Say the word “redistricting” or “reapportionment” and even some political junkies’ eyes glaze over. But for most lawmakers, it’s a subject that can get their “blood boiling, their hearts racing and their dander up,” Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth says, because the redrawing of district lines could cost lawmakers their jobs and their parties power for the next 10 years.
The last time Texas went through the redistricting process in 2003, the Texas Legislature became such a laughingstock that Jay Leno made jokes about it on TV. At the time, 51 Democratic state lawmakers fled to neighboring Oklahoma to deprive the Legislature of a quorum, a move that succeeded in killing a GOP-backed redistricting bill. Later that same year, Texas approved a controversial mid-decade plan engineered by former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Texas Republicans that ultimately gave the GOP six more seats in Congress.
Wentworth, a Republican from San Antonio, last year once again introduced legislation that would take congressional redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and hand it over to an independent panel made up of citizens, not politicians. And once again the measure failed.
As Census forms begin arriving in Americans’ mailboxes and with elections looming, the political parties have at least $93 million to spend in hopes of winning control of key statehouses and governorships. Those wins would give them the upper hand when new lines are drawn for congressional and statehouse boundaries in 2011, based on the new population counts, and theoretically make it easier for their members to grab those seats.
The U.S. Constitution requires all local, state and federal legislative districts to be redrawn after a census is taken to make the districts roughly equal in population, guaranteeing that each person is equally represented in legislative bodies, explains Tim Storey, an elections expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures. States with shrinking populations will lose seats and states with population surges will gain seats.
The Constitution leaves it up to the state to determine the method it wants to use for redistricting. In all but about a dozen states, state legislators and governors play key roles in the process, while commissions are in charge in the other states (see NCSL link embedded in Apture above).
Democrats currently control 60 state legislative chambers, most of which will draw maps for 383 congressional and 5,074 state legislative seats, the party says. But 21 of those chambers in 17 states are within five seats of changing hands politically. These 17 states will shape 198 congressional districts during redistricting.
Democrats are using the earlier GOP actions in Texas as a rallying cry to get the party faithful to vote and give money. “If we don’t shut down the GOP at the ballot box and stop them from redistricting themselves back into power, all our reforms will be dead in the water,” outgoing New Mexican Governor Bill Richardson said in a recent fundraiser letter for the Democratic Governors Association, calling the 2003 Texas redistricting plan “underhanded” and “deceitful.”
Winning control of legislative chambers is especially important this year, because most state legislatures will be drawing new congressional and statehouse districts based on population changes revealed in the 2010 census. The big winner could be Texas, which would have gained three seats based on latest estimates.
This time, Texas could be awarded three extra seats in Congress, more than any state, because of its population boom. Democrats there hope to swing at least three seats in the state House in November and are also aiming at defeating incumbent Governor Rick Perry, thus depriving Republicans their lock on political control and its advantage in redrawing the political lines.
Other states that are expected to pick up a seat in Congress because of the Census and play a primary role in redrawing districts include Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Utah. Arizona and Washington are slated to pick up at least one new congressional seat, but these states use commissions to draw new lines.
