Dan Grant released a statement today on the interim Congressional maps released by the Federal Courts on Wednesday, making clear that while he will not be running against Congressman Lloyd Doggett in the 25th, he is giving strong consideration to the newly drawn 10th district.
Grant had previously announced that he was exploring a run in the Legislature-drawn 25th district, which stretched from the University of Texas through parts of Bell County up to Fort Worth. 11 Republicans had also announced intention to seek the seat. With the lines re-drawn, Grant is now taking a closer look at the 10th, where he ran in 2008 against Rush Limbaugh's BFF Mike McCaul.
Grant's statement is as follows:
Statement on the Release of Interim Congressional Maps
Two days ago, the hopes of Democrats and progressives across central Texas were met with resounding action by a federal judicial panel's release of fair and equitable interim maps for the United States House of Representatives.
Dan Grant, who has been exploring a run in the State Legislature-drawn 25th district, will withdraw from the race for CD-25, allowing Rep. Lloyd Doggett to return to his newly re-drawn district to continue representing the people of Austin.
"Travis County has been made whole, and Congressman Doggett has traditionally represented Texas' 25th - I will willingly step aside so that he can run unopposed. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to ensure that all Americans would have equal access to voting and representation. The court's decision has upheld this principle with a fair map that allows all Texans these opportunities," said Grant.
Speaking in regards to his own campaign, Grant added, "I have been touched by the enthusiasm and support I've received in my exploration of the 25th Congressional district. The unique opportunities in the coming election season will afford Travis County, and all Texans, real representation in Congress. In the days ahead, I will be considering how best to move forward with these new Congressional opportunities."
There has been a lot of chatter in Wednesday's redistricting diary about the newly drawn 10th -- what are your thoughts? Is this a potential pick-up opportunity for the right candidate? Can a Democrat overcome Mike McCaul's father-in-law's bank account?
The current CD-25, which may be changed by the federal courts. See the current maps here.
Some big news today: Dan Grant announced that he's forming an exploratory committee for CD-25, the Congressional district that includes much of East and Central Austin. Overall, the new CD-25 includes all of Johnson, Hill, Bosque, Somervell, Hamilton, Coryell, Lampasas and Burnet Counties, and parts of Travis, Hays, Erath, and Bell Counties.
Dan Grant previously ran for CD-10 in 2008, and has remained highly active and visible since then, while also continuing to work as a consultant and advisor to the U.S. State and Defense Departments. Grant trains American civilian and military personnel bound for Iraq and Afghanistan, and received a commendation from the State Department in 2009 for his service during the Afghan Presidential election.
Grant enters the race with a long list of notable endorsements from local leaders. Listed on the release materials are Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez, State Representative Mark Strama, State Representative Donna Howard, State Representative Elliott Naishtat, and Travis County Constable Bruce Elfant. Also offering support are past candidates Larry Joe Doherty and Jack McDonald, who campaigned previously in the CD-10 district that Grant also contended in 2008.
It's unclear what shape CD-25 will take once the federal Courts repair Rick Perry and the Texas Republican Party's partisan gerrymander. Currently, the courts are preparing interim maps to make sure the primaries stay on schedule; the interim maps will be used for the primaries if the federal court is unable to clear the current map passed by the Legislature in time. NB: the Justice Department has stated that they believe the Legislature's current map is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act.
However, Grant's announcement and strong list of early supporters suggest that if this remains a swing district, he will be an extremely formidable opponent in both a primary and a general election environment.
Great Texas Progressive Lloyd Doggett just gave a strong, short speech in favor of the health reform bill on the floor of the House. (Some folks are getting error messages on the video -- try clicking through to YouTube.)
"So very fearful of being held accountable, the giant insurance monopolies have spent millions spewing out anger and spreading fear of reform. We have not seen such outlandish, outrageous arguments raised since the same forces failed to block President Lyndon Johnson from securing approval of Medicare.
"For Republicans our bill is too long or too short, it's too thick or too thin, never just right, because their real answer to reform is 'never, never, never!' Our determined efforts should not be derided as a four letter word, but you can certainly sum up our many, many pages with 4 words-'you've got health care.'
"With this reform, every insured American gets valuable consumer protections, and every uninsured American can become insured. 32 million Americans protected from the risk of bankruptcy from health care. This bill restrains soaring insurance premiums, reduces federal deficits, and strengthens Medicare.
"Our families deserved more, like the choice of a Medicare-type option, yet they will get so much more than what they have today. To this valuable reform foundation we must, we will, do more."
Rep. Doggett has been a leader pushing for a more aggressive, progressive bill to insure the millions of Americans who lack access to care, and help the millions more who are under-insured or fearful of losing what coverage they have. We are lucky to have him fighting so hard on behalf of the 25% of Texans who lack insurance.
Some fantastic news to report on thanks to the hard working efforts of national blogger Mike Stark and Firedoglake who have been canvassing Washington, DC for progressive members of congress that will stand up for a public health care option and demand that it must be part of Obama's health care reform.
After a 4 minute walk with Doggett in DC, he became the 12th member to pledge to do just that.
