Texas Dems, minority groups near huge win with redistricting settlement (4 more Dems in Congress!)

[highplainsdem]

From The Hill's Ballot Box campaign blog:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/207155-democrats-minorities-close-in-on-huge-win-in-texas-redistricting-case

Texas Dems, minority groups near huge win with redistricting settlement
By Cameron Joseph - 01/27/12 05:52 PM ET


The Texas state attorneys defending the state’s GOP-drawn redistricting plans from court challenges have reached out to settle litigation, according to sources in the state. The settlement would give minority groups and Democrats what they’ve been demanding from the start: more heavily minority, Democratic-leaning House seats.

The result would likely mean at least four more Texas Democrats in Congress as of next year, a good start on the 25 or so seats Democrats need to win to retake control of the House.

“They’re backed up against the wall and have to come to some agreement and it’ll be awfully favorable on our end,” said one of the plaintiffs in the case.

-snip-

Any settlement would need to get the multiple minority group plaintiffs on board, and would create more majority-Hispanic and majority-African American congressional districts. Two of the plaintiffs predicted that an agreement will be reached early next week.

-snip-

Emphasis added.

This is great news!

[ananda]

1. from the Statesman..

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/federal-judges-warn-april-3-primary-in-jeopardy-2131036.html

[LynneSin]

2. We need to overall redistricting in this country.

I've seen Pennsylvania and it's a joke the way they redistrict things. I remember the district next to me had a damn lollipop sticking out of it's side because they wanted to breakup a large democratic district into a rural area that was more republican. It was a joke.

Redistricting laws need to be rehauled that says natural boarders must be used and illegalize this gerrymandering meant to break up large cities and dilute the populations into republican strongholds.

We do it too, Democrats have made California almost impossible for republicans and if laws like this were passed it could benefit not just us but the GOP too.

But the law would use predefined borders - County lines, city lines, township lines and when you need to break it down further it would be street lines - logical lines that make sense, not lollipops sticking out of the side or these shapes that make no sense other than to dilute one voting bloc into another. The seats we might lose in California we would easily pick up in other states like Pennsylvania. Why they have Philadelphia stretched way out into rural parts of the state makes no sense - Urban representatives have different needs than rural ones and representatives would be best to have one main focus and not many.

[LonePirate]

3. Not so in California where non-partisan commissions now draw boundaries for federal offices.

This commission is helping CA Democrats since the new districts aren't gerrymandered within an inch of existence. The new Congressional districts are expected to add 3-4 (or more) new Democrats to the California delegation even though the state is not increasing the number of its representatives.

I also think the criminally underreported slow decay of the Republican party in California is at play here as well. The Tea Party was turned away at the gates in CA in 2010 despite being welcomed with open arms in so many other places. I suspect 2012 will be an even worse year for them in CA.

[LynneSin]

4. Thank you!

I stand corrected

[jsmirman]

5. K&R *

nm