# Last time - Oklahoma. This time New Orleans! (Texas Redistricting) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 16, 2003, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958 "2003-07-16T19:35:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/1 "2003-07-16T19:35:18Z")
Ok, here’s a bit of background. Some Republican leaders, most notably Tom DeLay® the Majority Leader of the US House, are pushing for Federal congressional redistricting in Texas(and other states, but it is Texas we’re interested in here). They say the current federal house representation of Texas(17-D 15-R) does not accurately reflect the political ideologies/will of the population as a whole. They claim the current districts are politically [gerrymandered](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymander) to create a Democratic majority among the US House representation. There has been some contention to this claim. A Rice University professor has actually claimed the current districts are more favorable to the Republicans than the Democrats(cited in a [previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=183703)). The current districts are only a couple of years old, having been redrawn by a 3-judge panel of a Federal court after the previous Texas legislative session(in 2001) had been unable to come to a consensus on the issue. Traditionally districts are re-drawn after each federal census. The 2001 Texas state legislature had the responsibility to re-draw them after the 2000 census, but they failed to do so and the courts re-drew the lines. The first steps Mr DeLay took was to appeal to the Texas Attorney General claiming the districts were unfair and seeking an order from the AG to force the state legislature to redistrict the state. The Texas AG did not find the current districts to be in violation of the voters rights acts and refused to order the state legislature to address the issue. It was noted that the state legislature is not bound by the tradition of only redistricting once per ten years and is free to re-draw the lines handed down by the court, although they are not ordered to. Having failed to get the AG to order redistricting, Republican leaders introduced a redistricting bill into the end of last year’s regular session. This was also highly irregular. Typically when redistricting is up for consideration there are town meetings and a large amount of publicity(don’t ask me why, but Texans really care about this issue). The proposed districts are highly publicised and the people know when and what is being proposed. The introduction of a redistricting bill without widespread publicity and public exposure was highly unusual. A large number of Texas House Democrats left the state to deny quorom to the Republican majority to kill the bill in the regular session. Fast foward a bit. The Texas Governor, Rick Perry®, has called a special legislative session to address… redistricting. This time they’re following more normal Texas redistricting procedures. The public is being notified of the redistricting attempts on the evening news and proposed maps are being sent around to the various communities to review them so they can give feedback to their state legislators. So far a couple of proposed maps have been thrown out because they were found in violation of votors rights acts. Republicans are reportedly working on drawing up another map for consideration in this special session. Texas has a couple of interesting laws on the books regulating legislative procedures. The first is the quorom law. A certain percentage of the state’s representatives must be present for the legislature to vote on ANYTHING. This is the law the “Killer D’s” used to kill the redistricting attempt in the regular session. The second applies to the Texas Senate, and is the focus of the current issue. There are 31 Texas State senators. There is a rule that 2/3 of the senators must agree to hear an issue before it will be heard, even if only a simple majority would be necessary to pass it. This allows a small group of senators(eleven) to block a bill from even entering debate. Whew! All the background seems out of the way, so now on to the current state. Currently ten Democrats in the Texas state senate have said they will vote against hearing any redistricting bill. They have been joined by a single Republican who also opposes redistricting. This gives the opposition the needed 11 votes in the senate to keep the issue from ever making it into debate. I found an interesting [article about the current session](http://news9sanantonio.