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Texas Redistricting Map Headed For Court

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on November 8, 2011.

Well, they tried….again. Texas tries every ten years to set new standards for gerrymandering Congressional districts. This time they outdid themselves.

Texas earned four new Congressional seats out of the 2010 census. Most of the new population is Hispanic and concentrated on the Gulf Coast. But, the Texas state Senate is Republican, and we all know who their governor is, so to preserve the Republican advantage in the State lege (as Molly Ivins used to call it) and preserve the Republican advantage in their Congressional delegation, the redistricting board created these really snaky districts.

The state of Texas, however, has such a stunning record with voting that they are subject to supervision in everything electoral under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They tried to get “preclearance” for their new district map and a Washington-based court told them to stuff it. The courts will determine if the new map is unacceptable.

There are 150 seats in the state House and the new map reduces minority districts from 50 to 45. Texas says it increases them fropm 41 to 42. Seems the Justice Department and the State of Texas have different definitions of “minority districts.” In many states, the number of senators matches the number of Congressional seats, but in Texas, there are only 31 senators, one less than the current number of Congressional seats.

Right now, a court in San Antonio is redrawing the map created by the redistricting commission and that map will be implemented temporarily while the permanent map is fought over. This will be necessary for the upcoming primaries. A permanent map must be created by the November 2012 elections.