Cong. Doggett: "We need the strongest possible public plan here in the House to send over and we need to send it soon and in our desire to get some health care reform, we need to not settle for [just] any health care reform. Too often, Progressives begin by demanding a third of a loaf and we end up with only a heel."
And the money quote at the end.
Mike Stark: "If you get the point where you can draw the indelible line, and we ask you again, let us know. We've got 11 Congressmen so far, and women, that have drawn that indelible line- they've taken that stand and we're trying to get as many people as we can, because like you said, it takes the American people and the American people get more enthused when they see our leaders taking the stronger...."
Cong. Doggett: "Well make it an even dozen."
Thank you Congressman Doggett!
For Democratsin Austin, there are a couple events you can help with this week. Sign up below.
Phillip's ed. note: I think this is a good idea that is very, very, very poorly written. PLEASE VOTE STRAIGHT TICKET, and if you happen to live somewhere with a special election, take note. I'd imagine that if you are reading this blog, you'll be active enough to know there's a special election -- but please, please, please, vote straight ticket Democrat! Vote early, and vote often!
Straight Democratic Party Voting this November election - don't do it. It's a trap. (Phillip's ed. note: no it's not.)
For a good Democrat to tell other good Democrats not to vote a straight party ticket sounds insane. Especially this year when we have such a great slate of candidates. I mean it though, and Lloyd Doggett and John Courage will tell you the same thing this time around.
This Nov. 7th election is special. So special in fact, that it's really two separate elections if you live in any of these Congressional Districts 15, 21, 23, 25 or 28. These are the five US Congressional Districts that just got re-re-re-districted. The Congressional races on Nov. 7th in those districts are like open primary races. At least two of these races have more than five candidates running (CD21 & CD23). If no candidate wins their open primary race with more than 50% of the vote, a runoff of the top two vote getters will occur probably in December.
Quorum Report has the final list of candidates in each of the re-re-districted seats.
Interestingly, Albert Uresti (future state senator Carlos Uresti's brother) filed in CD-23 against Rodriguez, Bolanos, and Bonillia.
CD-21 ended up fielding a lot more candidates than originally expected including 3 independents, 1 and a half democrats, 1 republican, a libertarian, and the Treaty Oak.
The United States Supreme Court ruled this morning that CD-23 is unconstitutional. The district (map is here) is represented by Congressman Henry Bonilla, runs from Laredo to just outside of El Paso on the border, with a northern boundary running along Interstate 10. The court also ruled that the map did not constitute partisan gerrymandering, but also was divided as to whether or not such an issue could/should be reviewed in the future.
To read the Supreme Court's ruling, click here. For a review about the redistricting process and what happened to CD 23, go here.
**Update - 10:30am**
The Statesman has reported about a possible domino effect:
Redrawing that districts will force nearby District 25, the Austin-to-Mexico district held by Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Austin, to be redrawn, according to the court opinion.
The Statesman reporting is backed up by this part of the Court ruling:
Their equal protection claim as to the drawing of District 25 need not be confronted because that district will have to be redrawn to remedy the District 23 violation. - Page 5-6 of the Court ruling.
These changes could have effects on CD-21 (Congressman Lamar Smith's district, where John Courage is running) in addition to CD-25, Congressman Doggett's district.
***Update -- 11:30am***
The three-judge panel will have the responsibility of deciding what to do with the redistricting map. The first decision is when they redraw the map for -- this election cycle, or the next. The second decision, then, is whether they will redraw the map themselves, and accept three maps from both Democrats and Republicans, OR whether they kick it back to the Texas Legislature for them to redraw the lines during the 80th Regular Session starting in January.
Exactly how far the dominoes fall, we'll have to wait and see. I'd imagine that CD 23, 28, 21, and 25 will have to be redrawn. As we wait to get more analysis, you can play around with an an interactive Congressional map of Texas. Click on the "U.S. Congressional Districts" link to get to the map.
"The United States Supreme Court ruled that the mid-decade Texas Republican plan to redistrict congressional boundaries "rode roughshod" over the rights of Hispanics in South Texas, and it must be remedied...
From the very beginning, common sense told us that Laredo is one community of interest, and the only reason it was split up was to give the Republicans an unfair advantage so that they could elect another Republican to Congress from Texas -- at the expense of Hispanics, Laredo and South Texas...
The win was forged by an alliance of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the American GI Forum and the Washington, D,C. - based Lone Star Project, headed by Matt Angle, a native of Euless, Texas.
"Matt and his group did an exceptional job of coordinating information, the attorneys and the presentations. This shows the kind of victory that can be achieved when people work together."
To read the full release click here for the journal entry. I'd like to be the first to say, welcome, Rep. Raymond, to the BOR community!
Normally when I get a press release that starts like this it's usually a pretty quick ticket into the snooze folder.
Washington, DC- Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee today spoke against the repeal of the estate tax.
But most press notices don't come with a YouTube video of those remarks, remarks that make me jealous I don't have a Democrat representing me in Congress (which is why I'm so up on my support for John Courage).