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=3212). Here are a couple of juicy excerpts. > [@](#): > > – Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Gov. Rick Perry isn’t ruling out calling still another special session if Democrats succeed again in blocking Republican plans to pass a new redistricting plan that will send more Republicans to represent the state in Congress. > … > In the Senate, 10 Democrats said they will vote to block the bill from coming to the Senate floor for discussion and Republican Bill Ratliff said he’ll also vote to stop the bill. > > To that, Dewhurst said he may do away with the tradition of requiring a two-thirds vote for any bill to come up for discussion. > > That possibility energized the opposition. Democrats said if that happens they might stage a walkout similar to the one that Democrats staged in the House to deny a quorum. Democrats said they think if it comes to a vote, at least three other Republicans will join Ratliff in opposing the bill. This whole thing has been a HUGE mess, although extremely entertaining. It seems the GOP majority intends to do everything they can to solidify their power base except run candidates who can beat the Democrats(I don’t buy the claim that the current districts are gerrymandered so that Republicans have no chance. I’ve done a bit of independent study using the results of last years election results and the district maps and demographic data and I just don’t buy it for reasons I gave towards the end of the previously cited thread). In the last federal congressional elections there were six Democratic incumbents who weren’t even facing Republican opposition(and two who didn’t face opposition from any party, green, libertarian, independent, etc). They won, and retained their seats, quite handily. The part which bothers me most is the threat to do away with the rules of procedure in the senate to further weaken your opposition instead of compromising. This seems antithetical to the idea of compromise and fairness and smacks of the tyranny of the majority. Over a third of the senators think this is a bad idea, so instead of winning them over, we’ll change the rules. As a firm believer in democracy, I don’t like to see it railroaded like this. Majority rule, with minority rights, not majority dictatorship with minority disenfranchisement. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/2 "2003-07-16T19:58:33Z")
Well, I’ve been to Ardmore, and New Orleans…I’d take New Orleans, too. First smart thing they’ve done. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/3 "2003-07-16T20:07:51Z")
The reason we Texans pay so freakin’ much attention to districting is because of our weird population density. You see, Texas is quite large, but our population is NOT evenly distributed. Far from it. The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex contains durn near as many people as there are in the entire state, south of San Antonio, if you discount the large coastal cities. Houston, due to its population and corporate presence, is important WAY out of proportion to its size, location, and so on. And don’t even get me started on West Texas. ANY kind of FAIR districting is going to look gerrymandered, simply because we’re so friggin’ spread out. Of course, any UNFAIR districting will look gerrymandered, too. The issue is this: the Texas Republicans insist that the current districting is unfair to them… despite the fact that everyone agreed on it only three years ago, and that it’s the same system that elected George Bush the governorship of Texas, installed a Republican majority in the Texas Congress, and helped springboard Bush to the Presidency. How, pray tell, is this unfair? We have yet to get a coherent answer on that. Meanwhile, the Texas Republicans are working furiously to get this new redistricting plan into place, hammered down, and made into law, FAST… almost as if they’re afraid that they might not be in the majority much longer. Wonder why? ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/4 "2003-07-16T21:33:04Z")
**Duke of Rat** : To be honest, the New Orleans thing was a joke. They are simply considering another flight, no idea where they’d go if they did. Still I think New Orleans would be a much better choice than a friggin Holiday Inn in Oklahoma! **Wang-Ka** , I agree that any type of district map in Texas is going to look very weird. I mentioned in a previous thread that I think the district lines around Ft. Worth look whacked. The urban area of the city is one district, literally surrounded by second district which mostly encompasses the suburbs. Is this unfair? Well, lumping the city dwellers in with each other makes sense because they’d all have the common interest of what is best for urbanites(pollution, power, drinking water, etc) and the suburbanites might have similar interests as well(new zoning laws, development issues, better roads to get to and from the city core for commuters, etc). While both urbanites and suburbanites share some interests, I think it may be fair to say that urbanites deserve their own representative and the suburbanites deserve theirs as well. The differences within may well be smaller than the differences between and the idea is to send a coherent voice to congress instead of forcing the representative to split his time between advocating issues the urbanites care about and advocating issues the suburbanites care about. OTOH, it