Posted on 11/16/2001 1:08:07 PM PST by Dog Gone
American-Statesman Staff
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
To view the map, go to www.tlc.state.tx.us/tlc/research/redist/redist.htm. The new plan is 1151C.
Federal judges Wednesday issued a new congressional map for the 2002 elections that puts new districts in Central Texas and Dallas County while pitting no two incumbents against one another.
The judges denied claims by Latino activists for seven — instead of the current six — congressional districts with Hispanic majorities along the Mexico border. They failed to create the first Hispanic-majority district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and rejected arguments for another African-American district in Houston.
The judges' plan, adopted unanimously, appeared to try to make as few changes as possible while adding the two new districts. During the trial, the judges expressed concerns about making political policy — as opposed to legal decisions — normally reserved for the Legislature. The legislators failed to agree on a congressional map, kicking it to the courts.
The judges' plan appeared to give an edge to Republicans in the two new districts. Texas currently has 13 Republican and 17 Democratic incumbents, but it is getting two additional seats in Congress because it grew faster than most other states.
The new map, according to political experts, is almost an even split along major party lines and could result in a delegation made up of 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans — or 16 from each party.
In Central Texas, under the new plan:
• U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett will represent the eastern half of Travis County. Western Travis County, as well as western Hays, becomes part of a Hill Country district now represented by Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.
• Williamson County is split in half. Southern Williamson will make up District 31, one of the state's two new districts. That district includes Bastrop County north of the Colorado River and stretches east to Bryan/College Station and south to Huntsville, taking in some of the Houston suburbs. More than 200,000 Williamson County residents are included in this district and are the largest population block in the district, suggesting that any new member of Congress could hail from Williamson County.
The northwestern portion of Williamson County will now be part of District 11, represented by Chet Edwards, D-Waco.
• The eastern portion of Hays County, all of Caldwell and Bastrop counties south of the Colorado River are in District 14, now represented by Ron Paul, R-Surfside.
After each census, the Legislature is required to equalize the population between the congressional districts. This year, however, the Legislature deadlocked without a map and Gov. Rick Perry refused to call legislators into a special session to try again. The Texas Supreme Court then ruled invalid a plan drawn by State District Judge Paul Davis of Travis County after a two-week trial.
That left the political future of the state's congressional delegation in the hands of three federal judges: Patrick Higginbotham, a Dallas Republican and judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and US. District Judges John Hannah Jr. and John Ward, both Democrats from Tyler.
The decision could have national consequences. Republicans hoped to use gains in Texas to offset Democratic domination in other states such as California. The partisan division of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 also could determine which Texan, U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, or the Republican Delay, has a leadership post in Congress.
Although the judges' decision may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the map is likely to survive long enough for the 2002 elections. It could be considered too disruptive if the higher court ordered changes in the middle of the election.
While the stakes of redistricting are partisan, the battle often was fought in the legal guise of protecting minority voting rights.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) brought the suit in federal court.
Its lawyers argued that Hispanics accounted for 60 percent of the state's dramatic population growth in the 1990s and was entitled to two additional districts with Latino voting-age majorities.
"Texas got its two new districts because of that growth," said MALDEF lawyer Nina Perales.
But others, including Democrats and Republicans, disagreed.
U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, testified that creating a new Hispanic district along the Mexico border could endanger the Hispanic majorities in other border districts.
In the Dallas area, the issue was if Hispanics were too dispersed to be drawn into one political district. In Houston, the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats argued for another district that might elect an African American and the state, through GOP Attorney General John Cornyn, accepted the Houston-area map with that district.
Despite predictions how the map will affect the partisan and ethnic make-up of the congressional delegation, voters often defy the redistricting experts' best guesses. Ten years ago, a Houston district was created that many said would elect a Hispanic to Congress. Instead, former state Sen. Gene Green defeated a Hispanic council member by less than 200 voters and has been re-elected comfortably since.
Unless a map matches incumbents against one another, GOP analysis Royal Masset has warned partisans from anticipating a dramatic change in the delegation. He noted several Democratic members have been elected from Republican-leaning districts for years.
At the polls, Masset says, "Incumbency is worth at least 10 percent points."
AUSTIN -- A three-judge federal court panel today ordered a Texas congressional redistricting map for the 2002 elections that protects all the state's incumbents but gives Republicans the state's two new districts.
While the ruling can be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, Democratic and Republican lawyers said it is highly likely that the map ordered today will be used for the 2002 elections.
After next year's voting the Democrats likely will hold a 17-15 advantage in Texas' congressional delegation. Democrats hold a 17-13 majority in the current delegation. Texas gained two news seats from the national reapportionment that followed the 2000 Census.
One of the new GOP districts, District 31, will stretch from northwestern Harris County across Waller, Austin, Washington, Brazos, Burleson, Lee and Bastrop counties into Williamson County north of Austin. The other new district, 32, is entirely within northwestern Dallas County.
Despite the judges' tilt toward incumbent protection, the 11th District of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, was made more competitive. Based on voting patterns in the newly drawn 11th, Edwards is the Democratic incumbent Republicans would have the best chance of knocking off. That would leave the delegation with a 16-16 split.
Today's court order represents a major victory for Texas Democrats and House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, who had fought for what they called a "least change" redistricting map. That meant keeping the districts of the state's 30 incumbents as intact as possible while fitting in the two new districts.
