WJ - C-Span: Texas Redistricting and the Supreme Court

[Coexist]

any Texans that can give me some information on this - they are only having a Republican on. He is saying that 60% of Texans are Republicans and the new districts help represent them.

Any of this true?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Well, so far the callers hate it

It's split up cities and communities.

[acmejack]

2. Well there is an intersection in Austin where three Congressional

Districts meet, all in an effort to oust Doggett. On edit: We had a demonstration there and people on different corners were in different districts, it was unreal! We have one district which is about two miles wide and two hundred miles long runs from that intersection to Mexico. Austin has much in common with the border, we're in the same State.

There was nothing fair about this redistricting it was done specifically to oust sitting Democrats and elect Republicans. It created safe GOP Districts, it made a district which literally went across the street to exclude Lloyd Doggett's house!

It was real fair alright!

[Coexist]

7. Wow!

[Ioo]

3. No... here is the deal in short (very short)

Here is what Texas did...

The law says that the lines are redrawn every 10 years. The Republicans tried to do it, but they could not ram it through the legislator at the time... So a judge did the redistricting, and it was done in a fair way, but it did not do what the Republicans wanted. What the republicans wanted to do was make the lines so crazy that dems could not muster a majority in some 11 districts that were mostly dem, but only by a little bit. In short they diluted the democratic vote, and more often than not, the black vote.

So in 2002 republicans won a few more seats in the Texas house with the help of Tom Delay, and the republicans rammed a new map through the house, this map was illegal, because the maps can ONLY be redrawn ever 10 years, and it was done in 2000. The Republicans argued that that was a judges map, and it did not count….

Now, because Texas has some issues with hating blacks, all maps have to be looked at by the courts, and this map to many is disenfranchising the blacks in Texas.

Now I am NOT sure if they are hearing the legality of the map, or if the black vote is getting killed off.

[Coexist]

6. thank you for htat.

it helps.

[hobbit709]

4. You believe what a REPUBLICAN says?

I don't think 60%. They engineered the districts so that 60% have Repuke representation but I don't think the overall vote by population is 60%.
There's lies, damned lies and statistics.

[Coexist]

5. No - of course not - not with Tom Delay helping out down there.

But I wanted a Texan's view of it.

Does 60% of Texas truly vote Republican?

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Bush Didn't Even Get 60% In Texas, Did He?

I know he won easily, but if the state is 60% Repub, wouldn't it follow that he would have gotten MORE than 60% of the vote in that state?
The Professor

[liveoaktx]

8. I don't remember telling the census taker what political party I'm in

[Coexist]

9. A Caller just said that! Another point that makes his argument silly

is that the 60% is how they VOTED IN THE LAST ELECTION.

So - what if a Democrat liked the Republican candidate in their local election. Maybe he/she was just plain better qualified. What if they would never vote Republican again.

The redistricting should NEVER go by how people voted in ONE election. That is just silly.

[liveoaktx]

13. Found the memo- the lines were redrawn by population and race

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/news/redistricting/texasDOJmemo.pdf

NOT by how they voted. YOu can't know what party somebody is in except by the primary because that's the only election where someone declares a party preference.

In the last election, in my county, some Democrats, amazingly, voted for Bush but Dems for the rest of the ticket. They still think they are Democrats.

[Coexist]

15. Question - is that the plan made after the Census

or the ones the Republicans want to replace it?

[liveoaktx]

17. What happened is listed in the memo but basically the lines HAVE been

redrawn. Look on page 2 for how it was BEFORE the Repubs stuck their noses in. Then, page 3 for how the Republicans jumped in to redistrict through a special session. (That's when the Dems (The Killer D's) took off to Oklahoma and New Mexico to try to prevent this).

In 2002, Republicans were voted in, but in my opinion, this happened on the coattails of 9/11 and Bush. Happened all over the country but the Repubs used it as an excuse to get the map redrawn.

[Avalux]

10. NO!!

The redistricting nightmare that Tom Delay orchestrated was done to give Republicans in this state a stranglehold forever. They worked it to make sure Democrats will never have a majority representation in Texas. If you look at the lines, they're really fucked up.

[liveoaktx]

11. See that yellow 17? That's Chet Edwards district-he used to have Fort Hood

but he was redistricted out, and the district was engineered in such a way that it took out Charlie Stenholm (D).

Looks like a gerrmander to me.

[Coexist]

12. holy crap.

how is Bush polling in Texas now with his latest screw-up. The guy on WJ said that these districts will be permanent? Did I hear that wrong?

[EST]

14. That fuc*head said--it depends on which way the political

winds are blowing!! That districts should be drawn (this is the way they read the law) based on how people voted, not by population.
I've never heard of such shit.
Representative districts are supposed to be allotted based on population; that's why the maps are related to the census! Surely the supreme court cannot let such outrageous idiocy stand.