Redistricting: TX House Has Tentative Plan, GOP Members Suggest Splitting Travis Co. Four Ways [Politics]

One of the side effects of the Census is that states get to rearrange current congressional (and state House/Senate) districts based on population changes. The Texas House has given initial approval (92-52) to State Rep. Burt Solomons' plan for House redistricting (with some changes), but it seems to be assumed that whatever plan is finally chosen will lead to eventual court battles.


From The Texas Tribune:

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, presented eight different plans he said would increase minority representation in the Texas House; the Solomons' plan would add one Latino seat in a state where about two-thirds of the growth over the last decade is attributed to Latinos. One of his alternatives, he said, would create more districts with populations that are more than 50 percent Latino, more than 50 percent black, and more than 50 percent black and Latino combined than in the Solomons map. As he argued for the map, he said he hopes the courts will be more receptive than the Republican Legislature...

Office of Rep. Lloyd Doggett

In other redistricting news, Austin's own Rep. Lloyd Doggett is spreading the word that the yet-to-be-shown-to-the-public proposal for Congressional districts in the state will divide Travis County into four unequal parts. One of our favorite Texas political bloggers Eileen Smith tweets, "Lloyd Doggett's new district will be my backyard."


Doggett released the plan for Travis County -- put together by members of our state's GOP Congressional delegation -- to the media, saying, "Armed with a computer and a knife, they have sliced up Travis County into four districts... Their map of Travis County looks like a whirlpool, designed to drown out a voice for our community values in Congress."



Given the trial and tribulation during the last redistricting saga, the redistricting in the upcoming weeks will not lack for drama. As the Statesman notes, it's unclear how much say the Congressional Republicans will have in the plan the Texas House will vote on. Still, given the current party in control of our state's government, it is unlikely that any plan decided on will give the state much more Democratic representation in Congress.