The Continuing Saga Of The Congressional Redistricting Battle

Right now the Congressional redistricting map is being debated. Texas is receiving four new congressional districts and the battle is on! Wouldn’t it be great if the Republicans could make all four new districts Republican? If we could just make all districts Republican? After all don’t we have the majority? Yes, that would be great but let’s think about this. Texas has to be in compliance with the Voting Rights Act and we must also take into consideration the Hispanic population explosion since 2000. These are all factors that affect the decision on how the districts are going to be drawn. The battle is whether we should have all four districts go to Republicans or divide the districts into two for Democrats and two for Republicans or one Democrat and three Republican. So understandably the Republicans are probably not going to receive all four new districts. If we do, the chances are we may lose the court room battle and others, and not our Texas Legislature, will decide how the lines will be drawn.

The Texas Redistricting website has these two maps, C116, Grass Roots Institute of Texas, and C117, Rep. Laubenberg statewide congressional proposal. Neither of the maps have been approved and common sense tells us that there will be amendments or possibly a new map will surface and be approved. Neither the House nor the Senate have submitted their redistricting plans. District 21 is a critical district. It is critical because the incumbent just happens to be the Judiciary Committee Chairman, Congressman Lamar Smith. It would be a devastating blow to the Texas Congressional delegation and to Texas to lose this position.

Congressman Lamar Smith
Judiciary Committee Chairman
About the Judiciary Committee
http://judiciary.house.gov/about/about.html

Redistricting happens every ten years and is a complicated process due to all the restrictions, requests, and time necessary to draw a map that will be most suited for all Texans. For all we know the battle could spill over to a special session. ‘Fair’? Really, is anything in life ‘fair’? We need to grow up and face reality. Reality is that not every district will be exactly what we expect. Being greedy will not lead to a path of victory. In the end the responsibility of drawing the redistricting maps belong to the Texas Legislature and not to third parties.

TEXAS REDISTRICTING WEBSITE
http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/