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MESSAGE
FROM THE CHAIR:
What Republicans won't tell you is that it was Governor Perry himself who sent redistricting to the federal courts to begin with! Two years ago, Gov. Perry could have called a special session of the Texas Legislature to deal with congressional redistricting. (At that time, it would have been legitimate to do so, because there was no redistricting plan in effect, and the constitution does require that one be prepared after each census). Instead, Gov. Perry announced that he had chosen to let the federal courts draw the lines since, in his words, it would have ben "a waste of taxpayer's money" to call a special session to deal with the issue. Emboldened by what the Supreme Court had done to make George Bush president, Perry knew the federal judiciary would do the Republicans bidding on redistricting. And they did. What the federal courts came up with two years ago, and the United States Supreme Court approved, was a great disappointment to Democrats and was praised by Republicans! The reason for those reactions was obvious: the lines drawn by the federal judges greatly favored Republicans: indeed, 20 of the 32 Texas congressional districts contain a Republican majority. That's an advantage (62.5%) greater than the Republicans would be entitled to if seats were apportioned proportionately to the number of voters for each party (56%) (of course, they aren't, and shouldn't be apportioned that way). In effect, the Republicans got two more districts than their proportion of the voting population. So why did the voters elect only 15 Republican congressmembers, despite Republicans being in the majority in 20 districts? Simple: voters in five Republican districts chose to re-elect their Democratic incumbents rather than Republican challengers. And that was certainly a rational choice - voters in Charlie Stenholm's district understandably prefer to be represented by the Ranking Member of the House Agricultural Committee than by a freshman Republican; voters in Jim Turner's district feel more secure knowing that their representative is the Ranking Member on the Homeland Security Committee; Ralph Hall's status as Ranking Member of the House Science Committee is more important to a majority of voters in his Republican district than selecting a newcomer. Chet Edwards' senior position on the House Armed Services Committee is very important to his district where a major military base is crucial to the local economy. Martin Frost, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, gives his district far more clout than it would have with a brand new Republican congressmember, and his constituents realize that. The point is, that voters in Republican districts chose these Democrats to represent them. But that doesn't matter to Tom DeLay. He could care less what voters want; he only cares about solidifying and reinforcing his own political power base. Congressional redistricting in the special session isn't about drawing lines in such a way as to fairly reflect the preferences of the electorate. It's the opposite of that. This is entirely about thwarting what voters want, even in Republican districts, because their preferences aren't the same as Tom DeLay's choices. It's not about giving voters a say; it's about doing something despite what voters say. And any other version of what this is all about is a flat-out lie. And look how far these people will go to satisfy the Sugar Land tyrant: Throughout January and February, Gov. Perry repeatedly pledged not to call a special session on congressional redistricting. Well, he was apparently lying about that (at least, he sure hasn't kept his word on it; maybe there's a difference between "lying" and just breaking a promise, but either way, it's dishonesty by the highest elected official in the state). Ask a Republican legislator why it's necessary to waste $1.7 million of taxpayer money (when we're too broke to provide health care for kids, or reasonable tuition rates for students, or health insurance for teachers) in order to call a special session at this time (instead of at least waiting until the special session on school finance, and doing both at the same time). They'll tell you it's too important to Texas to wait until the fall (or winter) special session on school financing. Well, if it was that important, ask him or her to show you any piece of political advertising put out by any Republican legislative candidate during the last election which even mentions congressional redistricting an a issue and a reason to vote for that candidate. They can't do so. Because nobody did. It sure seems like if it was so very important, some Republican candidate somewhere would have at least mentioned it in a piece of campaign advertising or suggested somewhere that it was as a reason to elect that person. The fact that noone even mentioned congressional redistricting as an issue needing to be addressed and corrected by the Texas Legislature speaks volumes; it reveals the mendacity of the Republican legislators who now claim this is so important to the people of Texas that we need a $1.7 million special session to deal with it. Partisan politics does not require untruthfulness. Republicans should quit lying to the public about the reasons for this special session and get about their business of trampling on voters wishes to achieve their ultimate purposes - permanent political domination, not merely "fair representation." The public shouldn't be treated as if they're that dumb. Gerry Birnberg |
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The
Republican political machine has polled public opinion in Texas and
discovered they can put a spin on the redistricting special session
which appeals to many Texas voters: so now you will hear them exhort, "we
need congressional lines drawn by legislators, rather than districts
created by federal judges."
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