US House Redistricting: Texas

[jimrtex]

2. Poe and Brady and their allies are fighting over 300 acres for the new Exxon Mobil Headquarters.

This was only announced last week.  So if the bill had been passed during the regular session, they would have been surprised.  I wonder who gets left with (Greens)point?

HQ of Exxon Mobil is in Irving (but that is more for their business operations).  Exploration and production are handled from Houston which is being consolidated.

[jimrtex]

3. Apparently this is being kicked back to the Senate.

A lot of twiddles here and there.  In some cases, a more rural county got swapped, and then they had to adjust some squiggly lines elsewhere (eg Barton got Navarro, and some lines in Tarrant and Johnson got adjusted).  Some lines were adjusted to avoid splitting cites.

Some other look to make boundaries more continuous, lines through Bastrop and Hays flow naturally into Travis.

[jimrtex]

3. Apparently this is being kicked back to the Senate.

A lot of twiddles here and there.  In some cases, a more rural county got swapped, and then they had to adjust some squiggly lines elsewhere (eg Barton got Navarro, and some lines in Tarrant and Johnson got adjusted).  Some lines were adjusted to avoid splitting cites.

Some other look to make boundaries more continuous, lines through Bastrop and Hays flow naturally into Travis.

The Senate will probably want a conference so that they can finish cleaning up any leftovers, but the House version looks like it will be what is approved.

[Dgov]

Does anyone know if the Black-Pluralty Districts in Houston and Dallas are VRA protected?  I'm trying to draw a Democratic gerrymander, and if they're not that really simplifies things.

[jimrtex]

Texas AG Greg Abbott has asked for a 3-judge panel to approved the Texas redistricting maps.  As a matter of courtesy, Texas has sent a copy of the material to the USDOJ.

Incidentally, the federal court cases are being consolidated in San Antonio (Texas Western District).  The lead case, Shannon Perez v Texas, argues that prison population should not be considered for redistricting purposes; and secondly with modern computer technology there is no reason to allow 10% deviation.

The other plaintiffs include MALDEF, LULAC, MALC.  Rep. Henry Cuellar is an plaintiff-intervenor.  The Texas Democratic Party is defendant-intervenor.

Another case that argues that the non-legal immigrants should not be counted for redistricting purposes was not consolidated, but was moved to San Antonio.

Trial is September 6.

[krazen1211]

Does anyone know if the Black-Pluralty Districts in Houston and Dallas are VRA protected?  I'm trying to draw a Democratic gerrymander, and if they're not that really simplifies things.

Because so many Hispanics are illegals, a 45% black district in VAP probably has a majority black CVAP. Whether 38/40% in CD-9 and CD-18 get there is anyone's guess.

As it stands, the 71.7% Hispanic CD-29 doesn't actually have 50% SSVR; out of 341k Hispanics, there are only 126k SS registered voters. The DFW Hispanic district in Veasey's plan doesn't even cross 40% SSVR.

[Dgov]

Does anyone know if the Black-Pluralty Districts in Houston and Dallas are VRA protected?  I'm trying to draw a Democratic gerrymander, and if they're not that really simplifies things.

Because so many Hispanics are illegals, a 45% black district in VAP probably has a majority black CVAP. Whether 38/40% in CD-9 and CD-18 get there is anyone's guess.

As it stands, the 71.7% Hispanic CD-29 doesn't actually have 50% SSVR; out of 341k Hispanics, there are only 126k SS registered voters. The DFW Hispanic district in Veasey's plan doesn't even cross 40% SSVR.

Okay, good.  I drew a 35% Black-plurality, 65% Obama District in Dallas (take the black parts and connect them to Ennis and Kaufman counties) and i wanted to know if that would pass VRA muster (its 40% Hispanic VAP and 25% White VAP).

[krazen1211]

Okay, good.  I drew a 35% Black-plurality, 65% Obama District in Dallas (take the black parts and connect them to Ennis and Kaufman counties) and i wanted to know if that would pass VRA muster (its 40% Hispanic VAP and 25% White VAP).

