The Senate Map?
By Byron LaMasters
I'm expecting to see a State Senate redistricting map pop up at some point over at Texas Legislative Council site. While I haven't seen any official senate map, I have seen two maps "PLAN 01295C -Owens" and "PLAN 01296C -Owens". Now, I don't know who "Owens" is, because there's no senator or state rep. named "Owens", but the maps drawn by Owens, look a lot like possible senate maps. Owens' maps address the concerns of a lot of the senators.
Take a look at the most recent map, here. The map creates bait for Sen. Eddie Lucio (D-McAllen) by creating an open 24th congressional district in Hidalgo and Cameron County. It creates bait for Sen. Ratliff, by restoring the vast majority of the 1st congressional district (Max Sandlin) in northeast Texas, and esentially keeps the predominantly rural nature of the 2nd (Jim Turner) and 9th (Nick Lampson) districts. It does make Turner's district more Republican, however, by adding Tyler - Longview. The map eliminates Ralph Hall's 4th district. It draws Martin Frost into a new Republican seat, the 4th including suburban Dallas and Fort Worth, although Kay Granger's 12th becomes slightly majority Democratic. The 19th district remains a Lubbock / Midland-Odessa seat, but Charlie Stenholm's 17th and Chet Edwards' 11th districts are radically altered. Neither is paired, but both would have lots of new constituents unfamiliar with them. Neither would be favored for re-election under this map. The map also pairs Henry Bonilla and Lamar Smith in the new 21st (Hill Country) favoring Smith. However, the 20th includes much of Bonilla's old territory, and that district, held by Charlie Gonzales would have a nearly 50/50 Republican / Democratic split. It's interesting to look at, and there are some pretty hideous looking districts (see 15 and 17) in the plan, but it is probably similar to something that the senate might try to do.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at July 15, 2003 04:14 PM
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