no, the Democrats haven't given up their vow to challenge the map in court.

Democrats, whose 17-15 majority on the 32-member Texas delegation in the U.S. House would be eliminated, have vowed to fight in court any redistricting measure that's eventually signed into law.

[...]

"There's not a snowball's chance in hell that (the plan) is legal," [U.S. Rep. Martin] Frost said.

He said the map, if allowed to stand, would disenfranchise the votes of as many as 3.6 million African Americans and Hispanics.

Although the plan is yet to be voted on or signed into law, Democrats have begun preparing their federal court case challenging the map as a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Portions © 2003 KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News. All rights reserved.

So while the Governor Perry may sign the bill, we ain't nearly over and done yet.

Posted by Drizzten at October 12, 2003 09:13 PM