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.