Re-redistricting hearings
More hearings were held over the weekend to give a veneer of public accountability to the railroad job that the Republicans are going to carry out at the special session starting tomorrow. Many Democrats were fighting mad at the hearings.
"This has nothing to do with black or brown people. That's just a red herring," [Rep. Garnet] Coleman [D-Houston] said of arguments based on race that have dominated debate over redistricting. "This has everything to do with increasing Republican power."
Austin American Statesman (about the Houston hearing). The Dallas hearing was just as raucous.
Shouting, name-calling and some unmentionable actions were the order of the day Saturday as more than 400 angry Democrats and a much smaller – but just as cranky – group of Republicans voiced opinions on a GOP-driven congressional redistricting plan."I've been to a lot of redistricting hearings," said Dallas lawyer Ken Molberg. "I've never seen anything quite like this."
Dallas Morning News. In Brazoria County, the crowd hissed each time Tom DeLay's name was mentioned.
State Rep. Garnett Coleman, a Houston Democrat, noted that voters had already elected congressmen from the districts drawn in 2001. Any change would violate the voters’ rights, he said.“People have already elected the congressmen of their choice,” Coleman said. “These people would be replaced by a Republican affirmative action program.”
The Facts (Brazosport). In Brownsville, the hearing never "heard" anyone.
An angry group of activists and a Democratic state representative shut down a public hearing on congressional redistricting in Texas Thursday, hurling insults at Republican House leaders and turning the hearing into a boisterous and emotional pro-Hispanic political rally.
The GOP is dangling a carrot before blacks and Latinos in promising them increased membership in the Congressional delegation if they will support the GOP plan, according to the Dallas Morning News.
A flash point in the hearing Saturday was argument over whether blacks would benefit more from electing another black to Congress from Texas, or from retaining a delegation of white Democrats who are sympathetic to blacks' issues and rely on their support.[Ron] Wilson [D-Houston], a [black] member of the House Redistricting Committee, has joined Republicans who say the plan that the committee approved would help blacks by giving them the opportunity to control a third congressional district.
Houston Chronicle. The effort to draw Hispanic support was evident at the Laredo hearing.
The main bait, Democrats claim, is the prospect of funding badly needed medical school complexes in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, both in Senate districts held by Democrats.
The plan is apparently not final, according to the Austin American Statesman. The GOP is still trying to decide how many ways to divide Travis County (containing Austin). One Republican activist explained, "Redistricting is simple. It doesn't get difficult until you try to protect incumbents or get rid of someone."
What's the ultimate goal?
"The Republican goal is to eliminate all Democratic districts, except those where Hispanics or blacks are the majority," said Alford, who was an expert witness for Republicans in the 2001 lawsuit that redrew the districts to what they are today."That is what the DeLay plan is, basically, to create overwhelmingly Democratic districts by packing as many Democrats as possible into as few districts as possible."
Finally, we can all rest easy now that the New York Times has weighed in with an editorial calling DeLay a "gunslinger."
Update: Charles Kuffner has a long eye witness report on Political State Report about the Houston meeting.