There are a bunch of Congressmen in DeeCee I would like to make Gongedressmen.
Posted on 12/13/2003 7:19:56 AM PST by Theodore R.
Democrats rail against GOP's map Congressmen testify of redistricting flaws
Associated Press
AUSTIN (AP) — A proposed plan to put more Texas Republicans in Congress would be detrimental to the seniority of the state's congressional delegation, veteran Democratic incumbents testified in federal court Friday.
In the second day of testimony in a redistricting trial, Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco and Rep. Max Sandlin of Marshall each described to a three-judge panel the influence wielded by senior members of Congress from either party.
"Seniority is everything in the U.S. Congress," said Sandlin, chief deputy whip for the Democratic Caucus.
Edwards, a 13-year House veteran who is the ranking member of the Appropriations Military Construction subcommittee, described how seniority dictates power to pass legislation in Congress. He said as a senior member of Congress, he's been able to pour more federal dollars into better housing, health care and day care on military installations in Texas.
Eliminating the seats of senior Democratic members from Texas and replacing them with rookie Republicans would strip the state delegation of much of its influence in determining policy that affects Texas, he said.
Edwards and Sandlin also described how communities of interest and coalitions to protect common interests in their districts would be destroyed under the proposed GOP redistricting map, passed by the Texas Legislature in October. Edwards said his region's council of government also would be divided.
Plaintiffs in the case argue that minority voting power is diluted in several districts and violates the federal Voting Rights Act, rendering the plan to put more Republicans in Congress illegal.
"Democrats aren't protected by the Constitution, neither are the Republicans. Minorities are," Sandlin said, in response to questioning.
Opponents also are claiming constitutional violations.
Edwards' largely rural district, which consists of McLennan, Bell, Coryell, Lampasas, Bosque, Hamilton, Mills, San Saba and Hamilton counties in Central Texas, would be split down the middle into two districts that stretch farther south, one encompassing the more suburban Williamson County.
District 11, Edwards' district, is currently 32.5 percent minority, but the minority population would be split up under the new map, destroying decades of coalitions between the races, Edwards argued.
"The rights of minorities should be the proper check and balance on tyranny of majority rule," he said.
Andy Taylor, an attorney for the state, has argued the main point of the Legislature's passage of the GOP map was to increase the number of Texas Republicans in Congress, without considering race as a predominant factor. Taylor said Republican legislators considered race only in complying with the Voting Rights Act.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, about 148,000 blacks now represented by U.S. Rep. Martin Frost in District 24 were divided into five separate districts, diluting their voting strength. One of those districts pairs a heavily black community of Southeast Fort Worth with suburban Denton County, north of Dallas.
"It's clear that whoever was drawing the map knew exactly what they were doing when they put this community in a district where they will have no influence at all," said Frost, a 25-year veteran of Congress. "I worked a long time to represent those minority constituents."
In another split of Frost's district, the proposed map groups a heavily Hispanic working-class area in Dallas with the Park Cities neighborhood, one of the wealthiest parts of Dallas.
Frost called the proposed changes outrageous.
Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk called the division of Dallas "cynical."
"It's going to have the same effect as turning people away from the polls," Kirk said.
Democrats and some minorities challenging the new map want the state to maintain existing districts that have given Democrats a 17-15 advantage in the congressional delegation.
Republicans contend they should have more members of their party in Congress because most Texans vote Republican and the GOP holds all the statewide elected offices and controls the state House and Senate. Only 47 percent of the seats in the state's 32-member congressional delegation are Republican, Taylor said.
The redistricting plan was passed by legislators in a special session after partisan fighting all year and two out-of-state boycotts by Democrats.
Challenging the redistricting plan are various groups of Democrats, the American GI Forum, some chapters of the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Texas NAACP.
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