Looks like they are "messing with Texas," John. A six seat pickup for the Repubs would make DeLay happy.
Dewhurst reassures senators on redistricting
Some lawmakers fear they could yield control to House GOP
07/11/2003
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN ? The Senate moved Thursday to assert its authority over redrawing congressional districts after a fractious House debate produced a map criticized by groups ranging from minorities to the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst tried to reassure senators who fear that if they move forward with redistricting, they'll yield control of the outcome to GOP partisans in the House, as eight rural state representatives who are Democrats warned will happen.
"I believe that the House ... will be appreciative of our work and that we'll end up with a final bill that the Senate can be proud of," Mr. Dewhurst said.
The Republican lieutenant governor said he spoke to Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, about redistricting for 90 minutes Wednesday. "The speaker indicated he would do what he could to work with us," Mr. Dewhurst said.
A spokesman for Mr. Craddick confirmed the speaker pledged to cooperate.
But Democratic and some Republican lawmakers expressed anxiety that a map resembling one the House approved early Tuesday may resurface in the closing days of the special session, in a House-Senate conference committee.
Sen. Chris Harris of Arlington, the chief mapmaker for Senate Republicans, said if that happens, he will help stall any redistricting bill so that it doesn't pass during the session.
"If it gets to the point where I am not comfortable with that map, I have no problem being in 'lock down' until two years from now," Mr. Harris said. "I don't want something jammed down my throat."
Under the House plan, Republicans could win 21 of the state's 32 seats in the U.S. House. Last year, Democrats gained a 17-15 edge in the Texas congressional delegation.
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and other GOP leaders have said the current map, drawn by judges, should be revised to reflect their party's newfound political dominance. Last year, Republicans swept all statewide elections and wrested control of the Legislature for the first time in more than 130 years.
Civil rights groups such as the NAACP have said the House-approved map would violate federal law by reducing minority voters' influence in several districts.
In West Texas, the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, the Plains Cotton Growers and Lubbock Mayor Marc McDougal, a former Lubbock County GOP chairman, have denounced the House plan because it would pair veteran U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene, and freshman Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, in the 19th District.
Mr. Stenholm is the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Mr. Neugebauer also sits on the panel. Regional farm interests fear losing clout if they lose one of their representatives in Congress.
In addition, some Republicans worry that the well-known Mr. Stenholm might beat Mr. Neugebauer. That might reverse the results of last month's special election to replace U.S. Rep. Larry Combest, R-Lubbock, because Mike Conaway, a Midland Republican whom Mr. Neugebauer beat, could win in the redrawn, Midland-anchored 11th District.
"I see it as a change ... that we need to look at closely," said Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, the chairman of the Senate Jurisprudence Committee, which is handling bills on redistricting. "I have concerns."
In East Texas, community leaders and lawmakers of both parties have denounced the House plan's redrawing of six congressional districts so that they connect suburbs of Dallas and Houston with rural areas, whose voters would be outnumbered.
Rural East Texas now dominates about four districts but would only control one or two under the House-passed plan, said Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville. He was one of eight House Democrats in the Rural Caucus who urged senators to bottle up redistricting bills in committee.
"It's obvious DeLay's counting on the fact that the House will prevail in the joint House-Senate conference committee and the final map will look a whole lot more like the House plan than it looks like the Senate plan," Mr. Hopson said.
Rep. John Mabry, D-Waco, urged Mr. Duncan and Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, another senator who has voiced objections to the House-passed plan, to join the three Democrats on the seven-member Senate panel and block any bill.
That, he said, is "the only surefire way to stop redistricting."
The Senate committee will not meet again until Monday and agreed not to vote on any remap until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest.
Democrats on the panel questioned whether the Senate's work has been influenced by Houston redistricting lawyer Andy Taylor, who represents Mr. DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority, a state political-action committee, and who also will defend any legal challenges to the map for Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Mr. Duncan, the committee's chairman, said Mr. Taylor twice offered him unsolicited advice on the process of drawing maps. But Mr. Duncan said he had not followed it.
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