GOP looks to 2013 for redistricting
Nothing prevents the Legislature from drawing new maps. Redistricting is no different from any other bill, and it doesn’t have to be limited to the session after a census. That said, I don’t see the point of going through the exercise. So what if Republicans endorse a referendum to re-redistrict in 2013, as the state party chair promised last December? The intent of those pushing for “re-redistricting” is clearly to restore Republican dominance, which is threatened by the current maneuvering in San Antonio and in the District Court in Washington. To attempt to do so, however, raises all of the issues that are currently in play. The Legislature’s bill will still have to go through preclearance (unless the Supreme Court strikes down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in the meantime); it will still be vulnerable to a court’s determination that the Legislature’s map is tainted by discriminatory intent.
The state’s legal team may find itself in the same position a year from now that it is in today: trying to defend maps that ignore Hispanic population growth. The issue comes down to this: Do Republicans (a) want to redistrict so they can correct the flaws in the current plans? Or do they (b) want to redistrict so that they can suppress minority voting strength? We all know the answer. Unless there is a sea change in the attitude of Republicans, a re-redistricting session is likely to end up costing the state a considerable amount of money–just to lose again. Until Republicans come to terms with the reality of demographics, another exercise in ignoring them will only produce the same result.
Tagged: redistricting
Blue Dogs says:
Burka, I personally believe the Texas GOP is on the verge of ending up like the CA GOP following then-Gov. Pete Wilson (R)’s race-baiting of Prop. 187 and abolishing affirmative action in CA, which resulted in seeing the GOP in CA fade into obscurity statewide.
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paulburka says:
They’re working hard at it, that’s for sure. Texas Latinos are not as alienated as California Latinos, though. That will buy the Texas GOP some time.
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Sumitt Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Nor do Texas Hispanics turn out to vote like California Hispanics.
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J. Murrieta Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Not that much time. 2020 is not that far away and the GOP led lege is going to irritate Latinos for sure. Texas has never worked with minorities as has California, and has a very poor civil rights record. California, to its credit, is working towards fairness in representation. Texas is a backwater in this regard.
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Texian Politico says:
CA was never as conservative as Texas either. Even after the highwater ’94 elections they weren’t much better than even with the Dems in Sacramento. I think at one point they were close to tied and then several Republican reps voted for Democrat Willie Brown to be the speaker and they were later recalled. Also, the GOP only pulled into a 26-26 tie in the congressional delegation after Tom Campbell won a special election in 1995. CA is not TX and never has been.
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Johnbernardbooks says:
“CA is not TX and never has been”
should read Tx is not Calif, and for that we can thank our lucky stars.
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paulburka says:
Thank you John. Nothing if not predictable.
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Ted Baxter Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Calif doesn’t have JBB, that’s a positive.
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J. Murrieta says:
Johnbernard, Texas is not the shining star you think it is. One only needs to travel outside the Lone Star State to see that most Americans do not share the states arch conservatism, racial politics, poor education standards, cronyism and pollution. Americans want to move forward, Texans want 1950. But there are many new Texans that are not going to accept your old ways. Progress!
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Johnbernardbooks Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 4:30 pm
“Johnbernard, Texas is not the shining star you think it is”
Compared to Calif, Tx looks like the Big ol’ Star it is all bright and shiney.
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Alan says:
The irony is the Texas GOP did a really commendable job of reaching out to Hispanics when they were a minority party. The first Hispanic candidate for statewide office was the Republican nominee for AG in 1970; that was also the year Paul Eggers went to South Texas and called for higher labor standards for migrant workers while Preston Smith opposed them.
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paulburka Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Governor Bush helped Tony Garza run for railroad commissioner and put Alberto Gonzales on the Texas Supreme Court.
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paulburka Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 5:13 pm
and the first Hispanic governor of Texas could be George P. Bush
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Whoa Nellie! Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 10:04 am
P.? What exactly qualifies him for such a post? Lord preserve us from any more dynastic Bush administrations. What is this, the 12th century? (Hmmm, maybe I don’t want that question answered).
Blue Dogs Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 9:43 am
Alan, I think you mean the first Latino GOP statewide office candidate for State AG was in 1986, who lost to Jim Mattox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mattox
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Pat Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Don’t forgot that Roy Barrera (R) almost unseated Mattox for AG in 1986.
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WUSRPH says:
The difference from then and now is that Paul Eggers, John Tower, etc. were CONSERVATIVEs but one can really figure out what this new group are.
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WUSRPH says:
I guess the current GOP types like three years olds dealing with a pre-school teacher will eventually find out that the courts and the law are going to make them keep doing it, again and again, until they FINALLY GET IT RIGHT (legal, that is).
