Burnt Orange Report

Redistricting: The Latest

By Byron LaMasters

Yesterday, there was a Seante Redistricting Committee meeting in Waco, and guess what? Waco doesn't want redistricting! Imagine that. The Austin American Statesman reports:

In Waco about 300 people, some sitting on the floor, stuffed the Law School auditorium. Another 200 spilled over into other parts of the law center.

McLennan County officials voiced concerns about the House plan, which divides the county into two districts. Politicians from Bell County urged senators not to separate Fort Hood from its current congressman, Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco.

Killeen Mayor Maureen Jouett said losing Edwards could hurt Fort Hood over the next couple of years as the Pentagon reviews military installations for possible closure. Jouett also said redistricting now is unfair to the 20,000 troops from Fort Hood who are deployed.

"They're over there in harm's way, and here we are basically trying to cut the legs out from under the military base," Jouett said.

Edwards is the highest-ranking Democrat on the U.S. House panel that doles out federal money for military construction. As a Democrat who represents a district that usually favors Republicans in statewide races, Edwards is a key target for GOP leaders.

Democrats now have a 17-15 advantage in the state's congressional delegation, but the plan the House passed earlier this week could boost Republican ranks to 21.

GOP strength grew in the district last year when federal judges drew a map that gave Edwards northern Williamson County.

"How Republican does the 11th Congressional District have to be to be fair to Republicans?" Edwards asked.

The Waco Tribune Herald ran two stories on the hearing, here and here. They report that the McLennan County (Waco) Commissioners Court adopted a resolution opposing the division of McLennan County:

"We are concerned that we remain intact as a county and also look at our district and want to keep McLennan County, Bosque County, Coryell and Bell counties intact because we have so much in common"

[...]

"We have been this way for over 100 years. It would dilute our influence. It is really not a partisan situation. It is just the force of being together instead of being split. There is no need to split this county, and especially split it with the other counties."

Both the Hoston Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman ran stories today on Andy Taylor, the lawyer helping Republicans draw their maps, and also the man who would be paid $400 an hour in taxpayer money from the state of Texas to defend the map in court. The Houston Chronicle reports:

Houston lawyer Andy Taylor is advising Republican lawmakers behind the scenes as they draft congressional redistricting maps designed to defeat incumbent Democrats.

And if one of those maps passes in the legislative special session, Taylor will defend any legal challenges to the map for the state -- at a cost to Texas taxpayers of $400 an hour.

Taylor also is an attorney of record for Texans for a Republican Majority -- a political organization founded by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is a force behind the $1.7 million special session on congressional redistricting.

"If a Democrat was doing this, there'd be a moaning and gnashing of teeth. It's corrupt," said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

The Austin American Statesman gives a chronology of Andy Taylor's track record with redistricting, the Texas Republican Party, and Republican interest groups:

• Taylor was first assistant attorney general under former Attorney General John Cornyn before Cornyn was elected to the U.S. Senate last year. Among other things, Taylor handled redistricting matters for Cornyn.


• When the Legislature failed in 2001 to draw new lines for the Texas House and Senate, the matter went to the Legislative Redistricting Board, a five-member body of which the attorney general is a member.


• Taylor quit the attorney general's office, and Cornyn hired him as a private lawyer to handle Cornyn's part on the redistricting board. Taylor's firm, Locke-Liddell, was paid $804,478.


• After the redistricting was over, Taylor headed up the transition team for new Attorney General Greg Abbott -- whohad benefited from $1.5 million worth of "issue" ads against Democratic opponent Kirk Watson.
  Those ads were paid for by the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, a group created years ago by the National Rifle Association. The law enforcement group has been mentioned in Earle's investigation of the business association's ads, but no criminal charges have been leveled against the Virginia-based association.


• Taylor also began defending the Texas Association of Business against Earle's investigation, losing every attempt in court, so far, to block the inquiry. While that was under way, he and Locke-Liddell parted company.
• Taylor was hired to defend the Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee engineered by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. It kicked in $1.4 million in Texas legislative races last year. Several public interest groups complained that it violated the use of corporate money in political campaigns, but the group denies wrongdoing.
• Recently, Abbott hired Taylor, at $400 an hour, to represent the state in matters concerning congressional redistricting.

So Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, who led the Democrats to Oklahoma to block congressional redistricting back in May, offered an amendment to limit the attorney general's office to using staff members in defending whatever map emerges from the special session. It would also have capped the rate that could be paid a lawyer to 110 percent of the average salary of the top 10 employees of the attorney general's office. That's $129,266 a year.

The other would prevent hiring a lawyer to represent the state if that lawyer had challenged state laws or the Texas Constitution in the past year.

"Under the law, any time you attack a state statute, the attorney general is required to intervene and defend the statute," Dunnam said. "So I had a second amendment that said that any attorney who within the last 12 months had attacked one of our statutes, that person can't be hired, because you would be taking one position against the state of Texas and another position representing the state of Texas."

Taylor didn't immediately return telephone calls this week, and his office said he cannot talk about redistricting.