Texas Democrats file challenge over new redistricting map in federal court

[Frodo]

"Democratic lawmakers have filed a motion that seeks to stop the state from implementing the new map, arguing it violates the voting rights of minorities."

"Democrats want to keep the existing boundaries, and filed the motion in Tyler, because that court drew the current redistricting map. Democrats argue any proposal to change the map should be handled by the court that approved the map initially."



http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2156930

On Edit - Better link to longer article.

[Endangered Specie]

1. Good

Kudos to the Texas Democrats, must feel lonelt there...

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!

[ixion]

2. yes, it's lonely being a liberal in Texas

I've only been here a couple years, but I'll tell you that it's one of the least liberal places I've ever lived. Can't wait until I can move.

[Cha]

4. How long do you have to stay? I take it you aren't in

Austin?

[rootvg]

6. Take My Advice...

...and just get out of there. I'm an Independent with populist leanings who just felt awful there, all the time. My wife still lives in Plano while I work on the road and we can't wait to sell the house.

You need to keep something in mind. One of these days (possibly sooner than you think), Washington is going to force a state income tax on Texas and Florida. These two states have made it a matter of policy to skim the demographic cream of the north, and northern politicians have just about had it. Ohio can't pay its teachers and professors anymore. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania is going to declare bankruptcy. Hershey Chocolates came within a hair of moving to Virginia last year during the strike. It would have devastated the state.

I'm almost to the point of saying Let The South Secede. Really! There wasn't a day that I lived there when I didn't hear the word Yankee. The cost of living in Texas has gone up considerably since 1990 because of the boom, and that hatred is right under the surface. Watch it!

[WinstonChurchill]

9. We Don't Want 'Em In Our Country, That's For Sure

[Cha]

3. Thank you Democratic Lawmakers!

I keep hoping this will work out some how some way!

[Frodo]

8. Sure it will! In about ten years.

The problem with radical gerrymandering is that it eventually comes back to bite you in the butt. You spread yourself thinner and thinner so that your opponent is winning districts 70-30 and you are winning (more) districts 53-47.

The problem then comes up when things shift just a few percentage points against you (immigration, or a watershed election) and you lose every one of those close seats and the other guy gets to start drawing the lines. That's actually what has happened to us us in Texas. Decades of line-drawing by our side eventually ended up without enough voters to support all those districts and the state legislature moved sharply "right". On the other hand, the seats you're left with are rock-solid "safe" seats (which is often how they get people to vote for them - "screw the party, you're safe")

Give immigration a few years to work it's magic, and in the 2010 or 2020 census we'll be the ones drawing the lines.

[WinstonChurchill]

5. Go Get 'Em!

What a fascist state. May as well let the Repugs have it at some point

[rootvg]

10. The Republicans...

...DO have it but they're using that clout to control the House of Representatives. Armey, Delay, Gingrich, Archer, Sessions...they're all from the South. On the Senate side, Lindsey Graham and Kay Bailey Hutchinson...all that power, all in the South.

Democrats are going to have to deal with this - possibly by moderating to the right. It'll cause a hell of a rift and might split it in two, but it's gonna happen. Thank Richard Nixon.

[arcane1]

7. GO Texas Dems!!!

:toast:

:loveya:

[Hawkeye-X]

11. It's going nowhere - dead on arrival (at the courts)

I'm quoting the fine congressdickhead from Sugarland,Texas.

"It's going nowhere — dead on arrival," House Republican Leader Tom DeLay told reporters after the Senate vote to override the FCC decision on September 16, 2003.

Two reasons:

1) The courts is already insulted by the fact the Repukkklicans are trying to override what they felt was the best possible map in 2001. Thus, the map will be tossed out in the trash, and sanction the Repukkklicans for wasting the court's time, the citizen's time (Think public hearing shams), and DeLay for personally getting involved in state matters when he should fucking mind his own business. (I think DeLay will be thrown out in 2004, if they can find a serious challenger to his district, or relegated to the possible minority once the Dems take over the House in 2004, and DeLay won't get any committee assignments due to many Dem objections for interference)

2) Basically, the Republicans ignored the Voting Rights Act and insulted many minorities that were shoved aside in favor of more Anglos. Again, the court-drawn 2001 map was upheld by the Supreme Court as legal, and therefore should be used for the next 10 years.

This will make the Repukkklicans look VERY bad, and I predict that Texas will go Dem soon, if not 2004, after throwing out the majority of the Repukkklicans out of the seats they currently hold.

Hawkeye-X

[Frodo]

12. The court case is going nowhere - but a valiant effort that is needed.

I wish it were so, but that's unlikely.

