Posted on 06/28/2003 6:12:17 AM PDT by Impy
SAN ANTONIO -- Texas Republicans may lose their only Hispanic congressman in a redistricting plan designed to increase the GOP's share of the state's congressional delegation, a legislative subcommittee was told Thursday.
Led by Democratic legislators, opponents of redrawing Texas' congressional lines outnumbered supporters in the San Antonio hearing, one of three held in different cities by House subcommittees in preparation for the special session that begins Monday.
"If you were really listening, you would call off this wasteful session," said Lucille Lopez Santos, a San Antonio educator, who blamed the effort on a "power-hungry guy in Washington named Tom DeLay."
DeLay, the U.S. House majority leader from Sugar Land, has been a major force behind the redistricting effort.
Democrats were even more outspoken in Brownsville, where police were called after a noisy crowd demanded that the hearing be shut down. No arrests were made.
A third subcommittee of the House Redistricting Committee heard public testimony in Lubbock.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a Democrat who claims bipartisan support, said U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, was in danger of being unseated in his own party's primary if lawmakers adopt a redistricting map approved by the House panel during the regular session.
That map, with some changes, is expected to be filed as a starting point for debate during the special session called by Gov. Rick Perry.
Bonilla, a former television producer who has been in Congress for 10 years, has been showcased by President Bush and other Republican leaders in an effort to attract more Hispanics to the GOP.
The GOP proposal would almost completely transform Bonilla's district, which now stretches from San Antonio across a vast stretch of West Texas to El Paso. He would keep part of Bexar County but exchange the West Texas counties for suburban counties north and east of San Antonio.
Wolff, a former mayor of San Antonio and a former state legislator, said Bonilla would trade a district with a Hispanic majority for one with an Anglo majority. There is a "good chance" that he could lose a challenge in the Republican primary under the proposed map, Wolff added.
The county judge also objected to the proposed redrawing of another San Antonio-area district. U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, a Democrat, would gain many of the West Texas counties now represented by Bonilla while losing constituents in several South Texas counties.
"It's terribly confusing to voters and leads to less voter participation," Wolff said.
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, disagreed. He said it was the proper role of the Legislature to redraw congressional districts approved by a federal court after state lawmakers failed to act in 2001.
"We are the majority party, and we are entitled to the majority of the members of Congress from Texas," he said.
Democrats now outnumber Republicans 17-15 in the Texas congressional delegation. Wentworth has proposed that Republican strength be increased to 19. Any more, he said, could be viewed as "greedy."
But the map being debated in the public hearings would allow as many as 22 Texas Republicans to win election to Congress. It is believed to have DeLay's strong support.
That map died in the regular session after more than 50 Democratic legislators fled to Oklahoma to break a quorum and shut down the House for four days.
Republicans have said the redistricting plan would create as many as two new Hispanic districts and a new Houston-area district in which a black candidate could be elected to Congress.
But state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, who led the San Antonio hearing, said the proposal would weaken Hispanic influence in congressional elections. Claims to the contrary, he said, were "cynical."
Roy V. Casanova of San Antonio, speaking for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, denied new maps will deprive Hispanics of election opportunities.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Bonilla would easily win with strong support from party officials.
The plan would give him a safe GOP seat. His current seat while Bush won it easily was carried by rats such as Kirk, Sanchez and Sharp.
He had a close race last year with a hispanic dem. That's what "Nelson Wolff" wants, to see Bonilla beaten by a dem.
On a side note, it's nice to see that "moderate" Wentworth seems to on board for redistricting.
I seriously doubt it. He assumes "anglos" won't vote for a Hispanic candidate and would want to oust a five term incumbent. To the contrary, I think Bonilla can demonstrate that it is possible for an ethnic "minority" candidate to win a predominantly white district by supporting mainstream policies rather than playing racial politics. There has already been an example of this in Oklahoma where J. C. Watts won a white majority district four times as a Republican. Actually I think this is what some of the race baiters really fear is that more "minority" candidates will have to embrace mainstream politics rather than racial political balkanization.
There's one article today where Republicans are called nazis and Klansmen.
There's another one describing how Congressmen won't care about Houston anymore.
I think there were four stories in today's edition, and not one was remotely balanced.
Racially charged rhetoric over congressional redistricting escalated Friday when a black state legislator referred to the Ku Klux Klan in criticizing U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, made the comment during a news conference he and other black and Hispanic leaders conducted at Houston City Hall to protest the changes DeLay, R-Sugar Land, is pushing in the maps for the state's 32 congressional districts.
"If you think he (DeLay) represents the interests of our people, you believe that the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan represents our efforts," Coleman said.
The group complained that public hearings held across Texas -- including one today in Houston at Texas Southern University -- are a sham because Republicans intend to continue with redistricting without regard to testimony.
DeLay and other supporters have said the redistricting plan now under consideration could increase Hispanic and African-American representation in Harris County.
But participants in Friday's news conference said the plan will reduce the clout of minorities and low-income people by reducing the number of Democrats in Texas' congressional delegation. Democrats contend they fight harder for these constituencies.
State Rep. Rick Noriega said DeLay is making a power grab for Republicans that compares with the way the Nazis took over Germany in the 1930s.
And Houston City Councilwoman Ada Edwards said the redistricting would shift power from inner-city, minority neighborhoods to Republicans. "It's an American-style coup," she said.
DeLay spokesman Jonathan Grella said it was hypocritical for Democratic leaders to complain about the public hearings when they demanded them.
He said the proposed redistricting would give blacks a shot at winning a second seat in Houston by moving black neighborhoods into the 9th Congressional District held by white U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Houston.
Hispanics would have a better chance at winning the 29th Congressional District held by white U.S. Rep. Gene Greene D-Houston, he said.
Grella discounted the comments against DeLay as "efforts by Democrats to stay in power."
"To compare restoring fairness to congressional representation with the atrocities of murderers like the KKK and the Nazis is more than excessively dramatic," Grella said. "It is completely inappropriate."
DeLay and other Republicans say that because a solid majority of Texans vote Republican, the GOP should have a majority in the Texas congressional delegation, now 17-15 Democratic.
The race-tainted rhetoric heated up Thursday when U.S. Rep Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, who is black, accused the Harris County Republican Party of playing "the race card" by sending an e-mail with her picture but not her name urging Republicans to attend the hearings.
The local GOP said it later sent similar e-mails featuring Green and U.S. Rep. Chris Bell, and accused Lee of making race an issue when it is not.
This is BS.
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