01.12.10

2010 races loom large for 2011 legislative redistricting

Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010, HD-52, Redistricting at 12:23 pm by wcnews

Here’s an introductory article on the topic from the HChron, Legislative stakes high ahead of redistricting.

Democrats and Republicans this year are planning a high-stakes fight for control of the Texas House on the eve of redistricting that will affect politics and policy for the next decade.

The March primaries will shape the fall battleground when Democrats will try to pick up the three seats they need to regain control of the 150-member Texas House of Representatives.

Republicans, however, are confident they will build on their current 77-73 advantage because of disgust with debt and record spending by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.

New political boundaries will determine state legislative and congressional representation for voters for the next decade. Most redistricting battles end up in federal court, where judges consider maps drawn by the state Legislature.

In Texas, Senate Republicans will maximize GOP potential for one of those maps, and Democrats hope to counter with a Democratic House-drawn map to maximize their party’s interests.

Of course one of the key races is the reelection of Diana Maldonado in HD-52.

The retirement of Rep. David Farabee, D-Wichita Falls, almost certainly will turn that seat Republican in a GOP-leaning district. Republicans also are targeting Democratic House members who recently won seats held by Republicans, including Diana Maldonado, of Round Rock; Robert Miklos, of Mesquite; Joe Moody, of El Paso; Carol Kent, of Dallas; Chris Turner, of Burleson; and Valinda Bolton, of Austin.

A group affiliated with Obama plans to invest heavily in Texas and could help Democrats in vulnerable districts. Organizing for America has 12 paid staff members in Texas and plans to expand .

“The main purpose and goal of Organizing for America is to educate Texans about the president’s agenda,” spokesman Hector Nieto said. “We want to make sure that Texas continues to stay involved … and educated about the issues, such as redistricting.”

It’s good to see the President and the national Democratic party seeing these races as important to their future success - hopefully they mean it this time. Especially with Texas getting as many as four new Congressional districts as a result of redistricting.

Also KUT had a good article on redistricting this morning, listen here - Mapping it out. GOP consultant Ted Delisi, husband of TxDOT chief Diana Delisi, had a couple of interesting things to say in the piece.

• That the GOP will be playing defense (incumbent protection), not offense (trying to take the majority), which it’s never done; and
• He thinks main D v. R battle that will play out is dividing up the Hispanic population(D) v. the suburban population (R).

What Delisi, and others in the article didn’t point out, is that this will be a hard redistricting session for rural Texas. With urban and suburban areas of Texas holding much of the power, the rural areas will likely be more on the outside of the process than they’ve ever been. And that will likely cause friction. It’ll also be the first redistricting since 1960 with a Democrat in the White House/Justice Department.

Also in the article it’s mentioned that now anyone can draw maps. Here’s a post that mentions a couple of free applications where even you can participate in redistricting, Two online apps that put you in charge of redistricting.

The other thing that’s been bandied about, (can’t find a link), since the GOP started losing house seats soon after the last redistricting was that the districts were drawn in 2001 to create a 100 vote majority in the house. Which made the marginal GOP districts vulnerable as the decade wore on. That wouldn’t have happened, the myth goes, if they had just drawn 85-90 solid GOP districts instead.

With a budget shortfall and redistricting in the same session, the upcoming legislative session is sure to be a doozie..

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