Common Sense

The Court ruled today that largely, the redrawn, gerrymandered Texas map of 2003 is okay. They even upheld mid-decade redistricting, which, to be honest I can kind of see. You’d have to read the Constitution pretty archaically to see a prohibition on states redistricting whenever they felt like it, especially if the current map were drawn by a judicial panel instead of the Lege.

But I thought that there should have been a harder look at how the redrawn districts affect the Voting Rights Act (which is being held up by Texas Republicans, by the way). According to the SCOTUS, CD-23 needs to be fixed.

On District 23, the Court concluded that the Hispanics in the district were increasingly dissatisfied with Congressman Henry Bonilla and likely to defeat him in coming elections. While incumbent protection is a reasonable basis for redrawing a district, the addition of Republican precincts in this district was specifically intended to prevent the Latino community anchored in Laredo from exercising its will and is therefore discriminatory.

The Court was not very happy with CD25 (Doggett) but implied that fixing CD23 would inevitably change CD25.

A lot of districts could end up being redrawn to give majority Hispanics more say in who represents them. That could include CD-21, where John Courage is running.

A lot of things are up in the air right now. For instance, should the districts be redrawn for this election or the next election? If we wait, should a three-judge panel do the redrawing or a special session of the Legislature (isn’t a three-judge panel how we got into this mess in the first place?). A special session seems right out, it would just be too much drama too close to election day and I’m sure Perry, Craddick and Dewhurst want to avoid looking ineffective a month before they are up for re-election.

If I had to guess (and it would be a guess) it would be that a three-judge panel would get to work on it soon, but there’s no way that all of that could be done in the five months before people vote. Candidates could have just a matter of months to identify and persuade new voters in districts that they didn’t have to worry about just yesterday. I would guess that the current districts will hold for this election, and be redrawn in January.

For rumblings about the special session, see ITPT and Vince.

Phillip Martin at Burnt Orange Report has a good summary post on all of this.

JAB discusses the importance of the Voting Rights Act and why it should be renewed. Kuff is his usual great, analytical self.

Rep. Richard Raymond (of the Texas House, 42nd District) is below the fold, as well as the official TDP statement and a statement from Chris Bell.

Go read this post from Rep. Aaron Pena. He predicted it all, which leads me to believe that becoming a blogger gave him special powers, which leads me to jealousy.

Raymond Statement on Supreme Court Redistricting Decision

 

AUSTIN — The United States Supreme Court ruled that the mid-decade Texas Republican plan to redistrict congressional boundaries “rode roughshod” over the rights of Hispanics in South Texas, and it must be remedied, State Rep. Richard Raymond (D-Laredo) said today. 

 

The Court’s ruling means Laredo will once again be unified in one congressional district and that other districts must be changed to accommodate the Court’s ruling.

 

Raymond, who led the opposition to the plan in the Legislature, was the only state legislator who was a plaintiff in the lawsuit that challenged the redistricting plan engineered by former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

 

“I felt very strongly about this.  The Court proved we were right to argue that Laredo and Hispanics in Texas were unfairly targeted,” Raymond said.  “This means that adjusting the districts to make them valid will affect several other districts, and that will make those districts more representative of the people of Texas.”

 

The Court ruled specifically that splitting up Laredo and Webb County into Districts 23 and 28 was a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and that the adjoining District 25, represented by Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Austin, was also not in compliance.  The Court said that the district court must now make changes that will make the districts lawful.

 

“From the very beginning, common sense told us that Laredo is one community of interest, and the only reason it was split up was to give the Republicans an unfair advantage so that they could elect another Republican to Congress from Texas — at the expense of Hispanics, Laredo and South Texas,” Raymond said.

 

At the heart of the Court’s ruling was the importance of the Voting Rights Act, which is now also in danger in a Republican-dominated Congress.  The Act must be reauthorized this year to prevent it from expiring next year.

 

“We have to keep on fighting for the Act.  It is clearly an important tool to how we protect minorities in this state and how we make sure that the entire process of redistricting remains fair, transparent, open and democratic,” Raymond said.

 

“I always had faith that the Supreme Court understood that the blatant power grab that DeLay carried out here in Texas was illegal, unconstitutional, unfair and un-American,” Raymond said.  “This ruling reconstitutes the civil and voting rights of millions of Americans in Texas and provides for more orderly change when change is required.  But the Court should have gone further and invalidated the whole map and prohibited mid-decade redistricting.”

 

The win was forged by an alliance of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the American GI Forum and the Washington, D,C. - based Lone Star Project, headed by Matt Angle, a native of Euless, Texas.

 

“Matt and his group did an exceptional job of coordinating information, the attorneys and the presentations.  This shows the kind of victory that can be achieved when people work together, ” said Raymond.

 

The state’s population grew 23 percent from 1990-2000 and is projected to grow by an estimated 18 percent in 2000-2010.  The ramifications of this decision should be self-evident:  Texas faces a serious redistricting session in 2011.

 

“This is a huge state with many problems and challenges that need to be addressed by a government that represents all of the people, not just one political party.  Education, water resources, transportation, the protection of the environment — these issues cannot be left to the province of one party that marches lockstep to a philosophy that will hurt Texas in the long-run by excluding people and limiting the influence of others.”

Dear Fellow Democrat,

Try as he might, Tom DeLay was not able to disenfranchise minorities throughout the whole state of Texas.  Today, the Supreme Court stood up and defended the voting rights of Latinos and all voters in South Texas by ruling that the 23^rd Congressional District violates the Voting Rights Act and is unconstitutional.

The Texas Democratic Party is a party to the lawsuit and will participate in the remand process to make sure the new map restores the voting rights and will hopefully be in effect for the 2006 elections.  The TDP will continue to provide updates and analysis at our Redistricting Info Center .

We are disappointed that the court failed to reverse the entire map for diluting the votes of minority communities in other regions of Texas and that the court did not declare that mid-decade redistricting is wrong and abuses all voters’ rights, regardless of their party.

Tom DeLay exploited a weak-kneed governor and compliant President to abuse voters in every corner of Texas. Republicans in the Texas legislature wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and ignored addressing important issues such as school finance and insurance prices to do Tom DeLay’s dirty work.

The challenges that remain for us are to rebuild our Party and elect good Democrats to every office from the Governor right on down to our local commissioners, clerks, and judges.  I urge everyone to vote a straight Democratic ticket and let’s put government back where it belongs– in the hands of the people of Texas.

Your friend and fellow Democrat,

Boyd L. Richie

STATEMENT BY CHRIS BELL ON SUPREME COURT’S TEXAS REDISTRICTING DECISION

 “The Supreme Court’s decision clearly shows that Rick Perry and Tom DeLay’s actions were blatant violations of the Voting Rights Act and politically motivated power grabs against the Hispanic voting population in South Texas.  Instead of fixing schools and health care in Texas, Rick Perry’s only accomplishment as Governor was to give Tom DeLay more power in Washington.         

“The Court’s decision highlights the need for new leadership in Texas to bring communities together rather than drive them apart.  We must protect the Voting Rights Act in Texas and the thousands of Hispanic voters in South Texas specifically targeted by Rick Perry and Tom DeLay’s redistricting plan.  I strongly encourage Congress to renew the Voting Rights Act.  It is imperative to protect the voting rights of all Americans against such unethical power grabs.  I challenge Rick Perry to seek out an immediate remedy to this situation and restore the Voting Rights Act to South Texans.”    

This press release is available online at:  http://www.chrisbell.com/releases/062806_redistricting