Texas gained four seats in the US house in the last census, due to population growth. The entire population increase was Hispanic. Naturally Texas Republicans gerrymandered the redistricting so blatantly that all four new districts would have been controlled by whites. The San Antonio Federal Court rejected the Republican redistricting and created their own map with four new Hispanic districts, properly representing the change in population. SCOTUS overruled the Federal court’s districts and told Texas to redo the plan. In the meantime, Texas’ primaries are rapidly approaching, so the Texas Republicans made a deal with some Hispanic groups. I think it’s a bad deal.
Texas’ attorney general agreed Monday to temporary voting maps that add new Hispanic-dominated districts and could save the April 3 date for primary elections statewide. But at least one influential minority group said it would fight the new plan.
Still, the proposal marks a rare moment of agreement in a bitter legal clash that has dragged on since last summer, even reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Minority groups filed a lawsuit alleging the GOP-controlled Legislature drafted redistricting maps that were discriminatory and ignored a burgeoning Hispanic population.
A San Antonio federal court had given the state and minority groups until Monday to reach a compromise, or see the Texas primaries pushed back for a second time.
Under the new plan, Hispanics would control half of Texas’ four new congressional seats that were awarded following new population numbers from the census. Attorney General Greg Abbott said seven minority groups agreed to the new plan, which he said minimizes changes to the original redistricting maps drafted by the Legislature.
“Today’s maps should allow the court to finalize the interim redistricting maps in time to have elections in April,” Abbott said in a statement.
But a lawyer for League of United Latin American Citizens, which was among the groups that sued, bristled at news of a compromise. Luis Vera predicted the deal wouldn’t stand, saying: “It means absolutely nothing.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when the three-judge panel in San Antonio would accept or reject the proposal… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
In Texas, whites are more likely to vote Republican and Hispanics are more likely to vote Democratic. That’s why Texas Republicans are so desperate about this. Since Hispanic population growth is responsible for the creation of all four districts, Hispanics should control all four districts. A two/two split discriminates against Hispanic voters.
9 Responses to “Bad Redistricting Deal in Texas”
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The real question that should be asked is: Why are we treating an ethnic group as a political entity? If a Republican politician claimed that hispanics behaved (voting is a type of behavior) in any consistent way across the ethnic group, he/she would be stoned as a racist. Oddly though, the liberal viewpoint is that the ethnic group should be allowed to band together in order to pool political power. Hypocritical? You betcha.
D, we’re where you are wrong. It’s not a matter of ethnic groups banding together here. Some Latinos vote Republican. When we talk about their tendency to vote Democratic, that is simply demographic analysis. But even if your flawed major premise were correct, It’s clear that Mormons are banding together behind Mitt Romney, and nobody has stoned them, at least not for over a century. The only reason this is an issue in Texas is that they are under court order as a result of Republicans’ proven history of violating the voting acts there. It’s just insisting that everyone gets fair treatment.
“Fair redistricting” are 2 words which are not in the RepublicanT vocabulary.
You are so right! This is all about fairness and those in control have no intention of ever giving way to a fair settlement
Exactly, Patty.
A minor point but one that’s important here in New Mexico. I’m not sure if they care in Texas. We don’t speak of Hispanics and whites. Here, it’s Hispanics and Anglos. More truly descriptive, we feel. Being in New Mexico, a state that has achieved a harmonious balance among three cultures, stuck between the virulent racism of both Texas and Arizona, is an almost surrealistic experience. Just so y’all know — we ain’t like them!
Upton, I’m well aware that New Mexico is different from those states. I can’t speak for Texas, but it’s Anglo in Arizona too, but that’s popular vernacular. Because we talking about voting demographics here, I used that jargon.
If memory serves me correctly, I read a while ago, possibly here at PP, that the WAS (White Anglo Saxon) population actually went down, while the entire population increase was attributable to the Latino community. If the census bears this up, then I think that all 4 new districts should be as the Federal Court originally deemed. The state legislature is too racist to see clearly, and SCOTUS is just as biased in my opinion. Texas Republican/Teabaggers need to shut up and get back to start governing for the good and prosperity of all Texans. After all, the next generation is going to wonder what the hell the state government was doing when it created a third world state within the country.
Your memory serves you correctly, and it was here in an early article I wrote on this subject. You’re absolutely right!