The 2003 Texas redistricting refers to a controversial mid-decade congressional redistricting plan appealed to the United States Supreme Court in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry . On June 28, 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the statewide redistricting as Constitutional, but struck down Congressional District 23 as racial gerrymandering in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Overview
After Republicans won control of the Texas state legislature in 2002, for the first time in 130 years, they set their sights on establishing a majority of House of Representatives seats held by their party. After the 2002 election, Democrats had a 17-15 edge in House seats representing Texas, although the state's voters voted for Republicans in congressional races by an 17-15 margin.. After a protracted partisan struggle, the legislature enacted a new congressional districting map, Plan 1374C, introduced in the Texas House by Representative Phil King of Weatherford. In the 2004 congressional elections, Republicans won 21 seats to the Democrats' 11.
The 2003 redistricting effort was extremely controversial, particularly because of the role played by then Congressman Tom DeLay. Texas had never undertaken a mid-decade redistricting that was not ordered by a court. Legal challenges to the redistricting plan were mounted on several fronts. On June 28, 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion that threw out one of the districts in the plan as a violation of the Voting Rights Act and ordered the lower court to produce a remedial plan, which it did in Plan 1440C. The Supreme Court ruling was not seen as seriously threatening Republican gains from the 2004 elections. .
2000–2003 evolution and DeLay's role
Redistricting in Texas was traditionally done once every ten years, soon after the National Census. A redistricting occurred in 1991, when the Democrats held both the governor's seat (with Ann Richards) and a legislative majority. By 2000, Republican George W. Bush was governor, with Republican Rick Perry as his lieutenant governor.
After the 2000 elections, however, Democrats maintained their majority in the Texas legislature. In 2001, the Democrats and Republicans were unable to agree on a new district map to correspond with the 2000 census. Per state law, under these circumstances, the matter could be submitted to a panel of judges. The Republican minority recommended this solution. Accordingly, the matter was forwarded for this type of review, and the judges drew a new map, which maintained a 17 to 15 Democratic majority. Under the Texas Constitution, the Legislative Redistricting Board (LRB) convenes only when the state legislature is unable to approve a redistricting plan in the first legislative session following the National Census. In June, 2001, the redistricting task passed to the LRB after the state legislature failed to pass a redistricting plan.
In September, 2001, Texas Representative Tom DeLay organized Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), a political action committee designed to gather campaign funds for Republican candidates throughout Texas. TRMPAC was modeled closely after DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), a federal-level organization created to raise funds for Republicans during the 2000 national elections. Simultaneously, as has been well documented in the media, DeLay played a key role in the ongoing Texas redistricting effort.
In 2002, a Republican majority was elected to the state legislature.
During the 2003 legislative session, under the encouragement of Tom DeLay and Governor Rick Perry, the Republican majority introduced legislation to redraw the districts from 2001. This legislation was brought to the district court in Austin, where a three judge panel declared that it violated neither the Texas Constitution nor the Voting Rights Act. Because the Democrats did not have enough votes to stop the legislature, 52 Democrats from the House of Representative left for Oklahoma in order to prevent the quorum. These 52 Democrats were known as the "Killer D's". The "Killer D's" returned to the state on the promise that redistricting will not be brought up in the regular session.
In summer 2003, Governor Rick Perry called a special legislative session in order to continue the redistricting effort. The Democrats had over 1/3 of the seats in the Senate and prevented the redistricting legislature from being voted on due to the two-thirds rule. After finding a way around the two-thirds rule, Governor Perry called for a second special session half an hour later. Eleven out of twelve of the Democratic Senators left for Albuquerque, New Mexico to prevent the quorum, and were nicknamed the Texas Eleven. After a month-long stand off, Senator John Whitmire return to the Senate and the redistricting legislature was passed at a third special legislative session. The Republican majority in the Texas congressional delegation grew after the 2004 elections as a result.
An article in the March 6, 2006, issue of The New Yorker magazine, written by Jeffrey Toobin, quoted Texas's junior Republican Senator John Cornyn as saying, "Everybody who knows Tom knows that he's a fighter and a competitor, and he saw an opportunity to help the Republicans stay in power in Washington." Toobin also noted that DeLay left Washington and returned to Texas to oversee the project while final voting was underway in the state legislature, and that "several times during the long days of negotiating sessions, DeLay personally shuttled proposed maps among House and Senate offices in Austin."
Texas Monthly editor Paul Burka, writing in the magazine's May 2006 issue, labelled the measure as "DeLay’s midcensus congressional redistricting plan" and stated "in order to increase his Republican majority in Congress, he resorted to a midcensus redistricting plan."
Justice Department involvement
In December 2005, the Washington Post reported, "Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo" uncovered by the newspaper. The document, endorsed by six Justice Department attorneys, said "the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts."
"The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect," the memo noted. The article also stated that Justice Department lawyers "found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options." Nonetheless, Texas legislators proceeded with the new plan "because it would maximize the number of Republican federal lawmakers in the state," the Post said about the document.
Criticism of the plan
Democrats criticized the 2003 redistricting, citing the lack of precedent for redistricting twice in a decade, considering it had already been done in 2002, and argued that it was being done for purely political gain and was therefore gerrymandering. Statements by some Republicans lent support to this claim, since many publicly stated their expectations of picking up several Republican seats. Some minority groups argued the plan was unconstitutional, as it would dilute their influence and possibly violate the "one-person-one-vote" principle of redistricting. Republicans counterargued, however, that since most voters in the state were Republicans, it was appropriate that the party have a majority in the federal legislative delegation.
The results of the 2004 elections brought Texas Republicans a majority of House seats by a 21-11 margin. The state voted for the Republican presidential candidate by a margin of 61-38 (although George W. Bush was a popular former governor), which led the party to claim that the problem of unfair representation in Texas had been remedied.
2006 Supreme Court review
The Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion on the case in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry on June 28, 2006. While the Court said states are free to redistrict however often they like, the justices invalidated Texas's District 23, citing a Section 2 violation of the Voting Rights Act. This decision will require lawmakers to adjust boundaries in line with the Court's ruling.
On June 29, 2006, a U. S. District Judge as part of a three judge panel, under an order from the U. S. Court of Appeals, overseeing the redistricting ordered that both sides should submit proposed maps by July 14, respond to their opponents' maps by July 21, and that oral arguments will occur on August 3.
Democrats targeted by redistricting
The 2003 redistricting targeted ten white, Democratic incumbents avoiding all seven minority Democratic incumbents.
- Max Sandlin, defeated in the 2004 congressional elections
- Jim Turner, did not seek reelection in 2004
- Ralph Hall, switched to the Republican Party and reelected in 2004
- Nick Lampson, defeated in the 2004 congressional elections, reelected in 2006, defeated in 2008
- Lloyd Doggett, reelected in 2004
- Chet Edwards, reelected in 2004
- Charles Stenholm, defeated in the 2004 congressional elections
- Martin Frost, defeate
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