could be that more minorities live in the urban areas and the maps are taictly gerrymandered to concentrate this population into a single majority instead of allowing them to be swing voter minorities in more than one district. This is not the case with Ft. Worth to the best of my knowledge, but looking at the map you have to wonder why there are literally concentric districts, one circling greater Ft. Worth and another wholly with those boundries, but taking a more heavily populated area as its nucleus. Why not split them north-south, or east-west, or any number of other directions? Why that particular partitioning? There could be legitimate reasons for these lines(as with the disparate interests between urbanites and suburbanites as I mentioned above) or illegitimate reasons(as with concentrating minorities into a single district to give them only one district whose representative has minority constituents as opposed to several). It seems that Mr DeLay was unable to convince the state Attorney General(a Republican, if it matters to anyone) that the districts were unfair as they currently stand. I find this very telling. With that said, I have some nitpicks about your representation of the current districting plan. Firstly, not everyone agreed on it in 2001. The 2001 session ended with no legislative agreement on re-districting. A federal court re-drew the lines for the state and they went into effect in Oct or Nov 2001 IIRC. I’m not sure I’d call this a plan they all agreed on. [A little history on the latest redistricting of Texas](http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/research/redist/actions.htm) > [@](#): > > The Senate Committee on Redistricting did not report S.B. 500 from committee. On May 26, 2001, the House Committee on Redistricting reported favorably a committee substitute to H.B. 722 (PLAN01021C). H.B. 722 was not considered by the full house, so the legislature adjourned without enacting new congressional districts. > … > As required by the Texas Constitution, the Legislative Redistricting Board (LRB) convened following the failure of the legislature to draw legislative districts. The LRB, which has authority to adopt only state senate and house districts, convened on June 6, 2001, and adopted new districts for the state senate (PLAN 01188S) and new districts for the state house (PLAN01289H) on July 24. These plans were submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for preclearance under the Voting Rights Act. > … > A number of congressional proposals were submitted to state and federal courts. On October 10, District Judge Paul Davis issued an order adopting new congressional districts (PLAN01089C). This order was vacated by the Texas Supreme Court on October 19 after the U.S. district court deadline for the state district court to complete its work had passed. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas took up the congressional case of Balderas et al. v. State of Texas on October 22. On November 14, the U.S. court issued an order adopting congressional districts (PLAN01151C) for the 2002 elections. These districts are only used to elect the state’s representatives to the federal house of representatives. This system did NOT have an effect on the election of George Bush to the governorship. That was statewide and was not affected by the way the lines here are drawn. These districts are distinct from the state legislator’s districts as well. No state representatives share the exact same pool of constituents as the federal house representatives. The lines for State Legislators do not match up with the lines for the federal legislators. The part I find the absolute most entertaining is the constant assertions that Texans are conservative, and that means we MUST want Republicans for our congressmen. I may agree that most Texans are fairly conservative, but I don’t buy the idea that a conservative can’t possibly vote for a Democrat. DeLay seems to have his knickers in a twist precisely BECAUSE of the conservative nature of most Texans. Most Texans, being fairly conservative, stick with the _status quo_(as evidenced by the 2002 elections, every single incumbent won). The _status quo_ includes the 17-15 Democrat-Republican margin in the House of Representatives. In this case the Republicans are the ones wanting to buck the _status quo_ and the conservative nature of Texans(which should be the Republican’s best friend) is giving them fits. There’s some sort of poetry about that I’m sure. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/5 "2003-07-16T21:38:47Z")
Doh! That middle part of my quote doesn’t apply to the federal congressional redistricting issue. The state legislature in 2001 failed to agree on state OR federal district lines and they ALL had to be turned over to the courts. I got confused and quoted a section that didn’t really apply. Pretend that middle part isn’t there please. The first section and the last section still explain the issue fairly thoroughly. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/6 "2003-07-16T21:52:14Z")
