What's the odds this map is overturned? I bet (and HOPE) it sticks .....
"It's only wrong if you get caught!" haha!
Posted on 10/20/2004 6:20:47 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Redistricting decision jostles candidates, voters
BY SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court's decision sending Texas redistricting back to a lower court has created the possibility that the U.S. House members chosen by voters this election may have to run in an entirely different district in two years.
Voters are choosing their U.S. representatives according to a map designed by the 2003 Legislature. The map, which replaced districts drawn by a federal court in 2001, has been highly controversial.
The Supreme Court on Monday put a big question mark on the map's future when it told a Texas federal district court to reconsider its decision that the map was constitutional.
That means the districts in use for early voting, which began Monday, and the Nov. 2 election could be rejected and redrawn or remain in a redistricting battle that could stretch over the remainder of the decade.
Traditionally states have redrawn districts every 10 years, after each census, to accommodate for population growth and shifts. But as Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, pointed out after Monday's decision, the Supreme Court decision could mean that by 2006 voters would have gone through four consecutive congressional elections with different districts each tiime.
Candidates like Democratic Reps. Martin Frost and Charlie Stenholm, who both have had to introduce themselves to a bevy of new voters for the upcoming election, may find themselves having to abandon those new constituents and introduce themselves to a new crop of voters in 2006.
"It's confusing to voters to be changing districts every election. Voters aren't able to develop a relationship with their representative and representatives aren't able to develop a relationship with their constituency when lines are shifting around every two to four years," said Justin Kitsch, spokesman for Frost, D-Dallas.
Frost represents District 24, an ethnically balanced district that went 54 percent for Al Gore in 2000. He is running for re-election against Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, in District 32, 80 percent of which is new to Frost.
On the Republican side, next month's election is merely a formality for Mike McCaul, who is running in District 10. The district stretches from eastern Travis County to near Houston and is so heavily Republican, Democrats didn't field a candidate. The current District 10, as drawn by a federal court in 2001, was a Democratic stronghold and consisted only of Travis County.
McCaul said he expects the map to be upheld and no change to the new district.
"I think people would like to see this District 10 remain intact for quite some time," said McCaul, referring to the Austin-to-Houston version.
Nathaniel Persily, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and redistricting expert, said he expects the federal district court in Texas will uphold the 2003 map again. Then Democrats will again appeal and the issue will go back to the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court decides the map is unconstitutional, the issue would return to the district court, which would then give the Legislature the chance to redraw the congressional lines and make them less partisan. Once those lines are drawn, lawsuits could be filed again if not everyone is satisfied.
"It's not unlikely for redistricting cases to take the whole decade," Persily said. Such was the case in a North Carolina case known as Shaw vs. Reno, a racial gerrymandering case that the first Supreme Court first decided in 1993.
The case was finally resolved in 2001 after several redrawings, legal challenges and case name changes, Persily said.
This likely lengthy battle is why the state should take redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and courts and assign it to an independent commission as some other states have done, said Mark Strama, a state Democratic House candidate in an Austin district.
"In my district, there is not even a choice, I live in District 10 and we don't have a choice because the district is so gerrymandered that there is not even a challenger for the Republican candidate," Strama said. "It's not America and not democracy."
10/20/04
Texas redistricting ping.
While it's dangerous to make generalizations, I'd say probably a minimum of 80 percent of W. Texans (all parties) are unhappy about redistricting and the way it was done.
What's the odds this map is overturned? I bet (and HOPE) it sticks .....
"It's only wrong if you get caught!" haha!
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