Let me correct myself. TX-29 didn't cross 50% SSVR in 2008 but it did in 2010. They probably used the 2010 numbers.

[freepcrusher]

I was reading about this one race back in 2004 in the magazine the other day. As you know, they redrew the lines in 2003 by the legislature. They drew a district that took in heavily GOP Johnson County, a bedroom community of Fort Worth; and stretched down to the military republican stronghold of College Station. It was drawn so that one of the legislators, Arlene Wohlgemuth, could run there. She was a Marilyn Musgrave type republican woman (the vile, fire-breathing type). She ran in the district in 2004 but ran 22 points behind George W. Bush (who lived in that district) and lost by 3 points. I had always thought that anything past a +6 PVI meant anybody could win the district no matter how partisan they were. Its always good to hear that people will sometimes vote for the person and not the party.

[Deldem]

I was reading about this one race back in 2004 in the magazine the other day. As you know, they redrew the lines in 2003 by the legislature. They drew a district that took in heavily GOP Johnson County, a bedroom community of Fort Worth; and stretched down to the military republican stronghold of College Station. It was drawn so that one of the legislators, Arlene Wohlgemuth, could run there. She was a Marilyn Musgrave type republican woman (the vile, fire-breathing type). She ran in the district in 2004 but ran 22 points behind George W. Bush (who lived in that district) and lost by 3 points. I had always thought that anything past a +6 PVI meant anybody could win the district no matter how partisan they were. Its always good to hear that people will sometimes vote for the person and not the party.

Well that was Chet Edwards, who was probably the Texas Democrat with the highest ceiling pre-2010. Sadly, that year was too strong, and he's probably done, unless he improbably decides to run for Senate and then wins.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/texas_legislature/article/Emails-show-political-machinations-of-1927494.php

[Landslide Lyndon]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/texas_legislature/article/Emails-show-political-machinations-of-1927494.php

For all their swagger and ruthlessness, Texas Republicans acted like the Keystone cops this time.

[Lief 🗽]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/-perrymander-redistricting-map-that-rick-perry-signed-has-texas-hispanics-up-in-arms-20110819

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[timothyinMD]

The map that the Texas Republican drew sucks.  Its ugly, too partisan and rips a lot of places to shreds.  

I drew a map, and of course I drew it to favor Republicans because I am one, but it doesn't rip communities to shreds as the Legislature's map did.  








I split almost all the heavily populated counties into the fewest number of districts possible

20 districts are 50%+ minorities of all types
16 districts are 50%+ non-Hispanic white
4 districts 27% black or higher (2, 9, 10, 5)
7 districts majority Hispanic (20, 33, 18, 31, 21, 19, 10)
22 districts 20-50% Hispanic

7 McCain 70-77% (36, 24, 35, 34, 23, 25, 17)
8 McCain 60-70% (27, 6, 32, 12, 8, 19, 7, 13)
8 McCain 55-60% (29, 14, 4, 16, 22, 11, 30, 28)
4 McCain 50-55% (15 @ 53.9%, 1 & 3 @ 53.7%, 21 @ 52.6%)

9 Obama districts
2, 9, 10, 26, 20, 31, 18, 33, 5  84.6%-68.7%

[Miles]

Fresh from Lloyd Doggett's Facebook page:

The DOJ rejected the Texas maps.

[Torie]

Fresh from Lloyd Doggett's Facebook page:

The DOJ rejected the Texas maps.

Litigation time - perhaps all the way to SCOTUS.

[timothyinMD]

Who knows what the statutes are in Texas?

Does the legislature have the right to a redraw or is it in the courts now?

[krazen1211]

Who knows what the statutes are in Texas?

Does the legislature have the right to a redraw or is it in the courts now?

The legislature has a right to redraw if it chooses to.

In any case, the Justice Department isn't final here. The 3 judge panel is.

[jimrtex]

Fresh from Lloyd Doggett's Facebook page:

The DOJ rejected the Texas maps.

