Redrawing likely to have wide impact

June 29, 2006, 1:47AM
COURT RULING
Redrawing likely to have wide impact
Changes ordered in Bonilla's district likely to be felt in other parts of state

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Legislative efforts to protect a Republican Hispanic congressman from Latino voters were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, triggering changes in congressional districts that could have an impact from El Paso to Laredo to Harris County.

The nation's high court on a 5-4 decision threw out the 23rd District of U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, because the Legislature in 2003 drew his district to split Laredo and remove 100,000 people.

The court said the redrawn district was designed to preserve Bonilla's re-election from the growing influence of Hispanic voters who rejected his representation of them — a move they said violated the Voting Rights Act. A new district map most likely will now be drawn by a three-judge federal court, but the ripple effect will spread for hundreds of miles.

Could affect Harris County
Bonilla's district cannot be redrawn without making changes to District 28, held by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and District 25, held by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.
(snip/...)

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/4011120.html

and I truly despise them for it

I hope their asses are on fire every time they sit in the chairs they have disgraced.

I can't stand Bonilla and am hopeful his re-election prospects could be imperiled. I believe he's the only non-Cuban Latino Republican in the House (well, unless Henry Cuellar counts as a Republican!). Hopefully the Republican they have representing from Austin who is from freakin' Harris County will also have a long shot at re-election. The Re:puke:s in the legislature must have had a tough time figuring out that one: how to have someone from Houston (the more well-off suburbs of Houston I'm assuming) representing Austin. That's some crazy shit!

I'm a bit disappointed that race seems to be the only issue that matters when it comes to splitting up communities, though. For example, my small southeast Texas county of Orange has pretty much always been represented by Democrats, until Delay's re-redistricting. We are now represented by corporate whore Repug Kevin Brady from the Houston-area Montgomery County. What "community of interest" do lower-middle-class to middle-class, small-town or rural voters share with the rich voters from the Woodlands? And I'm not sure why it wasn't a question of diluting the impact of a race's vote when they stuck the largely minority voters (mostly black, with some Asian and Latino) of Beaumont/Jefferson County in a district represented by Ted Poe from Humble, but oh well... It could partly be that population losses in my area have caused it to lose its clout, but I think it would make more logical sense to at least give my area at least one district as a base. Currently, we have none. There's a good chance the district would be Democratic, though it's not guaranteed with recent political trends of the area. I'm sure the Repugs would still be able to carve out three or four Repug districts from the Houston suburbs, but if they have the population, so be it. I just think it's sad when they put areas that obviously have very little in common together simply for partisan reasons. And that goes for when either party does it.

Redistrict ruling may affect Nov. election
By APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Writer
17 minutes ago

~snip~
Federal law requires that each district be evenly divided into exactly 651,619 residents, based on census figures. That means tweaking one district will have a domino effect on many of the surrounding districts.

"Districts are going to have to be reconfigured from everything from the eastern edge of El Paso, along the Rio Grande, through McAllen, and coming back up through the Austin, San Antonio area," Hicks said.

Once new borders are determined, affected counties will have to scramble to meet an array of election filing and ballot deadlines. It will cost time and money to print ballots, mail new voter registration cards and alert voters of new polling places.

The lower court also could send the issue back to the Texas Legislature. That action could delay the adoption of a new map until after the election.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060629/ap_on_el_ge/redistricting_texas

That dude definitely knows which race is buttering his bread...

My journalist crush Samantha Levine contributed to the article!

(And yeah, I'm really just posting again to kick the thread. I thought the article was very interesting...)