Burnt Orange Report

Redistricting is always about political power. Not about providing political access to people who have traditionally been denied that access.

As for the memo and its impact, the Washington Post story would seem to belie the impact in terms of VRA violations.

"Texas Republicans also have maintained that the plan did not dilute minority votes and that the number of congressional districts with a majority of racial minorities remained unchanged at 11. The total number of congressional districts, however, grew from 30 to 32."

But.

"He added that Texas now has three African Americans serving in Congress, up from two before the redistricting."

Two new seats. One additional African-American. That in itself would raise questions about violations. Violations would constitute attempts to dilute minority representation. If you have an additional minority representative, your case goes out the window.

Of course that additional African-American is Al Green. Some would have preferred Chris Bell. The minorities preferred Al Green. Becomes rather difficult to maintain that was a violation of the VRA. It was merely the choice of the voters. The minority voters.

The most vocal Democratic critic of the redistricting has been Chris Bell. The voice of those who believe that a white representative can better represent minorities. Which others would believe equates to making sure they don't have representation. The minorities felt differently. As he himself put it, "I guess I'm the wrong color." It gets tired.

BabySnooks:

Quit being silly!

Don't be fooled by that GOP crap. Black folks and Brown folks want to be represented by suburban Anglo Democrats or rural Anglo Democrats.

Next thing you know, you'll be claiming that bigoted white Southern Democrats fought the civil rights movement and white Republicans pushed it through.

Enough with the crazy talk! These UT bloggers are in their early twenties; they know what they're talking about. Their grandmas probably had a poster of Dr. King!

Actually bigoted white Southern Democrats pushed it through. Realizing the wisdom of "power in numbers." Which probably explains why bigoted white Northern Republicans want to make illegal immigrants legal. Power in numbers.

The Democrats found they had minds, and agendas, of their own. As will the Republicans.

In those days, it took 67 votes to invoke cloture. Thirty-two Democrats voted against the Civil Rights Act and six Republicans voted "no".

What history are you reading???

I was being facetious. But not about the power in numbers. Two things matter to politicians. The money. And the potential votes they can garner to be able to represent the money.

First of all, notgannatell, get off your high horse about age and experience. I don't know a lot, but I do know bullshit when I see it. Stick with the constructive, informative type comments like you made in my other post.

As per this whole redistricting thing:

From the very end of the memo:

"One of the important participants in the conference committee negotiations which led to the final plan, as well as the state's expert, have testified that the final plan ran a far higher risk of being retrogressive than either the House or Senate plan. Yet, even in face of these concerns it was adopted."

Delay's final map that he pushed through was far worse than either map the ACTUAL TEXAS LEGISLATURE proposed. Their maps would have still reflected the growing Republican majority in Texas, but most likely would have not raised serious -- if any -- questions as to whether or not they violated the Voting Rights Act.

If the Republicans could have represented their growing majority and gained additional seats without disenfranchising voters, shouldn't they have done that?

I have a call into Phillip to apologize for any rudeness on my part. I treat this site seriously, but I also view it as an amusement that breaks up the mononity of the day. I apologize to anyone else I may have offended. Not my intention.

