Redistricting Commission Bill Passes Senate

Wow, that's great news (0.00 / 0)

This has been such a weird session, you never know.

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by: sonia @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 00:35:54 AM UTC

Yes, a step in the right direction, BUT (4.00 / 2)

There is a much better version on the House side, Mike Villarreal's HJR 101 (and enabling legislation HB 3389), which creates an independent redistricting commission made up of retired judges and a voting chair who's the president of the strictly nonpartisan League of Women Voters. It takes the process much further from the partisanship and self-interest of the legislators than Wentworth's bill does. Read more about it on the TCAN blog:

http://www.truecoura...

There are other good redistricting bills in the House as well. Any of those, and to a lesser extent, Wentworth's Senate bill, would be better than the current situation. We understand that Chairman Crabb of the House Redistricting Committee is planning to hear all of the House bills together. Soon, we hope!

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by: Teri Sperry, TCAN @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 03:03:55 AM UTC

Also good! n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: Elsbeth @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 03:16:43 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Definitely a positive development! (0.00 / 0)

Here's a good history of it from a 2003 press release. I didn't realize Senator Wentworth (R-San Antonio) has been working on this since 1993.

Senator Wentworth first introduced legislation calling for a citizens' redistricting commission in 1993. He continued his efforts to get a redistricting-commission bill passed in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 and during the regular session in 2003.

"After the regular session when Democrats fled to Oklahoma to break a quorum because of congressional redistricting, after chairing the Senate Committee on Redistricting in 2001, and after seeing millions of taxpayers' dollars wasted defending lawsuits that inevitably occur after redistricting, I am more convinced than ever that Texans will be better served if the redrawing of legislative and congressional lines is placed in the hands of men and women whose political futures do not depend on the outcome," said Senator Wentworth.

This bill could do a lot of good towards healing the DeLay wounds.

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by: Elsbeth @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 03:14:05 AM UTC

Redistricting (4.33 / 3)

I'm encouraged to see that the Senate has passed a bill on redistricting. I'm concerned though that this could be just more of the same because of the way Wentworth has structured this redistricting proposal.

He wants to appoint, in his words, "four hardcore Republicans and 4 hardcore Democrats" and lock them in a room and let them fight it out and come up with a plan. To my way of thinking, that's little better than appointing a committee of House and Senate members and letting them meet behind closed doors and duke it out. It still creates a very partisan redistricting committee that will be more concerned with protecting their fellow Republican and Democratic incumbents than they will be concerned about what is best for the people of Texas.

We need a truly independent, nonpartisan redistricting board comprised of members with the least amount of partisan interests and with the best interest of the electorate in mind. That is why we at TCAN, working with Rep. Mike Villarreal, are pushing HB 3389 and HJR 101, which would creat a redistricting committee comprised of retired judges appointed by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct and not by legislators.

We hope this bill will get some traction in the House and may be the key to a fairer redistricting process for Texas.

John Courage, Chair
True Courage Action Network

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by: JCourage @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 16:24:44 PM UTC

Partisanship (0.00 / 0)

is so strong right now. I wonder how many truly "nonpartisan" people there are with interest in "the electorate" and serving on a committee like this?

Even if they "say" they are nonpartisan, what would be the test for nonpartisanship?

It seems like any commission on redistricting would have more transparency if the commission were equally divided between Democrats and Republicans.

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by: Elsbeth @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 18:49:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Split Cities Must Approve Plan (0.00 / 0)

I've had this re-districting idea kicking around in my head for awhile, but I been too busy to write it down.  I'm still too busy, but since the topic came up, here's the idea:

Cities that are split by districts must approve the split. 

Of course, I'm not sure how it's possible to do this on the Texas House level, since there are just too many split cities.  But, it might work well on the Texas Senate and Federal Congressional levels.  (I assume both Villareal's and Wentworth's bills are for Texas House and Senate lines but not Federal Congressional lines).  I think this would limit a lot of the potential minority splitting like in the congressional lines in Fort Worth.  A city of 625K (roughly the size of one CD), which is 18.4% Black, 4.2% Asian, 13.9% some other race, and 31.9% Hispanic of any race, really deserves its own congressperson, instead of being split down middle and represented by the two-headed Burgess-Granger Republican Monster.  If split cities were allowed to reject plans, Fort Worth could rightfully demand its own congressperson and be genuinely represented.

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by: blank @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 22:08:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'd also like to see... (0.00 / 0)

Rules on how districts can be drawn.

Districts must be compact.
Districts must be contiguous.
Districts must meet mathematical requirements to ensure they are compact and contiguous.

The redistricting body should not know the voting history of the citizens in the district.
The redistricting body should not know where incumbent legislators live.

The stickiest wicket is majority minority districts.

I ought to go read the two bills (HB 3389 and HJR 101), but I just don't have time to wade through them right now.

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by: jelyon @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 18:32:20 PM UTC

One problem with that... (0.00 / 0)

Your strategy doesn't take into account majority minority districts.  Not all of them are compact.  However, I think we'd all agree, all of them are important.

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by: David O. @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 18:38:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

One more thought... (3.00 / 1)

I like the idea of taking communities of interest as a factor to consider.  Ideally, a district should be contained in as few media markets as is feasible.  This doesn't just help with TV ads, it also helps ensure the Reps get more TV time in district. 

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by: David O. @ Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 18:39:41 PM UTC

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Redistricting criteria (0.00 / 0)

What compactness criterion would you use - circumscribing circle, population moment of inertia, convex hull, perimeter length, etc.? What minimum would you set?

Contiguity is not at issue.

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by: Chris Kennedy @ Fri Apr 20, 2007 at 17:35:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]