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A bitter, behind-the-scenes fight has broken out among Texas Republicans over redistricting, pitting Rep. Lamar Smith against longtime colleague Rep. Joe Barton.
The dispute is over the makeup of four new congressional districts for the Lone Star State, and centers on the racial balance — including the controversial issue of “bleaching,” or including more white voters in a district — of the new political map for Texas.
At stake in this controversy is the political power of Hispanics in the nation’s second most populous state, as well as the future political careers of some of its most powerful Republican incumbents. The GOP currently holds a 23 to 9 edge over Democrats in the delegation. But with four new districts being created, Republicans are taking ink to the map to ensure their political safety while trying to avoid running afoul of federal voting rights law.
Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the point man on redistricting for Texas Republicans, is pushing to evenly split four new districts between Republicans and Democrats, acknowledging that Texas’s surging Hispanic population will gain minority-majority seats in the Dallas and Houston areas. According to 2010 Census data, Texas is now home to 9.5 million Hispanics, 38 percent of the state’s overall population, yet only six members of the congressional delegation are Hispanic, including freshman GOP Reps. Francisco Canseco and Bill Flores.
Sad, sad, sad. Texas went through this "redistricting" once before.
Politicians everywhere have nothing but their own best interests in mind.
The last time was mid-decade style of redistricting, which was a rather "interesting" concept.
It seems Smith is taking the more pragmatic approach, while Mr. "I apologize to BP" is trying a screw the law approach, lets see what we can get away with" and go from there. Perry is also taken the rather strange position of trying to bypass the DOJ for the first time ever.
I wonder if any Texas Republicans will join Delay in jail as a result of this one.
This is funny, some of you act like Democrats wouldn't be doing the exact same thing if they had the majority in any state.
Both sides are guilty of gerrymandering. There are some who do it more than others, and attempt to do it in a way that could run afoul of the law, or quite simply break the law. Texas is known to push it a bit further than some of the other states.
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