“At least one of the 2 judges on that panel of 3 that drew those maps should be impeached. That judge is the brother in law of a senior DemocRAT state senator.”
I never could understand why so many horrible judges get to keep their jobs no matter what they do. Where are the checks and balances?
These judges totally ignored Texas law that requires that if a district can be put entirely within a county, it must be. If a district must include more than one county, it must contain whole counties with the exception of 1 and only 1 county. My county had enough population in 2000 to qualify for 2.4 representatives. In 2010 due to faster growth in the San Antonio, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin triangle, my county now only qualifies for 2.04 representatives. The legislature drew 2 whole districts in the county.
The problem for Democrats is that while Nueces county is Hispanic majority, it is trending Republican. In 2006 on the same night Republicans were getting wiped out nationwide and in the largest urban counties of Texas, Nueces county elected both a Republican sheriff and a Republican county judge (executive) against Hispanic Democrat candidates.
McCain carried Nueces county in 2008, in fact Nueces county was the 2nd largest county in the state that voted for McCain in 2008. We also reelected the sheriff to a whole 4 year term, after serving out the unexpired from 2006-2008, with 60% of the vote.
In 2010 Nueces county decisively defeated 14 term incumbent congressman Solomon Ortiz (TX-27) in his home county and contributed to Ortiz' 799 vote loss district wide. We also defeated 2 Democrat incumbent state representatives in Democrat leaning districts one of whom was Solomon Ortiz, Jr. the son of the congressman in the most Democratic district in the county.
Democrats are running scared, because it looks like Cameron county (Brownsville) is showing signs of following Nueces county's pattern. They reelected their Republican county judge in 2008 in a close election with a very screwy recount that had some serious irregularities that almost allowed the Democrat challenger to prevail.
Democrats want to neutralize the Republican gains among Hispanics in Nueces county. They are afraid that Nueces county can be a template for Republican gains among Hispanic voters across the state. The 3 judge panel attempted to neutralize Nueces county by drawing districts that cross county lines in violation of state law so they can cancel out Republican Hispanic votes in Nueces county. Even though we qualified for only 2 districts, the judges "creatively" carved out smaller districts across multiple counties and gave back a district that was lost to the Dallas area.
The judges really overreached in redrawing the congressional districts. They took Nueces county which was previously entirely contained in the 27th district and split it into two pieces. The western portion of the county was put in district that goes south to the Mexican border taking in areas of the current 27th district. The eastern portion of the county was placed in a congressional district that stretches through Ron Paul's current district all the way to the western portions of Harris county to the town of Katy which is west of Houston. In both districts Nueces county would be out voted by the other population centers of those districts. This would basically take away Nueces county's and Corpus Christi's voice in Congress. The new districts would mean that the greater Houston area to the north would dominate one district, and Brownsville would dominate the other. Nueces county by itself has almost half the population necessary for one congressional district. It forms the nucleus of a community of interest that should be represented by one congressional district.
In 2010 Republicans made huge gains in the state legislature. We went from a 76-74 narrow majority after the 2008 elections to 101-49 super majority after winning almost all of the Republican districts and picking up a few party switchers. These were the same districts we had when we came 19 votes from having a tie in the House in 2008. Had there been a 75-75 split, the Democrats would have insisted on having a Democrat speaker.
As a result of the 2010 elections, we had 6 Hispanic Republicans (one due to a party switch) in the Texas House. Guess what! The 3 judge panel placed every single one of the Hispanic Republicans in heavily Democrat leaning districts that would be very hard for any Republican to win. Supposedly in the name of increasing Hispanic voter strength, the court drew districts that would have wiped out the existing elected Republican legislators. Apparently the 2 Democrat appointed judges from the panel 3 judges only think that Hispanic voters can only be represented by Democrat office holders. They drew Hispanics into highly segregated districts so that candidates would not have to worry about appealing to the Anglo minorites in the district in order to win. We have proven that qualified Hispanic candidates can win in south Texas by appealing across ethnic and class lines.
The unanimous Supreme Court decision is a great win for Republicans, because it will allow us to have districts in which candidates can win by appealing across ethnic and economic lines.
We need to end lifetime appointments for Federal Judges. The only way to get rid of them is impeachment and they need to blatantly take a bribe or something for that to ever happen.