New Texas congressional districts
on Aug 4, 2006 at 6:13 pm
Responding to the Supreme Court’s decision partly nullifying a 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan, a special three-judge U.S. District Court (Marshall Division) on Friday drew up a new map that changes the boundaries of five existing districts. The District Court adopted its own plan, refusing to embrace any of the 14 proposals submitted to it. It acted one day after holding a hearing on how to adapt the districts to the Supreme Court’s ruling June 28 in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (05-204, and companion cases). The District Court order in case 03-354 is here, and its opinion explaining the result is here. (Thanks to Howard Bashman of How Appealing blog for the alert, and to Rick Hasen of Election Law blog for the links. Rick’s blog also includes a link to maps of the new plan.)
It was obvious, from the swiftness of the District Court’s action, that it had been redrawing the lines on its own before the Thursday hearing. It was acting quickly partly because Texas state officials had said they needed a new plan by next Monday, Aug. 7.
Only political analysts familiar with the voting patterns of Texans will be able to judge the actual political impact of the changes on the Texas delegation in the House, but the District Court said its new plan (1438C) allows all incumbents to run “in their old districts,” with some modifications. One potential impact of the revision is to ease the chances of Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of the Austin area to win reelection; the new map proposed by the state GOP had wanted to split up his district even more than it had been under the prior plan. Another indication was that Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla may have less chance of being reelected in his newly drawn District 23, because the District Court has put more Latino voters back into that district, and Latinos have been deserting Bonilla in recent elections. It was because of defections of Latinos that the GOP-dominated legislature put together a plan to take Latinos out of District 23, and put more white Republicans into it.
Bonilla’s District 23 was the only one expressly found illegal by the Supreme Court, under the Voting Rights Act, for its impact on Latino voters in south Texas. The District Court said its changes in that district’s lines “restore Latino voting strength….without dividing communities of interest.”
In order to implement its plan for this year’s election in the five newly crafted districts, the District Court ordered a special election under Texas law which provides for filling vacancies in House seats, but it will be held on the same day as other elections this year — Nov. 7. Under the Court’s order, candidates must file to run for the House by Aug. 25, the secretary of state must certify by Sept. 6 the names of candidates who will go on the ballot for the five changed districts, and the election will be held on Nov. 7. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote in any of the districts, a runoff date will be held. Candidates for the state’s other 27 House seats chosen in primary elections in March will remain on the general election ballot (although whether former Republican Rep. Tom DeLay will remain on the ballot in District 22 in the Houston area is still at issue in a pending lawsuit on its way to the Supreme Court; see this post).