Thank god for Bill Ratliff, an honorable Republican if ever there was one. I was very disappointed when he decided not to run for Lt. Gov. last time (he was the acting LtG after Bush shuffled off to D.C. and Perry became Governor), because he is a fair-minded guy who’s well-respected by everyone in the Senate. Instead, we get rich dummy David Dewhurst. Blech. Anyway, I’m already looking down the road here. Assuming that the Right Evil Bastard Party pushes through Tom DeLay’s completely unprecedented redistricting scheme, where can the Party of Goodness and Light push through comparable redistricting to punish the Pubbies? Who’s some suitably assholish Republican leader who comes from a majority-Democratic state, and whom we can redistrict right out of existence? How many more of the Right Evil Bastards can we replace with a little judicious redistricting, and in what states can we screw them silly? How much fun will it be when every one-party legislature in the country goes into full mutually-assured destruction mode for the sake of revenge and Congressional majorities? Cynical minds want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/7 "2003-07-16T23:00:00Z")
As much as I’d like to believe in the system, I’m afraid that incidents where the party currently in power(regardless of who they are, can’t stand either of them really) is willing to change the rules to further entrench their interests is really crappy. Makes me wonder if one of the parties ever gets a large enough majority to pass constitutional ammendments with just their votes if they’ll outlaw the other party. You’ve got the 1/3 you need to block this bill? Well, we’ll change the rules and now you need 51% to block the bill! //3 pwn j00! Bastards! Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/8 "2003-07-17T00:34:16Z")
Yeah \*\* Mtgman\*\* I was just playing along…if they said where they were heading, the airports would be closed and roadblocks in place. I agree with **Wang-Ka** …how did the Republicans gain control if the Democrats had the districs all gerrymandered?? Damn good question. I think they were gerrymandered, but when Texas started shifting from Democrat controlled to Republican, the district boundaries weren’t what made the difference. I still think Texas is conservative enough that Republicans could get just about any warm bodies elected (look at some in there now for proof), I don’t see why this is such a high priority. They are either scared as Wang-Ka says, or there is some other plot afoot. If the latter, why haven’t the Dems spoiled the plot by going to the press?? Who knows. I do know it’s getting old. Just wait until the legal redistricting cycle comes around and quit your damn tittie baby whining for crying out loud. You’ve been winning with the current districts, why not try running on a platform of principles instead of hollering that the rules aren’t fair? ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/9 "2003-07-22T00:09:56Z")
So, a couple of weeks ago the house passed a map(plan 01268C) and a slew of alternate maps have been proposed by the various senators(01325C- Sen Staple’s latest, 01314C - Sen Wentworth’s, 01255C - Sen Merritt’s just to name a few). Still looks like gridlock with more than 1/3 of the senators(ten(or eleven depending on who you believe) of the twelve democrats and Ratliff) opposing any redistricting. Still some talk on the abolishment of the 2/3 needed to hear a bill rule. So, why did I bump this thread? To introduce [this proposed Texas constitutional ammendment](http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/781/billtext/SJ00002I.HTM) into the discussion. A nine-member panel, independent of the legislature(in fact, holding an elected office disqualifies one from serving on this panel) who are elected(two picked from the majority and two picked from the minority in both houses plus a chairman picked by those eight who doesn’t vote) for ten years each. They start their duties each '01 year in Febuary after the federal census comes out and are in charge of districting. The bill doesn’t seem, at least on first reading, to favor one party over the other. In fact it seems almost tailored to produce gridlock. > [@](#): > > (b) The commission consists of nine members selected as > follows: > (1) two members appointed by a majority vote of the > members of the Texas House of Representatives belonging to the > political party with the most members in the house of > representatives; > (2) two members appointed by a majority vote of the > members of the Texas House of Representatives belonging to the > political party with the second highest number of members in the > house of representatives; > (3) two members appointed by a majority vote of the > members of the Texas Senate belonging to the political party with > the most members in the senate; > (4) two members appointed by a majority vote of the > members of the Texas Senate belonging to