Posted on 12/19/2011 10:24:40 AM PST by An American!
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — Dec. 18, 2011
Another attempt to redraw political districts in Texas brings yet another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of politicians are anxiously waiting to see if the nine judges in Washington will give them a fighting chance to keep or win a seat in the Texas House, Texas Senate or Congress. With dozens of incumbents retiring, the stakes are high and who ends up winning depends largely on what the final district maps look like.
One proposed map guarantees Republican dominance for the next 10 years. The other would likely give Democrats a big boost. And the Supreme Court could order a new, third version.
American politicians face this problem every 10 years when states redraw political maps based on the latest census. The state needs to ensure every political district has roughly the same number of people.
Texas law gives that task to incumbent members of the Legislature, and they seize upon this rare opportunity to choose the voters they want. Since their first priority is to get re-elected, they draw their districts to suit them. Then the party in power usually tries to draw districts that will hurt their opponents.
To keep this process from being too unfair, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to make sure majority whites couldn't draw districts that would hurt minorities. Texas is one of 16 states with a history of racism that can't change any of its election laws or maps without getting preclearance from either the Department of Justice or the federal court in Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at kfoxtv.com ...
For my Texas State House, District 92:
Todd Smith (incumbent) or Jonathan Stickland: jonathanstickland.com
For my Texas Senate District 12 unfortunately there is so far no one running against the incumbent Jane Nelson
Recommend all get involved in your local politics. The presidential election which seems to dominate the conversation is just one part. We need to take back the house by getting rid of the incumbents D's or R's and putting new men and women in place to represent us!
Vote the challenger! In every race, at every level.
Next election? Do it again.
Destroy the professional political class.
Ever notice how the AP finds gerrymandering to be a problem only when it happens to libs?
Redlining reductions caused financial and political chaos.
Thank La Raza Rick for this fiasco. His appointee and protege, the liberal Democrat judge Xavier Rodriguez, is the one who is deliberately undermining the TX legislature from rightfully implementing the lines in order to drastically increase Democrat districts.
Love it...I am 100% voting across the board for Anyone But Incumbent!
I just found this website seems like they are just getting started, but I love the concept! http://goooh.com/
GOOOH stands for 'Get Out of Our House' and is pronounced like the word 'go'. It is a NON-PARTISAN plan to place citizen representatives on the ballot in 2012, ideally in the primary against the incumbent, competing for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Why did Rick Perry promote a liberal Democrat to the bench ?
He was only on the supreme court of TX for a year or two, and I honestly don’t remember anything controversial about his rulings. Looking at his background, he appears to be more of a moderate democrat (or he calls himself one, anyway). I think that Perry could have found someone better, but the appointment probably did get him some more of the Hispanic vote?
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/speech/10836/
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