Miers' testimony in the Dallas voting rights case
AP reports: Miers' comments were a brief moment in lengthy testimony during a lawsuit in federal district court in Dallas. Black leaders challenged the way city council members were elected in Dallas. Miers had been elected to the council in 1989, just as the battle over racially charged redistricting plans was heating up. The lawsuit led to a court-supervised redistricting plan that enlarged the council from 11 to 14 seats.
Miers testified that the city should keep some at-large seats whose members were elected by voters citywide, not just from small districts. Black leaders opposed at-large districts, viewing them as a tool to limit minority representation.
Miers said at-large members can consider the entire city's interests while politicians elected from local districts must also consider the interests of their own district.
Miers said, however, that one drawback of at-large seats was that many successful citywide candidates came from north Dallas, which is predominantly white and more affluent than south Dallas.
"We needed to encourage additional African-American, Mexican-American representation on the council," Miers said.
"We needed to encourage additional African-American, Mexican-American representation on the council," Miers said.
Miers added that she would not have run in 1989 if a viable minority candidate had jumped in the race first.
"I felt like the time was right that such a candidate could be elected, and I had other things to do," she said.
Miers testified that voting in Dallas was sometimes along racial lines and "race is an issue" in city politics but that economic differences drove most of the disagreements in the city.
Ideally, each district should have similar numbers of rich, poor and middle-income residents, she said.
Miers rejected a plaintiff lawyer's argument that a heavily Hispanic district would necessarily elect Hispanic candidates. She also said she didn't like the concept of creating safe seats for minorities by drawing heavily minority districts. -- AP Wire | 10/14/2005 | Miers testimony in voting rights case xxx
Remember that Miers ran for (and won) an at-large seat. Thus, she was saying, "I felt like the time was right that such a candidate could be elected [at large]."