From The Dallas Morning News today:Remap would divide Frost's district
New GOP proposal draws arguments about minority representation
07/18/2003
AUSTIN – Republican senators unveiled a proposed congressional map Thursday that would break the Dallas-Fort Worth district of U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Arlington, into four pieces.
The suggested dismantling of the 24th Congressional District, which Mr. Frost has represented for a quarter-century, sparked arguments over whether the new map would help or hurt blacks and Hispanics.
Chief author Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, said the plan retains "minorities' opportunities to elect candidates of their choice." But Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, said the map would dilute minority voters' power.
"You're putting them all together in one Noah's ark," Mr. Gallegos told Mr. Staples at a Senate committee hearing on the new map.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst sent a signal that lawmakers likely will have to return for a second special session to finish their work on congressional redistricting.
NEW PROPOSAL'S LOCAL CHANGES
Here is how North Texas congressional districts would change under a GOP-backed plan unveiled in the Senate on Thursday: 3rd DISTRICT: Sam Johnson, R-Plano, absorbs all of Collin County, keeps Richardson, sheds Rowlett, Sachse, part of Garland. The district grows even more strongly Republican.
4th DISTRICT: Ralph Hall, D-Rockwall, sheds east, north Collin County, picks up Texarkana, all the I-30 counties east of Dallas, keeps Tyler but not Longview. The district tilts less to the GOP.
5th DISTRICT: Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, keeps the White Rock Lake area but shifts from the southeast to northeast corner of Dallas County, gains all of Kaufman and Cherokee counties and parts of Navarro but sheds five counties east of Waco. The district remains GOP-friendly.
6th DISTRICT: Joe Barton, R-Ennis, absorbs all of Arlington, sheds much of southern Tarrant County, the northwest tip of Johnson County and Corsicana. The district is still GOP turf.
12th DISTRICT: Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, sheds part of southwest Tarrant County, Hurst, keeps Parker County, much of Fort Worth, gains Wise County. The district remains GOP-friendly.
24th DISTRICT: Martin Frost, D-Arlington, connects Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Coppell, Grapevine, Grand Prairie, Mansfield, Cedar Hill, Duncanville, but loses Arlington, southeast Fort Worth. The district becomes GOP-friendly.
26th DISTRICT: Michael Burgess, R-Highland Village, keeps most of Denton County, sheds Frisco, part of Carrollton, fishhooks into southeast Fort Worth. The district tilts less to the GOP.
30th DISTRICT: Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, sheds Irving, gains southeast corner of Dalllas County. The district grows more strongly Democratic.
32nd DISTRICT: Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, gains Irving, the northeast edge of Dallas, sheds Addison, Carrollton, Coppell, Farmers Branch. The district remains GOP-friendly.
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
Two-thirds rule
Mr. Dewhurst said that in the current special session, he will honor a Senate rule requiring a two-thirds vote to take up any measure.
But the Republican lieutenant governor said he would put the redistricting measure at the top of the Senate's agenda in any subsequent session. That would mean only a bare majority of the chamber's 31 senators would be needed to bring it up.
He appealed for cooperation in the current special session from 13 senators who have vowed to block any floor action on redistricting. Among them are all 12 of the chamber's Democrats and a Republican, Sen. Bill Ratliff of Mount Pleasant.
Mr. Dewhurst rejected Democrats' claims that most Texans oppose a redrawing of the congressional map.
"The majority of people here in the state of Texas support George Bush and his policies," Mr. Dewhurst said. "The majority of the Texas delegation [to Congress] does not."
Democrats hold a 17-15 edge in the state's congressional delegation. Republicans, led by the White House and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, want a new map, saying the current one fails to reflect the state's shift to the GOP. Gov. Rick Perry called the Legislature into special session to take up the issue after Democrats killed a remap attempt in the regular session than ended June 2.
Mr. Dewhurst said he hasn't given up hope of progress.
"We're optimistic that they are going to work with us," he said of the 13 senators. "In the back of their minds, they would have to weigh that after we finish with the important business we have in front of us, what the likelihood is that Governor Perry would call us back in and we would start all over again."
Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry, declined to speculate on events.
"The governor believes there is time left in this special session, that they are going to accomplish the goal of this special session," she said.
Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who worked on the map with Mr. Staples, said it would create 11 safe Democratic seats, 18 safe Republican seats and three tossup districts. Democrats maintained that the map would result in 21 GOP members of Congress.
Mr. Dewhurst said it contains "two additional minority majority seats."
But Democrats disputed that, saying an attempt to create a new Hispanic seat in South Texas was undercut by weakening one now represented by U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio.
Under the plan, minority neighborhoods in southern Dallas and southeast Fort Worth now represented by Mr. Frost would be splintered and put into two districts dominated by GOP-leaning suburbs of northern Dallas and Denton counties. Other Frost areas would be attached to the district of Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas.
Mr. Frost then would be paired with U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, in another Republican-friendly district, stretching from Arlington to Hillsboro.
Also Online
Texas Talkback: Should the Legislature proceed with redistricting?
|Maps:
• Current Texas Congressional districts
• Proposed Texas Congressional districtsSpecial Session: Redistricting hearing schedule, summary, maps
(from the Texas Legislative Council)More Politics "They are willing to remove the African-American and Hispanic vote in [Mr. Frost's] 24th District and make it insignificant," said Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas. The Senate proposal is "equally as bad as" a plan passed by the House on July 8, he said.
Mr. West also complained the plan "packs all the minorities" into Ms. Johnson's district, "making it an 80 percent [minority] district, in order to get at Martin Frost."
Doggett's district
Elsewhere, the proposed map puts U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, in a Republican-leaning district that stretches from his hometown to the Rio Grande Valley. U.S. Reps. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene, and Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, would not be paired as they were in the House approved plan.
In a related event, Democrats in Washington accused Mr. Perry of cutting $300,000 in discretionary federal funds earmarked for the American GI Forum as retaliation over the Hispanic veterans group's opposition to the redistricting move.
Ms. Walt said the governor was not retaliating. She said initially the governor's office thought the federal money wasn't available, but later learned it was. She said the GI Forum could reapply for the grant.
"It's always easier to make up allegations than to find out the facts," she said.
E-mail gjeffers@dallasnews.com or rtgarrett@dallasnews.com.
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