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| Travis County, Republican-drawn and Democrats cornered. |
With redistricting heading into the courts today, now is a good time to examine one of the more problematic regions of the Congressional map: Travis County, and the five-way split designed to deny Austin a home-grown Democratic representative. And not just any representative, but Congressman Lloyd Doggett, staunch progressive and constant thorn-in-the-side of Rick Perry and Texas Republicans for decades.
Republicans are so committed to removing Lloyd Doggett from Congress, they've drawn a map with the express purpose of doing just that.
We can argue about seniority vs. fresh blood, Anglo vs. Hispanic, but that's a distraction from the real victims of this gerrymander: above all, this map harms the people of Texas, who will be shortchanged the Democratic representation they deserve.
Republicans intentionally drew liberal Travis County into five districts to fracture our Democratic voting base, with the intent purpose of booting Representative Lloyd Doggett out of Congress. It's no coincidence that the one Democratic district that contains a chunk of Travis County, the new CD-35, runs down to San Antonio and is heavily Hispanic, thus theoretically favoring a Latino candidate.
The Texas Tribune breaks CD-35 down:
While 31 percent of the population is in Travis County, 47 percent is in Bexar County. It's a minority district, too, with Hispanics accounting for 62.8 percent of the population and blacks accounting for 10.8 percent. Barack Obama got 63.2 percent of the vote in 2008; Bill White, the Democrat who challenged Perry in the governor's race in 2010, got 60 percent of the district's votes.
Break it down as a turf war between Austin and San Antonio and points in between, and the analysis favors the challenger. Break it down as a racial contest, with an Anglo running against a Hispanic in a district with a comfortable Hispanic majority, and the analysis favors the challenger.
Doggett, a die-hard progressive who has served Central Texas in Congress since 1995, is now running in a Democratic primary for the new CD-35 against State Representative Joaquin Castro. Castro, along with his brother Julian, Mayor of San Antonio, and many of his Legislative colleagues, are by all accounts a huge and important part of the next generation of Texas Democratic leaders. We need young, engaging Latinos running for office across Texas to excite and engage our growing Latino voter population.
With this map, Texas Republicans are turning Democrats against each other, and forcing Doggett, who has fought for our progressive values for decades in Congress, the Texas Senate, and Texas Supreme Court, into battle against Castro, a rising star who should have an equally long opportunity to serve his home community of San Antonio.
This map hurts voters Austin and San Antonio alike, by forcing our Democratic populations to battle over one district, rather than each have our own home-grown Democrats working together in Congress to do what's best for everyone in the region.
As a Democrat who wants to see both of them in Congress, I think it's an outrage that the voters are being forced to choose thanks to this partisan gerrymander. But that's exactly what Republicans want. From Politico:
"The state-level Republicans can't stand Lloyd Doggett," said Chris Perkins, a Texas-based GOP pollster who helped then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay craft the 2004 lines. "I had heard from several Republicans that a map that brings back Lloyd Doggett is a nonstarter."
"This time, he was clearly targeted for defeat," Perkins said. "There was no question."
While the map was expressly drawn to favor Castro, Doggett has two advantages in this race: he's represented over 50% of this new district in the past, during the other iterations of CD-25, his currently district, as well as CD-10, which he was drawn out of by Tom Delay and Tom Craddick in 2003. (Sensing a pattern yet?) That 2003 map, the "fajita strip," was redrawn in 2006 when CD-23 (now held by Republican Quico Canseco, and formerly held by Democrat Ciro Rodriguez, a Latino district that factors heavily into 2011's court case as well) was found unconstitutional.
Doggett's other advantage is his war chest. Per the New York Times, Doggett had over $2.8 million cash on hand on his last FEC filing. But it's still a surprise that some major Republican donors have been lining up to help Castro close the money gap on Doggett. The host list for his August 4th fundraiser in San Antonio included a long list of mega Republican donors, at least one of whom is also raising for Perry's presidential campaign.
Included on the host list are folks like Gene Dawson, who has given over $25K to Rick Perry, and a substantial amount to the RNC, John Cornyn, John McCain, and even Ted Cruz. Other hosts, including Sam Dawson, Bill Kaufman, and Carl Raba, have given substantially to the likes of Lamar Smith, John Cornyn, and John McCain, and only minimally to Democratic candidates. Another host, Bill Greehey, has since been busy raising money for Rick Perry's San Antonio fundraiser last week. And a significant number of hosts have extensive Republican voting records -- we're talking 3 or 4 consecutive Republican primary votes here. Frankly, I doubt they'd be donating to Castro if he wasn't running against the Republicans' #1 target, Lloyd Doggett.
You know, the irony is, if this were a general election scenario, I'd be much less wary to see a Democrat raising so much from Republicans. After all, I cheered the Republicans who supported Bill White against Rick Perry, as simple common sense and concern for Texas dictated. But this is a Democratic primary, where Democratic voters are supposed to decide who best represents their values and ideals. In one of the few Democratic districts the Republican Legislature left standing, it's troubling to see so much Republican money trying to muddy the waters. Some of Castro's earliest financial supporters are big-money Republicans and Perry supporters. And frankly, I simply can't assume the best of intentions for these folks. I honestly think they're pouring money into the race not because they're totally enamored with Castro (at least I hope not, since these are some pretty conservative folks), but because they so deeply want to get rid of Doggett.
Again, I honestly think Texas would be better served with a Congressional map that puts both Doggett and Castro in our nation's capital, putting their progressive values to work for the people of Austin and San Antonio alike. The illustration above, the five-way hatchet-job of Travis County, doesn't do anyone any good. And if Mike McCaul does indeed step into the Senate primary, America's 14th largest city might be left with no Congressional member who calls Austin home. Frankly, it takes the Legislature's Austin-hating to a whole new level.
It remains to be seen if the maps are changed, particularly in terms of how districts 23, 25, and 35 are drawn, and if our minority population growth in Texas is given the four new Congressional seats it deserves. Personally, I'd love to see a realistic CD-23 that elects another Hispanic Democrat to Congress, and a CD-25 that doesn't merely slice across Central Austin in order to force our African-American precincts into a conservative Hill Country district.
Meanwhile, it remains clear that removing Lloyd Doggett from Congress, and denying Austin as much representation as possible are two primary goals of Texas Republicans, both serving in the Legislature and Washington, D.C. And nothing would be more amusing to watch them instead have to contend with Doggett and Castro, and a few more elected Democratic representatives to boot. |
