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In one way President Barack Obama’s trip to Texas Tuesday is about immigration policy; in another way it relates to the most purely political process of all: the drawing of new district lines after the 2010 Census.
James Henson, the director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said Obama can send a morale-building message to Texas Democrats Tuesday: that he’s going to help defend them against any Republican redistricting plan that would jeopardize Democratic House members. Republicans entirely control the redistricting process in Texas.
Due to its rapid population growth, the state is gaining four seats in the House of Representatives.
Henson said Texas Democrats “want the Justice Department to be paying close attention to the maps” as Gov. Rick Perry and the GOP-controlled legislature mull over where the new districts should be created and how the lines could be drawn to hobble Democrats’ chances in 2012 House races.
Right now – before it gets its four new seats -- the Texas delegation has 23 Republicans and 9 Democrats. Four of those Democrats are Latinos and three are African-American. One of the Republicans is a Latino.
Under Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Texas is one of nine states that must get Justice Department approval for its new districts.
The law puts the burden of proof on the state to show the Justice Department or a panel of federal judges that its new redistricting plan will not lead to “retrogression” or a diminishing of the power of black and Latino voters.
Michael Pitts, a voting rights expert who teaches at Indiana University School of Law and who served as an attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice, said the Voting Rights Act “protects the ability of minority voters to elect their candidates of choice. And with voting demographics being what they are, the choice of minority voters, African America and Latinos in Texas, is typically Democratic candidates.”
Since the Voting Rights Act became law, every decennial redistricting has occurred under the eye of a Justice Department in a Republican administration. This year, for the first time, a Democratic administration will oversee redistricting under the Voting Rights Act.
“Ever since Barack Obama was elected, it has been an article of faith here that the Justice Department is going to be the backstop for Texas Democrats -- the backstop that they didn’t have in the last redistricting cycle -- to minimize the advantage that Republicans could get out of redistricting,” Henson said.
A Democratic administration could make a difference, said Pitts, “almost in a counterintuitive way.” The conventional thinking is that white Democratic incumbents are the biggest losers under Section 5 and its application to most Southern and Southwestern states. “They’re the ones who are relatively unprotected,” Pitts said.
Black or Latino Democratic incumbents who represent districts with a predominantly black or Latino will likely have their seats preserved. If redistricting eliminated or weakened their districts, the state would get hit with a retrogression claim under Section 5.
But, said Pitts, “what you could see out of the DOJ in a Democratic administration – if it were thinking in terms of what might be best in creating a Democratic majority in Congress – would be a loosening of the requirement that minority voters be allowed to elect their candidates of choice” and instead of concentrating minority voters into relatively few districts, “the spreading out of those minority voters to more districts” to help Democratic candidates in swing districts.
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Good thinking!
Given the righties new found propensity for Voter Suppression by the newly anointed 'Kings' in WI. FL & such...
It's not like the Teapublicans have a history of stealing election or anything...
Just sayin... ;o)
You ALL pay no attention to the man behind the curtain - m'kay?
Yep Feisty is spot on - it's only those evil republican that draw screwy lines or engage in shenanigans.
Take the great state of Ill, and the fine city of Chicago: no political shinagaigans round those parts, especially not by any democrats.
And who prey tell is the man behind the curtain in Chicago that we should be mindful of Feisty?
{shudder} Look guys, I've had a tough day at work and what is one of the first things I read? Spanky saying "Yep Feisty is spot on." Yeah, I get it was part of the overall sarcasm of you post Spanky, but dude, I'm tired and my brain is sluggish. The last thing I need to see is any indication, no matter how false, that you guys agree on something. Its just not right. {shudder}
Anyway, here's hoping the Justice Dept. keeps a careful watch on those pesky Texagonian repubs; they'll put the fix in if they can.
Indy - now why wouldn't you want the Justice Dept. to watch everyone? Or is it ok to you is the dems engage in shinanigans?
Indy, I get you are a "Lib" and all, it the concept is "justice for all" not just for libbies, right?
And don't worry about me and the old gal, we fully understand the nuances of our very special relationship. I continue to love her. She continues to pretend to ignore me, only to respond to me indirectly, in a very passive aggressive manner.
The heart wants what the heart wants, eh Feisty? It's ok, I know.
Spanky, you have a point {shudder} that they should all be watched; dems will cheat too given the chance, but the repubs are better at it and have had more practice. It's been proven with advanced mathematics and complex formulas so don't deny it!
Spoken like a true Chicagoan, where the dead vote regularly and democratic.
I always chuckle when someone brings up Chicago style politics...
One thing you can't dispute is the Daley's GET things DONE!
Keep in mind the Democratic bastion in Chicago is what carries the right wingers down state... and they are more than happy to suck off the teat!
Damn us Libruls!
Is it the democrats' fault that republicans have no connection to the spirit world? I guess when you're dead everything finally becomes clear.
Well, is it then true that only democrats die? Puzzling.
And I love Chicago, dirty politics and all, but the weather is total crap.
