Posted on 02/05/2003 7:38:01 PM PST by Holden Magroin
DeLay has an eye on Tex. map By Allison Stevens
Texas Democrats are preparing for a potential showdown with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who is working behind the scenes to redraw the state’s congressional map.
Regarded as Capitol Hill’s point man on Texas redistricting, DeLay has asked a number of state legislators to take the apparently unprecedented step of redrawing district lines enacted last year, in hope of ousting several Democratic members of Congress, knowledgeable GOP sources say.
Texas Republicans are zeroing in on white Democrats from rural districts, such as Reps. Chet Edwards, Charlie Stenholm, Ralph Hall, Max Sandlin and Jim Turner.
Republicans are also targeting white Democrats who represent districts with a large number of minorities, such as Reps. Martin Frost, Gene Green and Chris Bell.
If successful, DeLay’s plan would expand the party’s majority in Congress, give Republicans a majority of seats in the Texas congressional delegation, and add to DeLay’s clout on Capitol Hill.
Democrats, however, are busy plotting countermoves. They have discussed their plans at weekly lunch meetings, are in close contact with members of the state Legislature and are reviewing their legal options.
“My former colleagues are very aggressively aware of what’s going on,” former Rep. Ken Bentsen (D-Texas) said. “And they are working it. They’re going to be very engaged in this. They’re not going to sit back and take anything. This is not a fait accompli. And if they have to fight they will fight in the Legislature and in the courtroom.”
Republican leaders in the state Legislature have not said whether they will call a new redistricting initiative to the floor during their brief session this year.
To do so, they would need a two-thirds majority in the state Senate — 21 of the 31 senators. All 19 Republicans in the chamber, and one of the 12 Democrats, have indicated they would support the plan, leaving Republicans one vote short of their needed majority.
Democrats, not surprisingly, voiced resentment toward DeLay for championing a plan that they say would compromise legislative priorities for partisan gain.
Democrats argue that Republicans should focus on addressing insurance reform, public school funding, and the state’s $10 billion budget shortfall — rather than revisiting a lawful map.
“Every member of the Texas congressional delegation has a right to discuss redistricting with legislators in Austin,” added Edwards, a seven-term lawmaker who has long been a target of the Texas GOP. “But I hope we can focus more on how to better work together on a bipartisan basis for the interests of our state rather than becoming divided over redistricting.”
No state Legislature in at least 50 years has reopened a redistricting case without a court order to do so, according to a review by the Congressional Research Service.
Such a move could set a dangerous precedent, Democrats say. They note that power changed hands last November in state legislatures in Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and these states could follow Texas’ lead.
Texas Democrats also have the backing of three of the state’s largest newspapers, which have editorialized against DeLay’s efforts.
Prominent Republicans, including Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, have also denounced the plan. Nevertheless, some Texas Republicans vow to press ahead.
The Democratic majority in the congressional delegation is an embarrassment to the Texas GOP, which has made inroads at the state and local levels in recent elections, but has failed to oust several targeted congressional Democrats.
Republicans won control of the Statehouse in November for the first time since Reconstruction, captured the state Senate for the first time in 1997, and hold the governorship and virtually every other statewide office. Nonetheless, Democrats have 17 of the state’s 32 seats in Congress.
Operating under a divided Legislature last year, lawmakers failed to reach a compromise map, sending the process to the courts. A panel of three judges, two of whom are Democratic appointees, drew a map that gave Republicans only two new seats.
Democrats would likely file suit, but Republicans think a new map bearing the imprimatur of the state Legislature would carry more weight and might succeed.
Calling the current map a “stopgap,” Texas GOP spokesman Ted Royer claimed that the state Republicans would not give up their fight.
“We believe that redistricting is the responsibility of the Legislature, and not the courts, and we’re confident that the Legislature will fulfill their responsibilities of redistricting at an appropriate time.”
The difference is that a Federal court drew the congressional boundaries in Texas in 2001. Not the Legislature.
Under the rules, the Legislature gets another opportunity. There is no way in hell that it is fair to leave Texas under the current Democrat-gerrymandered congressional districts for another 10 years.
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