[Torie]

So just move the Bonilla seat to likely Dem from Safe GOP on your list, and we are done. :)

I suppose another idea is to give the 25th the Anglo part of Bexar that Bonilla lost, in an attempt to bag Doggett, connected by a strip of real estate a foot wide, and leave the 21st largely alone. There may be a need to switch around some of Anglo Bexas between the 21st and 25th to do that. And of course, if that is done, the Texas Dems in the legislature will be back in Santa Fe, which is a great place to be in the summer.

[AmishDude]

BTW, who says Congressional districts need to be contiguous? And Texas has so much empty space, you could draw contiguous districts so that at least 25% of the voters got exactly the same SAT score.

BTW, what do you think of my theory that gerrymandering=good thing?

[AntiGuv]

FWIW, it's occurred to me that if the legislature does act on this that they may very well decide to clean up the boundaries in West Texas now that Stenholm is gone. More interestingly, they might also take another shot at Chet Edwards. If they want to revisit those lines, they'd have a lot more leeway now that Turner, Sandlin, and Frost are basically out of the picture.

They probably won't do that if they have to fix the maps this year, however, if for no other reason than that they'll need new primaries in any district where the boundaries change. They might, though, if they want to try to trade Bonilla for Edwards.

And the ultimate irony: If that were their goal, they could easily create a district that DeLay can win. :)