http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1982414
July 7, 2003, 9:12AM
Redistricting plan set for debate
House Democrats promise a fight, urge Senate colleagues to block bill
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- A Republican congressional redistricting bill is set for full House debate today -- 57 days after Texas Democrats created a political legend by killing a similar measure with a dramatic regular session walkout.
The House Calendars Committee on Sunday formally set the special session debate of a proposed new map of the state's congressional district boundaries. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, was absent from the meeting.
Democrats say a walkout is impractical to stop this House debate. But they vowed to fight the measure vociferously, even knowing the Republican majority will pass the measure in the House and send it to the state Senate.
"We can't just roll over. We can't just hand it to them," said Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, the only calendars committee member to vote against debate.
Menendez said that soon it will be Senate Democrats' turn to block redistricting.
"Many of my colleagues already have put their careers at risk with the last walkout," Menendez said. "I hope we can count on our Democratic colleagues to stand by the people in Texas and not allow the train to run over ... us."
Prospects for redistricting remain uncertain in the state Senate. A two-thirds majority of the 31-member body is required to bring a bill up for debate, and so far four swing votes (three Democratic, one Republican) remain undecided.
State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the map sponsor, said his mission is political: "My objective always has been to send more Republicans to the United States Congress."
Democrats hold a 17-15 majority in the state's congressional delegation. The map before the House likely would result in a 21-11 Republican majority after next year's elections by dividing minority populations and shifting dominant voting populations from rural to suburban areas.
Democrats who likely would lose their seats under the Republican map include U.S. Reps. Max Sandlin of Marshall, Jim Turner of Crockett, Nick Lampson of Beaumont, Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Charles Stenholm of Abilene and Chet Edwards of Waco.
The strongest argument Democrats make against the map is that it may violate minority voting rights protected by federal law.
Democrats say black voters make a difference in electing some white Democratic representatives and that blacks and Hispanics have their interests better represented by Democrats.
Almost 1 million blacks and Hispanics live in the districts of six Anglo Democratic congressmen who likely would lose re-election under the proposed Republican redistricting plan.
Any map approved by the Legislature will face scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act by the U.S. Justice Department and the federal courts.
Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, a redistricting committee member, said the Republican proposal for dividing up Lampson's 9th District is a violation of the act.
She said Beaumont is split to put black voters into two proposed Republican districts, a redesigned 9th and a new 4th District that would include Lampson's residence.
And she said blacks and Hispanics in Galveston are taken out of Lampson's current 9th District and put into House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's proposed 22nd District.
"It puts the African-Americans in Galveston County into Mr. Tom DeLay's district, where you know they will have absolutely no influence," McClendon said. "It takes away the voting rights of those citizens who have worked so hard to keep from being disenfranchised."
King said his plan does not violate federal law.
An issue that divides the minority community is whether minorities are better represented by having white Democrats in several districts supported by minorities or by having fewer districts that elect minority politicians.
``We cannot afford to trade six or seven congress-people that vote in the interests of minority people for one minority incumbent,'' said Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston.
During a recent congressional redistricting hearing in Houston, the issue set off a heated exchange between state Reps. Garnet Coleman and Ron Wilson, both Houston Democrats.
Coleman accused Wilson of "shilling" for the Republicans and noted he drives a 2000 Lamborghini. Wilson responded that Coleman has worked as a consultant to Democratic campaigns.
Wilson said he believes blacks are better represented by one of their own than a white Democrat.
Wilson said he supports the Republican map because it turns District 25, now held by Democratic Rep. Chris Bell, into a district that could be won by a black politician. The map moves Bell's residence out of the district. Bell could move back in and likely win re-election, except he would be vulnerable to a Democratic primary challenge from a black politician.
"I like the fact it (the Republican map) creates another opportunity district in Harris County," Wilson said. "The population has always been there, and they (Democrats) would never draw it. They (Republicans) have finally drawn it."
Wilson's House district is completely within the proposed new 25th District, but he said he will not run for Congress if the map passes.
"I'm going to stay home," Wilson said.
The redrawing of legislative or congressional district boundaries usually is as inside baseball as politics gets.
But when 55 Democrats shut the House down in May to kill a Republican-backed plan, the nation's eyes turned to Texas politics.
Gov. Rick Perry revived redistricting by calling the current special session after consulting with DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and White House political adviser Karl Rove. President Bush, the state's former governor, publicly has expressed indifference to redistricting in Texas.
But the outcome of the fight is crucial to Republicans who hold just a 12-seat majority in the U.S. House and where the president's agenda sometimes passes by less than five votes.
Democrats call the Republican effort nothing less than a "power grab" by DeLay.
"The House redistricting process is a corrupt, partisan exercise driven by Republicans who brazenly shut out the voices of the people and turn their full attention to Tom DeLay's call," said House Redistricting Committee member Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo.
Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said DeLay's push for a Republican redistricting plan is no different from when Democratic delegation leader U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Arlington, orchestrated a 1991 redistricting that the National Journal called the worst gerrymander in U.S. history.
"Another Republican can't get elected, although we have almost 60 percent of the votes cast" in congressional races in Texas, said Berman,who lost a 1978 congressional race to Frost. "The lines were drawn by Democrats for Democrats. Now, after 130 years, it's our turn to draw the lines."
While each congressional district contains about 651,619 people, voter turnout in Democratic districts in 2002 was far less than turnout in Republican districts.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, received more than 139,000 votes in winning re-election against a token opponent. Bell won election to Congress in a contested race with about 63,000 votes.
The 1991 map was the basis for current congressional boundaries drawn by a three-judge federal court in 2001 when the Legislature failed to act.
