Posted on 11/16/2001 1:08:07 PM PST by Dog Gone
AUSTIN -- A three-judge federal court panel today ordered a Texas congressional redistricting map for the 2002 elections that protects all the state's incumbents but gives Republicans the state's two new districts.
While the ruling can be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, Democratic and Republican lawyers said it is highly likely that the map ordered today will be used for the 2002 elections.
After next year's voting the Democrats likely will hold a 17-15 advantage in Texas' congressional delegation. Democrats hold a 17-13 majority in the current delegation. Texas gained two news seats from the national reapportionment that followed the 2000 Census.
One of the new GOP districts, District 31, will stretch from northwestern Harris County across Waller, Austin, Washington, Brazos, Burleson, Lee and Bastrop counties into Williamson County north of Austin. The other new district, 32, is entirely within northwestern Dallas County.
Despite the judges' tilt toward incumbent protection, the 11th District of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, was made more competitive. Based on voting patterns in the newly drawn 11th, Edwards is the Democratic incumbent Republicans would have the best chance of knocking off. That would leave the delegation with a 16-16 split.
Today's court order represents a major victory for Texas Democrats and House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, who had fought for what they called a "least change" redistricting map. That meant keeping the districts of the state's 30 incumbents as intact as possible while fitting in the two new districts.
The plan is a defeat for the Republicans, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and state Attorney General John Cornyn. They had wanted a major redrawing of the state's congressional districts to give the GOP a substantial majority in Texas' congressional delegation.
"Political gerrymandering, a purely partisan exercise, is inappropriate for a federal court drawing a congressional redistricting map," the court order said. "Even in the hands of a legislative body, political gerrymandering is much a blood feud, in which revenge is exacted by the majority against its rival."
The only defeat the court handed the Democrats involved the West Texas 23rd District of U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio.
There had been an attempt to move Bonilla into an Anglo Republican district in Central Texas to turn his district into a Democratic Hispanic district. But the court map protects Bonilla's district, which runs from San Antonio south to Laredo and west to El Paso.
The ruling also was a defeat to those Hispanics and blacks who wanted to create two new minority districts in Texas.
Hispanics had wanted two new district in South Texas.
Blacks had wanted the 25th District of U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Houston, redrawn as a black "opportunity district," meaning a black might be able to win it when Bentsen leaves office. Bentsen is planning to run for the U.S. Senate.
In some earlier maps, Bentsen was put in the 18th District held by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, in a configuration that would have favored her re-election.
The court said the black and Hispanic populations are not substantial enough to require the creation of new black or Hispanic opportunity districts by law under the federal Voting Rights Act.
The court said a Legislature could have created such districts but that it was not going to do so because it would have a partisan effect.
"To do so would render our effort to keep our thumb off the political scale an illusion," the court said.
The black voting age population of District 25 drops from 23 percent to 22 percent under the court-ordered plan, while the Hispanic voting age population grows from 28 to 31 percent.
Morris Overstreet, representing the Coalition of Black Democrats, said he believes a black candidate can win the district by forming a coalition with Hispanic voters. He said Bentsen can win the district if he chooses to run again instead of seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Phil Gramm.
Today's order was signed by all three judges hearing the case, Republican Patrick Higginbotham, a member of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Democrats John T. Ward and John Hannah Jr., both U.S. district judges from Tyler.
The case ended up in the courts when the Legislature failed to pass a congressional redistricting map and Gov. Rick Perry refused to call a special session for that purpose.
State District Judge Paul Davis of Austin first ordered a map that favored Republicans and then reversed himself to order a map that favored Democrats. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Davis had not acted properly in reversing himself and made his map moot for consideration before the federal court.
The federal court panel heard almost two weeks of testimony on congressional redistricting.
The state votes Republican in every statewide election. The Democratic Party in Texas is almost dead.
Yet, this plan sends Democrats to represent us. Pathetic.
The court also increased the GOP lean in Edwards and Stenholm's district. I know Masset says incumbency is worth 10 points, but I think good candidate recruitment might help us in those districts. I believe Edwards was unopposed last time and the GOP ran an incredibly-weak carpetbagger from Dallas for Stenholm's seat.
I wonder how much difference this will be from his present district. I almost wish they had added parts of Williamson County into his area, as I sincerely doubt he would get the conservative vote. I would LOVE to see him defeated.
The Dems own the legislature, so it could have been a lot worse.
I am very curious though, does anybody know the details of how Chet Edwards seat is changed. He is now in a seat that went for Bush by about 40 points in 2000. He won reelection with about 55% of the vote. He can be beaten if there are many changes at all made to his seat. And that would make it 16-16.
Unfortunately, we also have plenty of people who still vote RAT because grandpappy voted RAT.
Our LRB drew a map which would change our house from 78-72 RAT to 88-62 GOP, but we are awaiting pre-clearance. Unlike the good folk in NH, we are under the strictures of the voting rights act which requires DOJ pre-clearance of redistricting plans.
I was hoping Arlene Wohlgemuth would run, but she has been drawn into Joe Barton's district. Two good candidates would be David Sibley or Susannah Gratia Hupp.
For those not familiar with Texas, Ms. Hupp is the anti-Carolyn McCarthy. After being in the Luby's attack, she understands that our best protection is an armed citizenry and not gun grabbing.
The GOP holds the Senate. More importantly, it owns the Lt. Governor who has the power to decide what, if anything, the Senate will even consider.
But the Texas legislative seats are all Democrat gerrymandered seats, too. It took a miracle to wrest control of the Senate with the current configuration.
Every statewide office holder in the State is Republican. Every single one. That is PROOF that the district lines are drawn to favor electing Democrats.
The court rubberstamped decades of Democrat gerrymandering again this morning. This does not in any way represent Texas voters.
Republicans are packed into dense districts and Democrats are spread into winnable majority in all the others except the minority-protected districts.
That's why this is so unfair to the GOP and to Texans as a whole.
I'm sure the Republicans will appeal. They have nothing to lose. But I'm not sure there is enough "reversible error" here to change the result.
It looks like yet another 10 years of living under Democrat gerrymandering in a Republican state.
Why? What's the political and/or ethnic makeup of Galveston?
Expecting much more than this would have been wishful thinking. But fear not! Who knows what type of coattails W may have now, particularly if the war effort appears both successful and popular. And some of the Donks are among the most conservative Donks in Congress so we can keep a few around to appear "bi-partisan" when necessary.
Moderate=Enablers of Evil
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