the political party with > the second highest number of members in the senate; and > (5) one member appointed by an affirmative vote of not > less than five of the members of the commission selected under > Subdivisions (1) through (4) of this subsection. > © The member appointed under Subsection (b)(5) of this > section is a nonvoting member and serves as presiding officer of the > commission. This virtually guarantees four republicans and four democrats. Third parties are screwed again, even though if an independent/green/libertarian/etc did manage to make it onto the Texas legislature. I’m sure they’d appreciate this constitutional ammendment shafting them out of having input into districting decisions. I’m not sure this is going to fly. As mentioned above, Texans CARE about redistricting. Setting up a independent panel which would, almost by definition, lower the visibility of the process and(assuming the panel can ever come to any consensus) has the chance of making re-districting a far more common event than it is now. If anyone wants to see the current districts and/or any of the proposed maps, check out the [RedViewer](http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/). Click on the “U.S. Congressional Districts, 108th Congress: PLANC01151” link and it will launch the (IE only) application. Clicking the “Load another plan” button on the top left will bring up a menu to allow you to choose other plans(proposed and currently in effect) and I listed a few plan numbers earlier in this post. Also a few interesting tidbits from the news this week. [First, this one](http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=78199&SecID=2) > [@](#): > > The pressure on Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to push a redistricting bill through the Senate continues to increase. > … > Unlike the House, Sen. Robert Duncan’s redistricting hearings have been balanced, respectful and orderly. When Duncan said there is no foreordained outcome, he is credible. > > As expected, 11 of the 12 Democrats oppose redistricting and under normal Senate rules, that should be enough to stop the process. > > But, Dewhurst has apparently been persuaded that his future in Republican politics requires the full commitment of his office. > > His outward demeanor has remained cheerful, optimistic and conciliatory. But, the implied threats and intimidation are ratcheting up. He now says he would abandon Senate tradition in order to get his way. He cites a somewhat tenuous historical parallel to an action taken by former Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock. > > If Dewhurst abandons Senate tradition, Democrats may emulate their colleagues in the House and break the quorum. > > But there are differences. > > Ratliff is the only Republican to publicly oppose redistricting, but he is not alone. Another three are fed up with the process and three more have not yet seen a map they could vote for. > > And for the first time last week, Dewhurst played a little fast and loose with the facts when he dismissed the overwhelming opposition in the hearing around the state claiming it had been ginned up by Democrat activists. Remember how I said Texans like to have town meetings and hearings on these kinds of proposals? A [bunch of pretty nasty allegations are leveled from this one](http://www.statesman.com/editorial/content/auto/epaper/editions/monday/editorial_f3b1191ba30231cb00cc.html) > [@](#): > > Alas, the Senate didn’t forbear, and a new map was offered by Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, that is a parody of a gerrymandered redistricting map. Under Staples’ map, a short drive from Interstate 35 to MoPac Boulevard passes through three congressional districts. > > But the Senate map is not a joke, it’s a travesty. On Staples’ map, District 25 meanders from 51st Street to the Texas-Mexico border, and District 10 spreads from Jonestown to Houston, taking in a slice of North Austin and Pflugerville. District 28 winds from Buda to the Rio Grande. > > Staples acknowledged the map has flaws, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said it was a work in progress. Yet, it accomplishes what Republicans have strived for all spring: to give U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay a map that guarantees him the 21 GOP House members he insists on. > … > A Senate committee report shows that 89 percent of those who have testified in redistricting hearings throughout the state oppose redistricting. The report showed strong opposition in every region of the state in which hearings have been held. Yet, the GOP leadership continues to insist that the people of Texas want and need this redistricting. I poked around a bit and couldn’t find the full text of the Senate committee report where the 89% figure came from, couldn’t find any of the texts of the senate comittee reports actually. Little blurbs about how it was considered at such-and-such date and time, but no actual transcripts or reports. I did find [an article from someone who apparently WAS able to find the report](http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2000093) Here are the numbers they cite and a blurb from their article. ```auto City For Against Other Total Houston 20 (7%) 260 (91%) 5 (2%) 285 Dallas 45 (5%) 810 (94%) 11 (1%) 866 Corpus Christi 54 (21%) 189 (74%) 12 (5%) 255 Waco 32 (6%) 523 (90%) 24 (4%) 579 Laredo 5 (4%) 106 (93%) 3 (3%) 114 San Angelo 25 (15%) 124 (75%) 17 (10%) 166 McAllen 36 (10%) 313 (88%) 6 (2%) 355 TOTAL 217 (8%) 2,325 (89%) 78 (3%) 2,620 ``` > [@](#): > > During late June and early July, the committee held seven public hearings around the state. Most testimony was against changing the current congressional district boundaries. > > Dewhurst dismissed the testimony as party-driven. > > “Obviously, a lot of time when you’re having public testimony different political parties try to get their activists turned out,” Dewhurst said. > > Democratic Party Chairwoman Molly Beth Malcolm blasted Dewhurst for the remark. > > “Mr. Dewhurst, you have insulted the hundreds of Texans who took the time and trouble to testify, and you owe them an immediate – and genuine – apology,” Malcolm said. > > Republican Party spokesman Ted Royer said that the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce hired 40 people to help pack a state House hearing on redistricting and demonstrate opposition to any changes. WHEE! Don’t you love Texas politics? Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/10 "2003-07-22T18:40:58Z")
“Rape is like the weather, there’s nothing you can do about it so you might as well enjoy it.” We had a guy run for governor back in the eighties who said something like that once. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/11 "2003-07-28T23:06:32Z")
[Well, they’re gone again.](http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/2015694/) > [@](#): > > Eleven of 12 Democratic state senators abruptly left the state Capitol this afternoon and headed for Albuquerque after learning that Gov. Rick Perry was about to call a second special session on congressional redistricting. > > The second special session officially began at 3:15 p.m. with congressional redistricting as the only issue in the governor’s proclamation. Neither the House nor the Senate had a quorum. Albuquerque is no New Orleans, but it’s better than Ardmore. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/12 "2003-07-28T23:25:33Z")
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has been threatening to suspend the Senate’s traditional rule that it takes 2/3 of the members to bring a bill to a floor vote. That ain’t gonna work, however, because the state constitution provides neither the House nor the Senate can conduct any business without a [two-thirds quorum present](http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/txconst/sections/cn000300-001000.html). As long as the 11 senators stay out of the state, the Senate is powerless to do anything about redistricting or anything else. Check and stalemate, Mr. Perry. ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/13 "2003-07-29T15:05:26Z")
God I love this. Anytime anyone gives the big FU to the supreme asshat Tom DeLay, I think it is fantastic. Listen here Tommy, you need to get it through your hairspray encrusted hair helmeted head that you just can’t redistrict whatever you please. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/14 "2003-07-29T18:04:24Z")
I posted this in another thread, but I feel it is on topic here as well. It speaks to Dewhursts opinion of the results of the public hearings and the continuing assertions from the Republican leadership that Texans actually want re-districting. > [@](#): > > 89% of the people who showed up at the hearings around the state were against redistricting. Dewhurst has hand-waved these people as “[Democratic] party activists”. > > Here’s the rub. The new district map would, in theory, swing the Texas Federal House of Representatives from the current 17-D 15-R makeup to something between a 18-R 14-D and 22-R 10-D split. Taking the middle road would be a 20-R 12-D split. Something like this is what the Republicans are aiming for. Let’s be naieve for a second and assign only the purest of motives to them. Let’s say they truly believe this is the split which would properly represent the will of the people of Texas. So they believe the state is populated by approximately two Republicans for every 1 Democrat. Keep that 2:1 ratio in mind. > > 2 Republicans per 1 Democrat. > Statewide public hearings on redistricting were held. 2,620 people turned out at the various places to testify as to their opinions on the issue. 2,325 were against. 217 were for. 78 held other opinions. Now the 2,325 were dismissed as Democratic activists. Let’s make another assumption. Let’s say 3% of people care enough about political issues to become “activists”. So 3% of Republicans are Republican “activists” and 3% of Democrats are Democratic “activists”. > > A estimate for the Texas population is 20,851,820. Divide that by 3 real quick and you get 6,950,606 That’s the number of Democrats. Double it and you get the number of Republicans 13,901,213. Now let’s apply our 3% rule. Multiply each by .03 to get the number of “activists” of each party. 