Mid-decade Redistricting

[RBH]

Besides Texas are there any other states where it's possible to see mid-decade redistricting?

The Texas legislature has not passed any maps that have won approval from the federal government.  They have an obligation to draw maps.

On the Congressional side, can they really draw a new legal map and change the delegation much in 2014?

The new Congressmen are...

Weber: whose district could be kept as-is because just putting Beaumont in another district would annoy someone else and force Weber to take redder areas from another Republican for no good reason

O'Rourke: whose district could be adjusted slightly but nothing that would endanger him any more than he already is in a primary

Castro: Not a lot that can be done.

Gallego: lives in the middle of a VRA district that has been part of multiple lawsuits.

Williams: lives in a district that is a bit of a mess due to the partition of Travis County.

Veasey: African-American incumbent in a Hispanic plurality district, IIRC

Vela: VRA district

Stockman: Super-R district.

Wouldn't it just be quicker to try and draw a way to protect most of the incumbents, while focusing on getting another supermajority in the House?

[RBH]

If Lampson had somehow pulled it out in TX14, they could have easily redrawn the map and given Beaumont to Stockman as he's from Orange and the R's worrypoint here is more that Lampson ran 8 points ahead of Obama in Jefferson against a Houston Metro Republican even as it was, not the overall lean of the district.

Depending on your source, Stockman's from Friendswood or Webster in Harris/Galveston Counties.

Lampson, on the other hand, is essentially a Beaumont resident for all intents and purposes.

So if Lampson won, they could change Stockman's 69% McCain district into a 64% McCain district by putting the Brazoria/Galveston pieces together with Southeast Harris.

Then Lampson would go from a 57% McCain district to a 62% McCain district of Jefferson, Chambers, Liberty, Hardin, Orange, Newton, Jasper, Polk, Tyler, and part of Eastern Harris.

And basically Lampson's only hope in that scenario would be some sort of Beaumont market solidarity in a market where McCain won 60%.