By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX – Today's ruling validating the state's GOP-backed congressional redistricting plan brought a range of comments from political movers and shakers, from describing the remap effort as a "legal and fair" plan to a plan that will "let loose the plague of perpetual redistricting" across the nation.
A three-judge panel ruled that the congressional remap neither violates the state's constitution nor the Voting Rights Act that protects minority rights - setting the stage for congressional races in newly drawn districts. Those new districts could mean the election of as many as seven more Republicans to the Texas congressional delegation.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry said the ruling validates the actions taken by the Texas Legislature regarding congressional redistricting, an effort that took one regular and three special sessions. "The legislature has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility, and the primary election process in Texas can now move forward," said the governor.
Although the deadline for filing for local and state offices in Texas was last Friday, the congressional deadline was extended to Jan. 16, in hopes that the panel of judges would rule in time for candidates to know what their districts would look like and to meet that filing deadline.
Secretary of State Geoff Connor said after today's ruling that he will send a memo to election officials across the state directing them to use the new congressional lines and to mail out voter registration cards on January 11. Connor reiterated that the supplemental filing period for congressional candidates will run from Jan. 11-16.
"Throughout this process, our office will continue to communicate and work with local officials and state leadership to ensure that our state's March 9th primary election runs smoothly," said Connor.
Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst noted after the ruling today that it has been the leadership's "goal from day one" to pass "a legal and fair plan which reflects the current voting trends in Texas while protecting all minority voters." He said the judges' ruling "confirmed that we did just that."
It was Dewhurst who facilitated passage of the redistricting bill in the Texas Senate. Senate Democrats fled to New Mexico at the start of the Second Called Session to prevent a quorum and keep the bill from coming to the Senate floor. With the defection by Dean of the Senate John Whitmire (D-Houston), Dewhurst had his quorum. Setting aside the two-thirds rule, a tradition in the Senate that requires a two-thirds vote for legislation to be taken up on the floor, the bill was passed mostly along party lines.
Saying the people of Texas "will finally have a congressional delegation that reflects their votes and their views," Republican Party of Texas Chairman Tina Benkiser said that throughout the redistricting process, the GOP maintained the map the Legislature passed is "fair, legal and necessary."
"A majority of Texans vote for Republican congressional candidates," she said, "and now the Legislature, the Justice Department and the courts have all said the people will have their votes respected in 2004."
While the Republican leadership's comments were short and sweet following today's ruling, Democrats railed long and loud.
Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston), one of more than 50 House Democrats who fled Texas for Oklahoma during the 78th Regular Session to kill the redistricting bill, said the judges' decision will "not only trample the voting rights of millions of Texans, but will reverse decades of hard-fought progress for minority voters across the country."
Calling the ruling "a stunning decision," Coleman said he is hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the decision. He also said that pending a decision by the nation's high court, Texas congressional elections should be held under the current districts, "the only districts which have been found legal by the Supreme Court."
Coleman said if today's decision stands, it will "let loose the plague of perpetual redistricting on the American landscape" while "minority voting rights and communities of interest will be routinely eliminated for the sake of extremist partisan greed."
Benkiser said an appeal by the Democrats will "further waste judiciary time and resources," adding that Republican leaders are ready to move forward.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting called the judges' decision "terrible" and added that it takes away the votes of 1.4 million minority Texans "at the same time that Republicans claim they want to include minority Texans in the process."
Soechting said the decision will serve as a rallying point for support of the Democratic Party and its candidates following the Republicans' "reign of terror."
The judges were candid in their ruling, and warned of repercussions from the highly partisan battle over redistricting in Texas, particularly in the high-tech age of computer-drawn maps. The ruling notes that while computers are a welcome addition for their ability to slice thin lines, they "create much greater potential for abuse."
"We know it is rough and tumble politics," they wrote, "and we are ever mindful that the judiciary must call the fouls without participating in the game." Concern was expressed, however, that "in the age of technology, this is a very different game."
Addressing the specifics of the claims of the lawsuit, the judges said that while there are compelling arguments for not redistricting during non-census years, the plaintiffs failed to prove there is any authority strictly forbidding doing so. They also ruled that the plan is neither unconstitutional nor does it violate the Voting Rights Act, and thus denied all relief requested by the plaintiffs.
But the judges put the onus back on the people of Texas by writing, "We decide only the legality of Plan 1374C, not its wisdom. Whether the Texas Legislature has acted in the best interest of Texas is a judgment that belongs to the people who elected the officials..."