I LOVE Chicago too kirby - as far as the weather is concerned you have to take the good along with the bad!
We have the MOST beautiful city in the country...
I have traveled the world as well as colleagues and we ALL agree there is NO place like sweet home CHICAGO! ;o)
Feisty,
These Republicans will pull any dirty trick they can.
It will be interesting to see if Perry is even better at drawing lines around minorities than Tom Delay and his friends were. And I certainly hope the President starts paying more attention to what is happening in Texas than he has so far to what is happening in Wisconsin and Michigan and Ohio and Indiana and Florida and South Dakota and Arizona, just to name a few really screwed up states. The real bottom line is that democrats have to hold the White House in 2012, regardless of who controls Congress. Any other outcome would be disastrous.
Perry will most likely be very good at it. Delay held classes on it so there's no doubt they have it down to a science.
And to quote Chucky 'T''s 'buzz word' this morning - 'frightening' lol
Obama's has very little support in Texas. Even among those who usually support him.
Everyone's pissed he gave Mexico aid for their wildfires but none for Texas.
He really does suck at "leadership".
When Texas secedes maybe governor Perry will apply for foreign aid.
Funny, I thought Texas didn't LIKE the federal government and thinks it doesn't NEED the federal government. At least that's what secessionist governor Perry seems to be saying.
Republicans always think all government is bad unless they can figure out a way to make a profit from other people's tax money and/or until the instant that they need government to save them, like that guy in Tennessee that didn't bother paying his fire services fees until his house was burning, or people who expect the federal government to save them repeatedly from natural disasters. Do people in the South seriously think this stuff is free?
During the energy crisis in the 1970's, Texas's attitude was that northerners could "freeze and starve in the dark." I have no doubt that this is still the attitude. Very well, then. If Texas burns to a crisp without my help, then it does. After all, God helps those who help themselves. All the so-called Christians in Texas surely understand this. Don't they?
Doug,
From FEMA spokesperson,
“This administration, through FEMA, has been working closely with the state throughout the duration of these fires, and we are supporting the firefighting efforts,” she said. “In fact, we have already approved 25 fire management assistance grants in recent to help cover expenses for these emergency response efforts, including 19 grants in April.”
Current federal aid covers 75 percent of Texas’s costs for emergency response work, such as evacuations, equipment, field camps and meals for firefighters, police barricading and traffic control. The agency’s regional office in Denton continues to monitor the situation and work closely with Texas Forest Service and Texas Division of Emergency Management, FEMA officials say. In addition, firefighting teams from more than 30 states have provided state-to-state support for firefighting efforts in Texas.
The rest of the country along with this administration just want to say
"YOUR WELCOME"
Oh that is just great, now Obama has turned Texans into socialists and communists dependent on the nanny state. Texas suckles at Obama's teat, and so will Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. The red states are falling like dominoes, quickly turning into the communist red states.
Yes...I get it about gerrymandering but we're talking about Texas. Does anyone think Obama has a snowballs chance in hell of winning Texas?
The object is to gain more seats in Congress, most notably the House. If you can gain more seats, it makes it easier to over-ride a presidential veto.
Ira, I don't think Frank got you reference to a snowball. In Texas.
Cause you know, in normal times, unlike these days of global cooling, a snowball in Texas wouldn't do too good.
But now that Time and Newsweek's predictions of global cooling from 1975 are coming to fruition, that snowball, like Obama, may just get so traction Texas.
Right Missy? Cold up in them thar' parts?
One of the key ways to "fix" our political system is to have all states make a consitutional change requiring re-districting to be done by "common sense" rules.
This would make our Congress more representative of the people they represent because these days poltiticans, regardless of the party/platform they run on do not UNDERSTAND that once they are elected they represent all people in their constituency ( Dems, Indies, Republicans, Tea drinkers - whatever )
Getting voted to office is not a mandate on anything
getting voted into office is absolutely a mandate on the platform you ran on. The districts mentioned in this article should be divided into the conservative majorities that voted the representatives in. This is not complicated folks
Being voted into office is not and never has been a mandate. It is a majority vote of confidence that can be taken away at any time in the next election. Being voted in by a margin of less then 1% is not a mandate. Niether is being voted in by a margin of 50%. Politicians have manufactured the idea that they have a mandate to legitimize them ignoring anyone who does not agree with the political ideology they pursue.
FrankH, Louisville,Ky..
I look at gerrymandering as a zero sum game. Lose some here, pick up some there. Besides, the Congress is so partisan that every significant vote seems to be split right along party lines. This isn't a 3 or 4 swing vote House.
Trufax, Ira.
It was no secret the GOP engaged in gerrymandering the last time the district lines were drawn here in Texas - but I anticipate a Democratic watchdog going out of it's way to right wrongs and doing exactly what the Republicans did.
The people that'll lose in this game are registered Texans, conservative and liberal alike.
Gerrymandering is an art practiced by both political sides since the term was coined. And before that in england there were the rotten bouroughs.
This is absolutely nothing new under the sun in the world of politics.