Why Texas redistricting needs to be a NATIONAL issue

MoveOn.org is throwing their weight behind the Democratic Senators from Texas who are fighting to prevent the Republican redistricting plan from being passed. One of those Senators, Rodney Ellis, has written a letter and essay explaining the background of the dispute and what's at stake if the Republicans win. One thing he mentions points out why this is truly a national issue, and not just a matter for the Texans.

If the Republicans succeed in redrawing the Texas Congressional lines to guarantee the election of five to seven more Republicans, it will ensure that Republicans hold the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the entire decade and will likely result in Tom Delay becoming Speaker of the House.(6)

[Footnote 6] Republican party activist Grover Norquist, head of the Washington D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform, was quoted as follows in the August 17 Fort Worth Star Telegram: "Republicans will hold the House for the next decade through 2012 if Texas redistricts…It depresses the hell out of the Democrats and makes it doubly impossible to take the House and probably depresses their fund raising…Anything that helps strengthen the Republican leadership helps DeLay become speaker someday if he wants it."

To help give some perspective to the issue, he provides some background information:

During the 2001 session of the Texas Legislature, the legislature was unable to pass a Congressional redistricting plan as it is required to do following the decennial Census. A three judge federal panel was forced to draw the plan. Neither Governor Rick Perry or then Attorney General John Cornyn, both Republicans, objected to the plan, which was reviewed and approved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 2002 Congressional elections, the first held under the new redistricting plan, resulted in a Congressional delegation from Texas consisting of 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans. However, five of the 17 Democrats prevailed only because they were able to win the support of Republican and independent voters. All statewide Republican candidates carried these five districts. Most experts agree that the current plan has 20 strong or leaning Republican districts and 12 Democratic districts.

Meanwhile, the 2001 redistricting of Texas legislative seats (which was enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislative Redistricting Board, after the legislature again gridlocked in its efforts) resulted in wide Republican majorities in both the Texas House and Texas Senate. Now Tom Delay has made it his priority to force the Republican-controlled Legislature to enact a new redistricting plan to increase the number of Republican-leaning Congressional districts. Republicans believe they can manipulate the districts to elect as many as 22 Republicans out of the 32 member Texas Congressional delegation. They achieve this by packing minority voters into as few districts as possible and breaking apart rural districts so that the impact of independent voters will be reduced and suburban Republican voters will dominate.

Josh Marshall also notes that there's more to this story that many have known. He points to a Dallas Morning News article about Bill Ratliff, the one Republican Senator who is opposing the redistricting, who says that he was approached while he was acting-Lt. Governor in 2001 by Tom DeLay about the redistricting plan.

Mr. Ratliff, who had declined to comment on the redistricting fracas until Tuesday, also disclosed that in the summer of 2001 he was asked by Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land and current U.S. House majority leader, whether he, as acting lieutenant governor, would suspend the Senate's two-thirds rule so the GOP could push through a favorable congressional redistricting plan during a special session.

"I said, 'No,' I would not agree to that," he said, adding that the subject was not brought up again while he was the state's No. 2 officeholder.

In other words, DeLay has been planning for this since the redistricting was initially addressed two years ago, even though no one objected to the court-supplied redistricting map at the time it was enacted.

With Colorado and Ohio also pushing Republican-oriented redistricting measures, it becomes even more important that people all over the country stand up to this attempt by Republicans to diminish the voice Democrats and independents in our Democracy. Sen. Ellis also outlines what the Democrats need to help with their fight:

The Democratic Senators currently in Albuquerque have two critical needs. The first is to generate increased public awareness of the situation. By all reason, every day the Senators are out of the state this story should get bigger. Instead, news media have gradually lost interest in the story. The California recall has dominated the attention of the national media, and the Texas media has largely lost interest in the story -- out of sight, out of mind. Without public attention to this story, the Republicans have all the leverage -- if it does not cost them politically, it costs them nothing(8) to continue calling special sessions until the Texas 11 are forced to come home.

The second critical need is funding. The cost of hotels, meeting rooms, staff support, and public relations efforts is mounting. In addition, the Senators must defend themselves legally against Republican efforts to compel their return, while also filing legal claims against the Republican power play. The Senators are actively raising money for the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus Fund to offset these costs and prepare themselves for a stay of indefinite duration in Albuquerque.

Keep in mind that the Republicans are doing more than just redistricting to try and grab power wherever they can - and historically, the Republican party has shown that there are few, if any, limits to how low they will go to keep whatever power they can get.

Keeping Nixon in office was the whole point of everything surrounding the Watergate scandal, during which Republicans were doing everything from two-bit "pranks" like changing reservations for Democratic meetings or forging scandalous letters and attributing them to Democratic candidates, to using the FBI and CIA to not only keep a lid on their activities but to also keep track of those whom the President considered his "enemies". Getting Clinton out of office was whole point of the Whitewater investigation and impeachment. In the Florida debacle, the Republicans used a wide variety of tactics - including flying in a group of paid Republican staffers to stage a fake demonstration in order to intimidate the Dade County election board into stopping their recount. And now they've financed a recall election in California in order to overturn the legitimate election of a Democratic governor. The redistricting schemes fit in nicely as part of their overall patter.

The important thing to note, though, is that they neither want fair elections (else why try to rearrange the districts of the state to your advantage after having already accepted the results of the required redistricting following the census) nor do they care about the will of the voters. Tom DeLay is one of the worst of the breed, and this Texas redistricting plot could help make him the Speaker of the House - third in line for the Presidency (and if a Democrat is elected in 2004, what do you want to bet he and his Vice President come under heavy fire or threat of impeachment if DeLay manages to get himself into that position? Maybe that sounds a bit paranoid, but I honestly wouldn't put it past him to try and pull a stunt like that).

Visit MoveOn.org today and do what you can to help support the Texas Democrats. They're not just fighting for their jobs - they're fighting for our Democracy.

Posted by thorswitch at August 20, 2003 11:36 PM | TrackBack