Well, Texas’ second special session came to a close yesterday, and at least for the time being, the Democrats from the Texas Senate managed to stay in New Mexico long enough to win another round in this fight.
As expected, once the session came to an anti-climactic end, Texas GOP leaders conferred on when and how to call for yet another special session on Tom DeLay’s absurd redistricting scheme.
The 11 Dems continue to say that they’ll stay out as long as necessary, despite repeated threats from GOP lawmakers in Austin. Apparently, Republicans won’t be able to force them to return anytime soon — on Monday, a state court judge threw out a lawsuit filed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R), which sought a court order requiring the Dems to return to the legislature.
What do Texas voters think about all this? They’re divided, naturally, but the Dems seem to enjoy some public support. A Scripps Howard Texas Poll showed that 62 percent of Texans said they oppose the Dems leaving the state to break a quorum, but on the question of whether Texas should redistrict, 46 percent said the legislature should not redraw the lines, while 40 percent said it should.
One last point on this fiasco, at least for today. Looking back over some of my previous posts on this mess, it looks like I’ve never really addressed the substance of the Republicans’ argument on redistricting. I thought I should take a moment to debunk their central claim.
All states are supposed to redistrict after the census is completed in years ending in 0 (1980, 1990, 2000, etc.). Texas, like every other state, did just that last year. At the time, however, Democrats were in the majority in the Texas House. As such, Republicans blocked every plan the Dems created, preferring to send the matter to court. A judge, therefore, was responsible for redrawing the lines in a seemingly fair and just manner.
Then, last November, the GOP gained the majority in the legislature, and decided — at DeLay’s behest — to start redistricting all over again. It was an unprecedented move that turned the process on its head, but they didn’t care.
Why, exactly, do the Republicans think the existing district lines need to be redrawn? Because Dems enjoy a small majority of the state’s congressional delegation. Of Texas’ 32 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, there are 17 Dems and 15 Republicans.
With this in mind, Republicans see a problem. Texas is a Republican state with a Republican majority. They’ve got a Republican governor, a Republican lieutenant governor, a Republican attorney general, and a Republican majority in both chambers of the state legislature. Why, then, should Dems have a majority of the congressional delegation?
This is the GOP’s principal (and apparently, only) argument for redistricting and they repeat it incessantly. A Dewhurst spokesman said yesterday, for example, “Every Republican I know believes the state’s congressional delegation should reflect the voting patterns of Texas.” DeLay said something similar a couple of weeks ago, saying the judge responsible for Texas redistricting last year “did a very poor job, as evidenced by the fact we have a minority of Republicans in our congressional delegation.”
Does the GOP have a point? Shouldn’t they have a majority of the Texas congressional delegation? No.
There are 32 congressional districts in the state. There are more registered Democrats in 11 of those districts and more registered Republicans in 21 of those districts. As the judge who drew these lines last year decided, this would, more or less, reflect the current partisan tilt of the state. In some ways, it’s tilted too much to the GOP, but that’s a different point for a different day.
But wait a minute, how can this be? If there are only 11 districts with Dem majorities, why are there 17 Democratic members of the delegation? Because sometimes voters elect representatives of the other party. Six Democratic representatives got elected despite the fact that they serve in a district where there are more Republican voters than Democratic voters. It doesn’t mean the map is wrong and needs to be redone, it means voters are supporting certain candidates despite their party affiliation. It happens all the time, all over the country.
The Republicans’ complaint, therefore, shouldn’t be with the congressional district lines in Texas. The districts themselves point to a clear GOP majority. The Republicans’ complaint should be with the voters, who seem to keep electing Democrats despite the way the lines are drawn.
Ultimately, therefore, the GOP’s one and only talking point on this issue is total nonsense.