The plan is a defeat for the Republicans, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and state Attorney General John Cornyn. They had wanted a major redrawing of the state's congressional districts to give the GOP a substantial majority in Texas' congressional delegation.
"Political gerrymandering, a purely partisan exercise, is inappropriate for a federal court drawing a congressional redistricting map," the court order said. "Even in the hands of a legislative body, political gerrymandering is much a blood feud, in which revenge is exacted by the majority against its rival."
The only defeat the court handed the Democrats involved the West Texas 23rd District of U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio.
There had been an attempt to move Bonilla into an Anglo Republican district in Central Texas to turn his district into a Democratic Hispanic district. But the court map protects Bonilla's district, which runs from San Antonio south to Laredo and west to El Paso.
The ruling also was a defeat to those Hispanics and blacks who wanted to create two new minority districts in Texas.
Hispanics had wanted two new district in South Texas.
Blacks had wanted the 25th District of U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Houston, redrawn as a black "opportunity district," meaning a black might be able to win it when Bentsen leaves office. Bentsen is planning to run for the U.S. Senate.
In some earlier maps, Bentsen was put in the 18th District held by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, in a configuration that would have favored her re-election.
The court said the black and Hispanic populations are not substantial enough to require the creation of new black or Hispanic opportunity districts by law under the federal Voting Rights Act.
The court said a Legislature could have created such districts but that it was not going to do so because it would have a partisan effect.
"To do so would render our effort to keep our thumb off the political scale an illusion," the court said.
The black voting age population of District 25 drops from 23 percent to 22 percent under the court-ordered plan, while the Hispanic voting age population grows from 28 to 31 percent.
Morris Overstreet, representing the Coalition of Black Democrats, said he believes a black candidate can win the district by forming a coalition with Hispanic voters. He said Bentsen can win the district if he chooses to run again instead of seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Phil Gramm.
Today's order was signed by all three judges hearing the case, Republican Patrick Higginbotham, a member of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Democrats John T. Ward and John Hannah Jr., both U.S. district judges from Tyler.
The case ended up in the courts when the Legislature failed to pass a congressional redistricting map and Gov. Rick Perry refused to call a special session for that purpose.
State District Judge Paul Davis of Austin first ordered a map that favored Republicans and then reversed himself to order a map that favored Democrats. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Davis had not acted properly in reversing himself and made his map moot for consideration before the federal court.
The federal court panel heard almost two weeks of testimony on congressional redistricting.
The state votes Republican in every statewide election. The Democratic Party in Texas is almost dead.
Yet, this plan sends Democrats to represent us. Pathetic.
The court also increased the GOP lean in Edwards and Stenholm's district. I know Masset says incumbency is worth 10 points, but I think good candidate recruitment might help us in those districts. I believe Edwards was unopposed last time and the GOP ran an incredibly-weak carpetbagger from Dallas for Stenholm's seat.
I wonder how much difference this will be from his present district. I almost wish they had added parts of Williamson County into his area, as I sincerely doubt he would get the conservative vote. I would LOVE to see him defeated.
The Dems own the legislature, so it could have been a lot worse.
I am very curious though, does anybody know the details of how Chet Edwards seat is changed. He is now in a seat that went for Bush by about 40 points in 2000. He won reelection with about 55% of the vote. He can be beaten if there are many changes at all made to his seat. And that would make it 16-16.
Unfortunately, we also have plenty of people who still vote RAT because grandpappy voted RAT.
Our LRB drew a map which would change our house from 78-72 RAT to 88-62 GOP, but we are awaiting pre-clearance. Unlike the good folk in NH, we are under the strictures of the voting rights act which requires DOJ pre-clearance of redistricting plans.
I was hoping Arlene Wohlgemuth would run, but she has been drawn into Joe Barton's district. Two good candidates would be David Sibley or Susannah Gratia Hupp.
For those not familiar with Texas, Ms. Hupp is the anti-Carolyn McCarthy. After being in the Luby's attack, she understands that our best protection is an armed citizenry and not gun grabbing.
The GOP holds the Senate. More importantly, it owns the Lt. Governor who has the power to decide what, if anything, the Senate will even consider.
But the Texas legislative seats are all Democrat gerrymandered seats, too. It took a miracle to wrest control of the Senate with the current configuration.
Every statewide office holder in the State is Republican. Every single one. That is PROOF that the district lines are drawn to favor electing Democrats.
The court rubberstamped decades of Democrat gerrymandering again this morning. This does not in any way represent Texas voters.
Republicans are packed into dense districts and Democrats are spread into winnable majority in all the others except the minority-protected districts.
That's why this is so unfair to the GOP and to Texans as a whole.
I'm sure the Republicans will appeal. They have nothing to lose. But I'm not sure there is enough "reversible error" here to change the result.
It looks like yet another 10 years of living under Democrat gerrymandering in a Republican state.
Why? What's the political and/or ethnic makeup of Galveston?
Expecting much more than this would have been wishful thinking. But fear not! Who knows what type of coattails W may have now, particularly if the war effort appears both successful and popular. And some of the Donks are among the most conservative Donks in Congress so we can keep a few around to appear "bi-partisan" when necessary.
Moderate=Enablers of Evil
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