Redistricting

By Patrick Brendel Friday, 06 November 2009

AUSTIN — The choices Texas residents make next spring and fall will influence government for a decade. When the 2010 U.S. Census results are released in 2011, state lawmakers picked by voters in the next elections will have the obligation to redraw the borders of the districts they represent, through a process called redistricting.

“The shape of your government for the next 10 years will be defined by what happens in a process in which you are not included,” said Harvey Kronberg, editor of The Quorum Report, a publication on state politics. “Every two years, voters get to pick their elected officials. Every 10 years, public officials get to pick who votes for them.”

The political stakes involved in redistricting are tremendous. Changes to the shape of a district can unseat a previously untouchable official or provide job security to an incumbent for several election cycles.

“It’s hard to be a statesman when you don’t have a district to represent,” longtime Texas political columnist Dave McNeely said.

Pressure from political leaders has made partisanship an unfortunate but inevitable element of redistricting, said state Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Spring, a member of the House Committee on Redistricting.

“It would be nice if we could make our lines straight and not worry about parties and protecting party interest, but we have party leaders that want to protect the party interest. Sometimes that doesn’t necessarily serve our voter,” she said.

Even with detailed data on the locations and leanings of likely voters, partisan mapmakers are not guaranteed to achieve their desired results. For example, in Austin, state Reps. Valinda Bolton, Donna Howard, Diana Maldonado and Mark Strama are all Democrats in districts drawn to be represented by Republicans, McNeely said.

2003 redistricting

Conflicts over maps breed rancor, pitting members against one another (regardless of party), or, as in 2003, causing Democratic representatives and senators to flee the state in attempts to avoid participating in a controversial, unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan driven by Republicans.

That plan split Travis County’s Democratic congressional district into three pieces (now represented by U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin; Michael McCaul, R-Austin; and Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio).

State legislatures are mandated to undertake redistricting every 10 years, when the U.S. Census results are released. As the Texas redistricting in 2003 demonstrated, however, state legislators are not forbidden to redraw districts more than once a decade.

2010 U.S. Census

Next year’s census is expected to show great population gains in Texas, especially up and down the IH 35 corridor, in and around Houston and among Hispanics. The state is projected to receive an additional four U.S. congressional districts, bringing U.S. House representation up to 36 seats and giving Texas 38 presidential electoral votes. McNeely thinks that could bring intense attention upon the state during future presidential campaigns, saying the Democratic Party is not likely to continue ceding Texas to the GOP without a fight.

Harless stressed the importance of answering census surveys accurately in spring.

“[Texans] need to understand the importance of making sure they’re counted, that their voice is counted, because that will be the deciding factor in how the districts are drawn up,” Harless said.

In regard to state House districts, Travis and Williamson counties are in a position to gain additional seats at the expense of rural east and west Texas. McNeely said it is not possible to predict how those districts will look, but a likely scenario, under a process controlled by Republicans, is for an increase in suburban representation.

Harris County is also set to gain additional Texas House seats. Harless noted that not only has northwest Houston’s population boomed, but growth has been distributed unevenly in the area, resulting in disparate House Districts that will need to be redrawn. For example, Harless said that state Rep. Allen Fletcher, R-Tomball, represents three times as many people as she or state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, do.

Legislative Redistricting Board

If Texas House and Senate members are unable to approve a redistricting plan, then redistricting authority passes on to the Legislative Redistricting Board, a five-member body comprising the lieutenant governor, speaker of the House, attorney general, state comptroller and land commissioner. Republicans currently hold all five positions. That could change after the November 2010 elections, due to jockeying over the U.S. Senate seat now held by gubernatorial hopeful Kay Bailey Hutchison, and a possible Democratic takeover of the House, where Republicans now hold a slim majority of 76 to 74 members.

“Barring something unforeseen happening, I wouldn’t think the House and Senate are going to be able to agree, and I think the Legislative Redistricting Board is going to draw the districts,” McNeely said, pointing out that the board, created in 1951, drew district maps in 1971, 1981 and 2001.

In 2001, board members included then-Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, Attorney General John Cornyn, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Land Commissioner David Dewhurst, plus House Speaker Pete Laney, the lone Democrat. The resulting plan maximized Republican gains at the expense of Democratic incumbents, causing a great deal of ill will that eventually resulted in the toppling of House Speaker Tom Craddick last session, Kronberg said.

Voting Rights Act

Since Texas is subject to Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, all changes to district boundaries must be approved by either a panel of three federal judges, or by the Department of Justice, in order to protect minority populations. (The Voting Rights Act survived a challenge earlier this year in the U.S. Supreme Court by attorneys for a small political jurisdiction in northwest Austin, called Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One.)

For the first time since the VRA’s implementation, the Department of Justice is being controlled during redistricting by a Democratic White House administration, Kronberg said.

If state officials are unable to create an acceptable redistricting plan, then a federal court will draw the new maps.

Redistricting timeline

• April 1, 2010 — U.S. Census Day
• Dec. 31, 2010 — President Barack Obama receives state population reports. The number of congressional seats for each state is computed.
• April 1, 2011 — State legislatures receive detailed census reports.
• May 30, 2011 — Texas Legislature adjourns. If redistricting is not approved, the plans go to the Legislative Redistricting Board.
• June-Oct. 2011 — Deadline for LRB to convene and adopt redistricting plan.