1) The court is insulted? Have you ever known a court to act ecause it is insulted? The court and the legislature are not on equal footing here. They can't say "Gee I like my map - I did the best I could - you're hurting my feelings"

2) That's the claim, but this has been litigated plenty of times before (and with us on the other side for most of them). It is perfectly Constitutional to "pack" minorites if you are creating new districts with minority majorities.

[rootvg]

15. That Sounds...

...really good, except for the fact that it won't happen. Once again, you probably don't live there - therefore, you don't understand how these people think WHEN they think...which isn't very often.

The Dallas, Houston and Austin burbs pretty well control the state now - and they're gonna stay Republican for years and years and years. That's why all those Democrats ran off to Oklahoma and New Mexico. They're like Jews in 1930s Germany and they wanted to make a point - after which, they got their asses beat with a stick.

I'm in process of getting every bit of debt I have paid off, so I can get wife out of there. The place isn't going to be stable long term. Those hilljacks won't give up their way of life without a fight, and fight they will.

[sonias]

13. It's not over by a long shot

Folks one of the things that's missing from our side is spirit and fight. We can't just cut and run and give in, we have to fight with everything we have - the repukes do. They do it full time (albeit with full time paid staffers). I'm in Texas (Austin) but there has been some major cheating happening in Texas. Not just this Re-redistricting, but how the repukes took over the legislature is also suspect. They poured millions of funds illegally into state races. Some of this activity is being investigated. There is a case here in Travis county looking into a group called the Texas Association of Businesses (TAB) which took illegal corporate contributions and used them to run negative ads against TX House and Senate members.

Business group has one week for fight
http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/metro_state_f3b80ad3b1e01033005d.html
The Texas Association of Business has seven days to try one last legal Hail Mary pass before it must comply with subpoenas from a Travis County grand jury investigating the legality of the business group's $2 million ad campaign during the 2002 elections.

You've probably also heard about DeLay's PAC collecting money, sending it to national RNC, and then having it sent back to Texas the very next day in the exact amount to help with these state house races. More on these stories from the Austin Chronicle archives here
Campaign Money Shuffle
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2003-05-23/pols_feature4.html

There was coordinated cheating - big time. These crooks have got to be exposed.

I hope that the Tyler court will agree that this map is a fraud and that it should not be legal for the 2004 election. If the repukes believe in it so much, they can take the time to defend it. There is no reason we should be forced to give up the current certified VRA map for the 2004 election.

Even my own repuke state Senator Wentworth (represents some of Travis County) says the map is too greedy, but it didn't stop the bastard from voting for it.

Sonia

[Frodo]

14. It was probably "over" two years ago when we rolled the dice...

... and took a chance that we would win the coming election. They had a pretty strong redistricting position, but not overwhelming. The time was probably ripe to cut a deal that probably would have been a little worse than what the courts gave us for 2002 (a two seat R pickup), but nothing like this.

Instead we decided to go all-out (we were hoping to take back the House, so a couple more seats could have killed us) and force it into the courts. We "won", but with the full knowledge (they said it plainly at the time) that this would come back up if they won the state outright.

Had the previous plan been passed by the legislature instead of imposed by a court this new plan would have been impossible. But a court imposed plan does not carry the weight a legislatively passed plan would.

[tlb]

17. Realistic frodo, but realism isn't in vogue on this subject

And it is certainly not to be found in the party leadership that has fallen into one self dug hole after another the last eight years.

In its long history has the democratic party EVER been so badly managed.

[dusty64]

16. This will be a true test

of whether there is still a justice system in this country or not. What the rethugs did is PLAINLY illegal.

[Frodo]

18. Plainly illegal? Please elaborate.

Which part was illegal? This issue has been litigated (probably) a dozen times (and with us on the other side of the issue for most of them).

The only legal issue remaining that I can see is whether the state legislature has the ability to redraw the lines mid-stream. I suspect arguments can be made for both sides, but it certainly isn't "plainly illegal". Redrawing outside the ten-year cycle has happened before.

[bearfan454]

19. It is illegal to let people pick their reps by voting and then

go back and say - No the person you voted for that won as your rep is not your rep any more. Now this guy is your rep. Oh yes, and he is a repuke.

[Frodo]

20. Oh please. Language has to mean something.

It may be "unfair" (almost all redistricting is unfair, which is why it should be done wastly different from how most states do it), but it hardly "illegal".

What do you think happens every time a state redistricts? Lots of people get new reps. Nobody changes anything now. Nobody becomes the new rep until people in the new district vote for him/her (assuming BBV does not control the process).

The part you seem upset by is done regularly by both parties whenever they have control of the situation. Redistricting is the ugliest most partisan political act out there.

[Undemcided]

21. Well said

Redistricting is the ugliest most partisan political act out there.

Agreed, it's just a way of maintaining the status quo.