Today the Washington Post published a damning expose on the behind the scenes maneuvering that took place in the Texas Congressional redistricting process in 2003.
The article sheds light on the outrageous disregard for the evidence and expert analysis presented by several important Justice Department Voting Rights Division staff members in a December 12th 2003 memo about the illegality of the Texas redistricting plan. The story talks about how the Justice Departments higher ups decided to overrule the staff determination and to bury the report for the past two years.
The article goes on to detail much of what we in Texas have known or suspected that Tom DeLay and his minions deliberately manipulated the congressional redistricting plan for purely partisan purposes at the expense of minority voting rights. The story notes, “The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.”
The Post story goes on to state “The memo also found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options.”
This action is a disgrace to our democracy and should bring shame and the wrath of the electorate down upon every Republican leader in Austin and Washington, who by action or inaction were complicit in this travesty.
For any American to simply stand by and say ‘it’s just politics’ or to say ‘well the other party did it too’ is inexcusable. When the will of the people and the rights of a minority, or the process of democracy or the laws of this nation are disregarded and violated for political purposes, the entire integrity of our republic becomes endangered by the dictatorship of the few and powerful.
This story as well as many others about the dishonesty and corruption of many Republican leaders, officeholders and lobbyists as well as Republican Administration officials should be a wake up call to every American whether Republican, Independent Democrat or otherwise; that when one political party gains control of all three branches of our government, then the principles of our democracy - equality, justice, limited government, separation of powers and the checks and balances protected and provided by our Constitution will be violated by those more interested in personal power and in supporting the special interests that will keep them in power, instead of the interests of all Americans.
I am opposing a Republican Congressman, Lamar Smith of Texas 21st Congressional District, who fits the bill of one of those Republican leaders that is complicit in the dishonest and corrupt dealings of Tom DeLay and those of his ilk. Smith has contributed to Tom DeLay's defense fund. Smith has allowed himself to placed as a pawn on the House Ethics committee in place of a fair minded Republican member of the Ethics committee who had voted several times to admonish Tom DeLay. Smith continues to take money from the powerful lobbies and carries the water for Tom DeLay and his corrupt friends that want to deny Americans equality and justice through our service agencies and the court system. He’s become a powerful Washington insider who lives and works and plays in Washington and Cape Cod (which is where he actually lives); and then hires media experts to spin tales about how what he does in Congress is good for the people of Texas, through their ghost articles in his name for area papers and in the tons of frank mail he sends out.
Let’s hope the media in America continues to shed further light on the dishonesty and corruption that the Republican leadership is perpetrating upon the American people in their pursuit of greed and personal power.
In the meantime we need to raise the alert in every corner of the nation and focus people’s attention to the inherent dangers facing our democracy. I and others running to change the direction of this nation need your support. Pass the word and step up to the plate and take a swing at what you can do to make a difference in 2006.
And remember at times like these Congress needs Courage!

John Courage

Corrections to some of the posts above, with a sprinkling of age and experience. And I'm not talking about the words of my friend John Courage.

First, the DOJ attorneys found that the number of effective minority opportunity districts was reduced by the DeLay map from 11 to 9. The measure of a minority opportunity district is not the race or ethnicity of the officeholder, but rather the opportunity of voters to elect a candidate of their choice.

For example, Henry Bonilla no longer represents a minority district - it disappeared with his blessing in 2003, even though he is Hispanic, because his electoral base is the Anglo suburbs of NW Bexar Co. That's why Bonilla supported a map that split Laredo, moving 100,000 from his district and cutting Hispanic voter registration from 54% to 43%, the result of replacing Hispanic Webb Co. voters with Hill Country Anglos.

As for the Bell-Green seat, Democrats supported making that seat more heavily African American as well, but the fact is that a less tainted African American opponent than Carroll Robinson may have defeated Bell in 2002 in the old district.

And in Dallas-Ft. Worth, with over 2 million minority residents (3 districts worth), Team DeLay allowed one whole minority district compared to a Democratic map that had a second 65% non-Anglo seat.

Those are just facts. And as notgonnatell knows, I am no southern racist Democrat - I came up in tri-racial politics of Harris Co. and TDP and have always personally sought to enhance minority participation and representation because that should be consistent with electing Democrats.

Finally, enough with the history of the VRA. We are dealing with what's going down today, and that is a cynical systematic effort to undermine and eliminate the VRA, either by law or in effect. This DOJ of the Hans von Spakovsky's has issued outrageous rulings that would make Daddy Bush and Reagan blush. Check out what Phil posted about him and read up on the man. Scary.

Yesterday's fights are not today's, and I'm glad Democats have stepped up during my lifetime to take a stand for justice. It's been a long journey and the R's have played it into the solid Republican South, but the next battle is the most important, not the last one.