417,036 Republican “activists” in the state. 208,518 Democratic “activists”. > > So, now what percentage of each party’s “activists” turned out at these hearings? And make no mistake, the Republicans were making drives to get their people to turn out as well. 2,325 people who testified in the statewide hearings were against redistricting. These were the alleged Democratic activists. Out of a potential 208,518. 2,325/208,518 = 1.1% of the Democratic activists turned out. Now, the Republicans had 217 people turn out in favor of redistricting. 217/417,036 = 0.05% > > So the question, to my mind, is that if Texas is such a staunchly Republican state, whey can’t they get more than 0.05% of their “activists” to turn out to support them? Remember, that 0.05% was based on 3% of the alleged Republican population of Texas. So that means .03 \* .0005 = 0.00156% of alleged Republicans who care enough about redistricting to say something about it. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/15 "2003-08-07T16:28:20Z")
Ok, big new news. I’m not positive others can access this source because I found it through my ISP’s home page for their users, but it should work. [Check it out](http://www.attbi.com/News/POLITICS//XML/1110_AP_Online_Regional ___National__ US_/b7f8dc4a-2524-4e3c-846d-dcd060d0e8cc.html) > [@](#): > > Republicans Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate, has accused the Democrats, outnumbered in the Texas Senate 19-12, of breaking the Texas Constitution by blocking a quorum. He warned Tuesday that he may turn to legal action to force them to return to Texas. Holy crap! We’re talking serious charges here! Charges serious enough to have them impeached or extradited. I haven’t found any detail about Dewhurst’s charges or what constitutional section they are supposed to be based on, but this is serious stuff. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/16 "2003-08-07T17:13:46Z")
Not unless he can be more specific about _what_ legal tactics he can employ, and _how_ he’ll make them stick outside the state. This reads like just more bluster for the media and the GOP voter base, nothing substantive. Albuquerque’s fairly nice. Got some things to see there, and Santa Fe’s only an hour away. I’ve even stayed in that hotel before, and it’s not bad at all. Hope they’re enjoying their visit. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/17 "2003-08-07T17:53:51Z")
Dewhurst’s got nothin’. [Here](http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/politics/state/stories/080603dntexredist.d40dd.html) is his pathetic little plan: > [@](#): > > Among Senate options are having the sergeant-at-arms deliver an arrest warrant signed by the secretary of the Senate, which would compel the lawmakers to return. If they refuse, they might be subject to contempt actions in court, attorneys said. Ooooh, contempt of court. That’s sure to scare 'em into bending over for Tom DeLay. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/18 "2003-08-07T18:33:47Z")
I think it is going to escalate. The second special session is supposed to last until the end of August IIRC. That gives them plenty of time to hammer a bill through the house(does the house have a quorum? Last I heard it didn’t, but they may now) and find some way to force the issue. Hell, they’ve shown they’re willing to change the rules to get their way(as shown by Dewhurst saying he’d do away with the rule of twenty-one to allow the bill to come to a vote). I’m thinking this is becoming a real point of pride and we’re going to see something drastic fairly soon. It would be a big boon to the Republicans to have an extra five to eight seats in the congress for next year, assuming Bush gets re-elected. With the re-districting happening, or threatening to happen, in several states(New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and a couple others IIRC) this is the biggest power grab I can recall. Bush will need all the support he can get in the house and senate to survive during the rocky road I believe lies ahead of him as a result of his foreign policy. I simply don’t think the Republicans will give this up. I think they’ll try at least one more time before the 2004 elections. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/19 "2003-08-07T18:42:51Z")
Like I said a few weeks ago: “Cynical minds want to know.” Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of politics. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958/20 "2003-09-09T22:02:16Z")
[HAVOC!](http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030909_1852.html) Enjoy, Steven [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-time-oklahoma-this-time-new-orleans-texas-redistricting/188958.md?page=2)