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anita says:
Actually, I imagine whether the R’s push another redistricting through in 2013 will depend on who’s sitting in the White House. I imagine they will pursue it if they have a receptive Justice Department, and they can pull what Bush did on the DeLay plan, where their political hires overrule the career folks, in essence make the VRA moot. Unfortunately, I think we’re at the point in American politics where we’ll now see redistricting pushed by Section 5 states when their political people are in charge at Justice, just to reap the benefits, off-cycle or not. We’ve devolved that far.
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Johnbernardbooks Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 6:17 am
“I think we’re at the point in American politics where we’ll now see redistricting pushed by Section 5 states when their political people are in charge at Justice, just to reap the benefits, off-cycle or not. We’ve devolved that far.”
Yes democrats have taken us down that road, lets bring sanity and a breath of fresh air back to the WH, vote repubiclan in 2012.
I’l take any and all bets that no matter what bills are passed in 2013 dems will be lining up at the courthouse occupied by liberal judges to sue. Just like 2011.
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Anonymous says:
JBB the Republicans sued when they were in the majority. Redistricting has been litigated by the courts since the 1970s.
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ghostofann Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 11:46 am
Pssst, Anonymous at 8:29AM, you might be new here. JBB is this blog’s resident Retardlican troll.
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Palmolive's Madge says:
Paul – I’ve heard George P. Bush speak. It was more exciting watching paint dry. If this guy’s last name was smith or if he had lilly white skin he’d be working in the Paint Department at Lowes becuase there is nothing there but a name and skin tone.
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Johnbernardbooks says:
What will dems do when there’s a whole slew of new republican hispanic legislatures?
Well I guess they always LULAC to play their victim.
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ghostofann Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Just where are these Retardlican legislatures going to be, cult boy? South Dakota, Utah, in your imagination?
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sanantonian says:
It does my heart good to read this blog. I am in the military and DREADED moving to Rick Perry’s Texas. Thank God I ended up in San Antonio, which seems truly diverse and democratic. Now if only I could figure out why the state wants my kids to take these horrific standardized tests.
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Russ says:
It seems to lost to the R’s on this blog response that the federal judges, outside of Scalia and Thomas, who have the biggest legal issues with the maps the ‘Lege’ has drawn are Bush appointees, i.e Justice Collyer. If they have problems with these maps what do suppose the judges to the left of them in temperament will have? Hispanic state Legislatures! Are y’all for real?
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krazen1211 says:
What a load of dung, from a party that has not won statewide in almost 2 decades.
Restore Republican dominance? The party is already dominant.
The problem is that these lefties believe that Texas Democrats and Maryland Democrats can gerrymander to their heart’s content, but Texas Republicans cannot. They don’t give a damn about Hispanics, really. Take a look at the number of Hispanic districts in California and how low it is compared to Texas.
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Russ Reply:
February 8th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
The maps are already gerrymandered. What’s a load of dung is having two redistricting chairs in the Lege who didn’t have any working knowledge on what the Voting Rights Act does. In their testimonies, they told the DC Court, and maybe even the San Antonio Court, they didn’t and relied on their staff, who didn’t either, to draw these maps. And you have an Attorney General who probably did have a working knowledge of the VRA, but showed either contempt or incompetence towards it. Now the State is out $1.4 million in outside legal fees, and even more to conduct split primaries. How’s that for fiscal responsibility?
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krazen1211 says:
” California, to its credit, is working towards fairness in representation. Texas is a backwater in this regard.”
Flagrant lies.
Here are the Hispanic districts under plan C195:
15, 16, 20, 23, 28, 29, 34, 35. If you don’t count TX-23 there’s still 7 out of 36.
Post the Hispanic districts in California.
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Steve says:
Here we go again with the knee jerk, patented Burka style response. In this case the socially destructive use of the race card for anything that could adversely affect his preferred political candidates. As recently seen with the typically false prediction that the Supremes would use the remap appeal vote to overturn the capricious preclearance hurdles. And at least as far back as his 2003-2005 race-baiting predictions that Hispanics should/would turn anti GOP. I’ve read Burka for years. All too predicably absent in his racially-charged redistricting outrage was the treatment of Republicans in the 1980 and 1990′s remaps, long standing discrimination within the Democrat primary electorate (including Burka?)against Hispanics, the appointing and election of many more Hispanics officeholders by Republicans than the Democrat party every achieved and, most recently, the election of several minority Republicans over white democrats, by not only high numbers of Hispanics (a censored fact in the left media) but also the very voters that are said to require the fed governments preclearance hurdle – reflexively categorized by Burka as racists – white, non liberal Christians, working class, often rural, less educated, – but smart enough to vote against Burka’s preferred candidates
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