I think the argument comes down to the issue of intent versus reality. Same argument as ethics versus law. They intended to dilute minority opportunity districts. But didn't, at least so far, according to the courts. And the courts have the final say. The way it should be. Not always to our liking. But without rule of law, there is no law at all. Democrats don't like Republican judges. Republicans don't like Democratic judges. The law was never intended to be partisan. For the most part, the conservative court we thought we had as a result of Reagan and Bush proved to be far less conservative, and less Republican, than even Reagan and Bush would have imagined. But that most likely will change now. We most likely will see a true conservative court. That is Republican in both composition and ideology. That to me is far more scary than the redistricted map of Texas given what the Republican Party has become and what it stands for.

With regard to the law, it's very hard to prove intent anymore. Why so many corporate crooks get away with ripping off their employees and their investors. So while Tom De Lay may have intended to do all these things, proving that he intended to do so is probably impossible.

Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's ethical. But to quite a few in this country, ethics simply don't matter. Particularly in partisan politics. And redistricting is a matter of partisan politics.

In a perfect world. We are less than perfect.

No law was broken during the redistricting process. Staff hacks at the Justice Dept do not have decision making authority for a reason. Their opinion is exactly that, opinion. Courts have ultimate review here.

Also, the "expose" in the Post that Delay intended to redistrict because he is a partisan probably was "exposed" earlier when Delay announced exactly that during the process.

One things the story does not make clear (or I missed it) is whether or not the 6 lawyers and 2 analysts constitute the entire review staff there. Saying it was unanimously endorsed by the people who signed it seems redundant.

All this ridiculous hypothetical analysis of the map! The fact is, there have now been elections held with this plan in place and there have been no - not a single one - instance of minorities having their voting rights diluted in violation of the VRA. It matters not what someone's OPINION may be about the plan, it has had no deleterious effect and is therefore, by definition, not in violation of the VRA.

The point is moot, regardless, because the only hope of the Dems to maintain their Bob Bullock gerrymander is SCOTUS review, and there is not a chance they will pick this up - not after an election has already been held under the plan, and with a new census only four years away.

Your outrage is wasted here, Dems...better you should work on winning in the existing districts, because reworking this plan at this point is pure fantasy on your part.

It is frustrating to have to dispel so many canards. I understand that the modern GOP and its adherents depend upon misinformation, but it becomes tiresome.

Firstly, as it relates to the 1964 Civil Rights Act or the 1965 Voting Rights Act: this legislation was nearly universally opposed by 1) White; 2) Southern; 3) Conservatives. These so called Dixiecrats (here in Texas at one point called Shivercrats) are the ideological predecessors of the modern Southern-dominated neoconfederate Republican Party. http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&DocID=1090

The "Democrats" who opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act or the 1965 Voting Rights Act were CONSERVATIVES who depended upon, and traded upon racial resentment for their power. Sounds familiar. In the years since these types of "Democrats" have become Republicans.

It is the height of intellectual dishonesty to blithely cite the number of Democratic Senators who opposed civil rights. It was primarily SOUTHERN RIGHT-WINGERS who fought the civil rights agenda in Congress. But, I suppose it is too much to expect any degree of honesty from those who uphold Rush "HillBilly Heroin" Limbaugh as some great philosopher king of the Conservative Movement(sic).

As for the ridiculous defense of the redistricting plan forced upon Texans ... the temerity of the Professional Liars of the GOP is galling. In North Texas, for example, they erased a 65% minority opportunity district simply so that they could "git Martin Frost."

I am incensed that these often racist Republicans would assert that minorities can only be represented by people of their own color/ethnicity.

It is only important that the opportunity be present for minority communities to elect one of their own, or to have a significant opportunity to influence the selection of a representative. The extreme, indefensible DeLay map caused a significant net loss in these types of districts.

As for much of Martin Frost's old district, Now we have an Anglo Denton County Doctor who was picked by Denton County Republican Primary Voters, who relies upon Denton County Anglo Suburban Republican Votes to win general elections, representing the historically black, inner-city residents of SE Fort Worth. What a sad joke at the expense of these residents.

Oh, but two out of three judges on a panel affirmed the legality of the map? It is not a shock that Republican judges have continued to water-down voting rights protections in their interpretation of the laws ... It is a pillar of modern Federalist Society NeoConservative Republican judicial philosophy, worn as a badge of honor by adherents ...what a complete shocker.

Ugh.