Essay On Redistricting In Texas

Kayla Carter
NCTC Government 2306
Professor Huckaby
October 15, 2014
Graded Assignment 1: Redistricting in Texas

Every 10 years after the U.S. census the district lines for the Texas Congress are redrawn. However, during the 78th Texas legislature in 2002 and 2003 the district line were redrawn after they were drawn after the 2000 census. This new district map would favor the Republicans; this of course bothered the Democratic who lost seats within the Texas Congress. This was eventually brought to the U.S. Supreme Court which released its opinion in 2006.
In 2001 the Texas Legislature was in a deadlock of a new district map to coincide with the census. Because they were unable to agree on a map the state law requires a Legislative Redistricting Board which includes: the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House, Attorney General, Comptroller, and the Land Commissioner, to take on the task of creating the district map. The Republicans were seeking a new map increase their control of the State Congress. However, the Democrats felt the minority votes were being diluted by gerrymandering, as well as, violate the Voting Rights Law.
In 2002 the Republicans

gained control of the State House of Representatives which then gave them control of both chambers of Congress put forth a bill to redraw the district line with help from Governor Perry and Senator Tom Delay. Tom Delay, who strongly promoted this second redistricting, left his seat in Washington as the House Majority Leader to work on getting this new map passed. According The New Yorker magazine “DeLay personally shuttled proposed maps among House and Senate offices in Austin” (newyorker.com) and with his help republicans were able to adopt their new district lines.
The Democrats were strongly opposed to the consideration of a new map. In fact, during multiple special sessions call by Governor Perry they left the states jurisdiction to prevent the vote to pass by a two- thirds majority. Representative Berry Telford was quoted saying "We're fighting for our constituents with the only tool we have left, which was to use the rules of the House to break a quorum," (cnn.com) The Democrats were not only fighting for their constitutes some were also fighting for their jobs. Due to the new map some districts were eliminated such as Martin Frost how represented his district for 26 years the then ran in another district and lost the election.
The newly proposed maps were being challenged before the U.S.

Supreme Court in 2006. The Democrats were arguing that the revised maps were unconstitutional because they violated the “one person one vote” aspect of the Voting Rights Act as well as using partisan gerrymandering. The Supreme Court heard a similar gerrymandering case prior the Texas’ case their opinion was “political gerrymandering — drawing a map to give one political party an advantage — violates the “one-person, one-vote” principle protected in the Constitution.” (nbcnews.com) the Supreme Court gave their opinion that “entire Texas plan is unconstitutional because the legislature rewrote a previous court-drawn map, three years after the most recent census, out of nothing more than a desire for Republican advantage.”

(washingtonpost.com)
In 2010 during the 82nd Legislative Session the issue of redistricting arose once again. Similar to the past redistricting problems this again claimed discriminating against minorities. One description of the new districts “One district goes north 80 miles to Austin; across the street, another district begins that stretches more than 550 miles west to El Paso.” (huffingtonpost.com) The panel of judges was unable to prove if the new district line were intentionally drawn to discriminate against minorities. The ruling was then appeled to the Supreme Court and they undid the map and gave more democratic districts.
With the upcoming election the issue of redistricting has come up again. However, the court will be unable to rule on this matter since the election is close. I believe the district line unfairly represent the growing population. I think it could be possible for the Democrats to start gaining more districts soon.

Works Cited
"DeLay’s Texas Redistricting Heads to High Court." Msnbc.com. N.p., n.d. Web.
Gentilviso, Chris. "Texas Redistricting Maps 2012: Candidates Study New Setup." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 Feb. 2012. Web.
"Justices Affirm GOP Map For Texas." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 29 June 2006. Web.
Lavandera, Ed. "Texas House Paralyzed by Democratic Walkout." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web.
Toobin, Jeffrey. "Drawing the Line." The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web.