Beside being bogus in constitutional terms, Texas Republicans’ argument that they need to redistrict again because redistricting shouldn’t be done by judges has always also been deeply disingenuous. Why? Because they were the ones who forced it into the courts. It’s not quite the parricide begging sympathy as an orphan. But it’s close.
This clip from an overdue piece in tomorrow’s Times makes the point with a particularly good source …
Some Texas Republicans â including Governor Perry and Tom Craddick, who became speaker of the state House in January when the party took control for the first time in 130 years â argue that the state’s Congressional delegation, with 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans, does not reflect Texas voting patterns, in which nearly 60 percent of the votes cast for Congress last year were for Republicans.
They say the current Congressional map is just an old Democratic gerrymander. And they say that although the Constitution requires the legislature to draw district boundaries, the current map was drawn by a panel of federal judges.
Others note that Republicans chose at the time to let the judges redraw the Congressional districts rather than compromise with Democrats who still held the majority in the state House.
John R. Alford, a professor at Rice University who was an expert witness for Governor Perry in the 2001 redistricting litigation, said the Republican Party knew at the time that the state Legislature, with its own new district map, was about to swing to Republican control in 2002.
“Republicans used the court-drawn plan as a place to park redistricting until they could address the issue when they were in control of the House and obviously better off in the Senate,” Professor Alford said. “You give it to the courts knowing that, after 2002, you’ll take it back.”
He also disputed that the current Congressional map was a Democratic gerrymander, noting that voters in several districts, who choose Republicans for virtually every other office, have split their tickets to re-elect moderate Democrats.
“You can’t have a gerrymander where six of the Democratic seats have Republican majorities,” Professor Alford said.
Who knew we did congressional seats by proportional representation? Such a big reform. And I keep on politics. I thought I’d have heard …
