| DeLay's goal was to take several Democratic Congressional seats away from the Democrats and turn them into Republican districts, and with the help of the bought-and-paid-for Republican Texas legislature, he succeeded—not, however, without a courageous fight by the Texas Democrats in the Texas House and Senate. As a result, six incumbent Democrats were gerrymandered out of their congressional districts and were defeated in their 2004 re-election bids. At the same time, there were some dramatic repercussions to the minority communities in South Texas as this gerrymandering denied fair representation to tens of thousands of Hispanic and African American Texans.
The entire dirty rotten mess was fought by the Texas Democratic Party and many Texas civil rights groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), the American GI Forum, and the NAACP. A series of lawsuits ended up in federal court on the grounds that this gerrymandering violated provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
After more than two years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court a few weeks ago agreed that this Republican plan did violate minority voting rights in South Texas and instructed the lower federal court to remedy the situation to protect the rights of voters. This was a great victory for Texas Democrats and minority voters, but the federal court has put the remedy of this disaster back into the hands of the politicians who originally created the situation.
The federal court has asked for and received proposed redistricting plans from the Texas Attorney General and other interested parties. Instead of getting some reasonable plans from Republican leaders in Austin, we have seen several proposals that would hurt many Democratic Congressional candidates even further while protecting the Republicans who were gerrymandered into their current seats.
I am one of those Democratic candidates. It seems the Texas leadership would like to see me disappear from my race, as their new plan gerrymanders me right out of my home district (TX CD-21), in which I have been campaigning for the past year, while at the same time completely eliminating Democratic incumbent Lloyd Doggett (CD-25) from the Austin/Travis County area, which has been his political home base for decades. Their plan also throws Democratic challenger Rick Bolanos out of his race to unseat Republican Henry Bonilla and would pit him against Democrat Henry Cuellar. The Republican plan would have Austin, the most Democratic city in Texas, represented by three incumbent Republican Congressmen!
There are a few decent plans that have been presented, plans that would provide fair and just elections for all the people of South Texas. LULAC has submitted two redistricting plans that could enhance my campaign, and the smart money says that my district, CD-21, may survive in its present form with only minor changes. But the point is that the Republicans, with DeLay's cold, dark hand reaching out from the political grave to guide them, are still intent on crushing the growing Democratic wave in Texas. I want you to know that we won't stop fighting until we end the culture of corruption and the Republican power grab that has denied justice to minorities in Texas and threatens the very existence of our democracy nationwide.
We expect to know the outcome of this latest redistricting battle by early to mid August. I keep telling my friends and supporters that I am going to continue to run to defeat Lamar Smith if I have to chase him all over Texas to find the district to beat him in. Texas is the tip of the iceberg; we may have similar fights in the future. If we can defeat them in Texas, then we can defeat them everywhere.
Democratically yours,
John Courage |