Litigation time - perhaps all the way to SCOTUS.

USDOJ brief

Texas bypassed the DOJ and went directly to the DC District Court for preclearance.  When they did this, they "informally" made a submission to the USDOJ as a matter of courtesy.

The USDOJ brief is with DC District Court and basically says that if it were up to them they would have precleared the senate plan and the SBOE plan.  This should make it real hard for the court not to preclear, since it would imply that the USDOJ doesn't understand the law, or that they are imposing the wrong standards.

The USDOJ also rejected the idea that Section 5 is unconstitutional.

The USDOJ didn't really reject the congressional and house plans, but said that they had insufficient information to evaluate them, but would be providing stipulations by today that would "narrow" the issues.

This is the reason that Texas didn't go through the USDOJ, because they like to negotiate settlements.  It is like then EEOC.  The EEOC might not be able to make their case, but it could be a long drug out affair, so why not just pay a fine, don't admit culpability, and agree to some changes.  You might be right, but it is too costly to win.

The regular trial has been heard in San Antonio the past couple of weeks.   They might or might not wait until the DC court has ruled on preclearance.

The SCOTUS has Texas penciled in on their decennial docket.

[krazen1211]

Who knows what the statutes are in Texas?

Does the legislature have the right to a redraw or is it in the courts now?

The legislature has a right to redraw if it chooses to.

In any case, the Justice Department isn't final here. The 3 judge panel is.

DOJ has no issues with the Dallas districts and is only complaining about TX-23 again.

[jimrtex]

Who knows what the statutes are in Texas?

Does the legislature have the right to a redraw or is it in the courts now?

The legislature has a right to redraw if it chooses to.

In any case, the Justice Department isn't final here. The 3 judge panel is.

DOJ has no issues with the Dallas districts and is only complaining about TX-23 again.

They don't like districts that elect Republicans.

4 house districts are challenged.

Republicans were elected to all 3 Nueces County districts (two within the county, and a 3rd with just a small portion of the county).  Because of relatively slow growth, there are only 2 districts in the county, and they didn't like where the line was drawn.  San Patricio the largest county in the Nueces+ district was attached to a South Texas (35) district in exchange for Jim Wells.  This district also elected a Republican.

They didn't like how Aaron Pena's district was drawn because he switched parties.

And they didn't like District 117 which is the westernmost banana in Bexar County, and which dropped 58,000 persons and increased the HVAP from 58.7% to 62.7% in the process.  It too chose a Republican Garza instead of the Democrat Leibowitz who was the Hispanic candidate of choice (even though he didn't actually live in the district).

They're still trying to make up their mind about a Houston district with a 21% Asian population (vs 30% Hispanic, 27% Anglo, and 23% Black) and whether that is because the Vietnamese guy is candidate of choice, or that the Hispanics aren't citizens, and the Blacks aren't as politically organized.

[minionofmidas]

Who knows what the statutes are in Texas?

Does the legislature have the right to a redraw or is it in the courts now?

The legislature has a right to redraw if it chooses to.

In any case, the Justice Department isn't final here. The 3 judge panel is.

DOJ has no issues with the Dallas districts and is only complaining about TX-23 again.

Morons.

[DrScholl]

The actual document mentions issues with TX-23, TX-27 and the fact that there wasn't any other VRA district created in DFW.

[krazen1211]

The actual document mentions issues with TX-23, TX-27 and the fact that there wasn't any other VRA district created in DFW.

Yes, the last was Veasey's complaints. He wanted to draw himself a district.

http://txredistricting.org/post/10568635928/state-house-and-congressional-districts-in-dispute

[jimrtex]

The actual document mentions issues with TX-23, TX-27 and the fact that there wasn't any other VRA district created in DFW.

The USDOJ did not.   Their brief includes summaries of the viewpoints of other parties.

They're goofy because they don't recognize 34 as the successor to 27, and that there is no need for Corpus and Brownsville to share a congressional district.