Posted on 10/30/2003 5:05:51 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
No denying redistricting was payback
As a scholar of redistricting and someone who has studied the Texas case in particular, I must point out some facts that have been ignored in the storm of partisan rhetoric.
First, to claim that the Democratic redistricting plan enacted in 1991 was not a partisan gerrymander is absurd.
Population growth increased the number of seats from 27 to 30 after the 1990 Census. The three new seats were all won by Democratic state senators who were involved in creating the districts they won. The advent of sophisticated mapping technology allowed the Democrats to comply with the Department of Justice's demand that Texas increase its number of majority-minority districts without having to sacrifice neighboring districts to the GOP because of their more Anglo populations.
The Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Martin Frost's staffer Bob Mansker, used a computer program to draw the lines in a way that swapped minority Democratic voters with Anglo Democratic voters in order to preserve the seats of incumbent Anglo Democrats who lost minority populations to majority-minority districts. The plan was so effective that in 1994 -- when the GOP took over the Congress for the first time in 40 years -- in contested Texas elections, Democratic candidates won 52 percent of the vote and 76 percent of the seats.
In 1996's Bush v. Vera, the Supreme Court argued that three districts were unconstitutional because race was the predominant factor in their creation. However, the dissent made the more plausible argument that the three districts and the ones bordering them had such tortured shapes because the Democrats managed to satisfy the majority-maximization position of the Department of Justice and at the same time execute a Democratic gerrymander. Texas was forced to redistrict in 1996 in response to the Vera decision, but the changes minimally affected the districts' racial compositions and thus the original plan was kept intact.
Republicans are correct in claiming that the court-ordered plan in 2001 essentially preserved the status quo and therefore protected Democrats. In its opinion in Balderas v. Texas, a three-judge panel stated that its plan was designed to protect incumbents.
Despite an ingenious Democratic gerrymander in 1991, Republicans increased their number of seats from nine in 1992 to 15 at present. But thanks in part to the Republican gerrymander in the Texas House, the GOP finally won back the Texas House of Representatives in 2002 and therefore gained control of the Legislature. This is when Tom DeLay stepped in and pushed for another round of congressional redistricting to increase the number of Republicans.
The plan the Legislature has passed was clearly a Republican gerrymander. The GOP used different methods to craft its gerrymander, but don't be fooled by Democrats who claim that the Republican power grab is unprecedented. It is, in fact, political payback for the 1991 Democratic plan.
McKee is doctoral student at the University of Texas who studies redistricting.
Wow ! This is REALLY from the Austin UN-American Statesman ?? Man ...
It sure was. It was in the oped page, but still surprised me to see that liberal rag publish something so against the RAT party. I almost spit up my coffee.
Yes!
*PING!*
As always, a FReep mail will get you on or off this Houston topics ping list.
Ha !! Good for her ! ...
The only problem with this is, the RATS will never admit anything was wrong or needed correcting. At least, not as long as they were in power because of the gerrymandered districts they created.
I'll bet there will be a firestorm of letters to the editor in response to this. I'd be curious to see some of those.
I may even write a letter to the editor of the Austin Un-American Ultra Liberal Longhorn Non-Statesman Rag complaining as to why this was NOT on the front page. Anything that is anti-Bush or anti-conservative is always front page news.
I changed the name of the paper to what I think about that waste of trees. The EV whackos should be PO'ed at that paper for all the garbage they print. The reason I added the "Longhorn" into the title, is the fact that the last straw was about two weeks ago. There was a Longhorn story in EVERY section of the paper.
I had to laugh at the Ben Sergeant cartoon this morning. This is because there are three UT players that have been arrested in the past 3 weeks.
I never thought the Rag would print anything dergatory about the horns. Editor must have been asleep.
As for as redistricting being a payback, well heck, it works for me. I've always heard that turn-about (as in payback) is fair play.
True enough, but you "fix" a Dimocrat the same way you "fix" a she-dog that's already had too many pups!
Hehehe. But honestly, we're not fixin' the democRATs, just the mess that they've made with our congressional districts over the past 130+ years.
Huh? How could the Republicans gerrymander the Texas house before they gained control of the legislature? Who sets state legislative districts?
I could not understand that part either. The actual fact is, the Republicans are gaining more and more voters in Texas.
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