Truthmatters
Diamond Member
- May 10, 2007
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/u...-up-districting.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
The state’s boom in population — census data in 2010 showed it had grown by 20.6 percent since 2000 — gave Texas four new seats in Congress, for a total of 36. The Legislature-drawn maps would give Democrats fewer Congressional and State House seats than the maps created by the three-judge panel, which could deliver to Democrats as many as four additional seats in Congress and about a dozen in the State House. Several minority groups and lawmakers argued that the Legislature’s maps did not reflect growth in the state’s Hispanic and black populations, and violated minority voting rights laws. Attorney General Greg Abbott and Republican leaders maintain that no court has found the Legislature’s maps to violate any law and say that the federal panel in San Antonio exceeded its authority in issuing its own maps.
“This is all about the changing demographics in Texas and what that means for partisan politics,” said Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “In Texas, most of the growth in population that has resulted in Texas’s four additional Congressional seats is a result of a growth of the Hispanic population. But this Hispanic population generally votes Democratic. At least a segment of the Republican Party is trying to keep the growing Hispanic electorate from negatively impacting their power in the state for as long as possible.”
The state’s boom in population — census data in 2010 showed it had grown by 20.6 percent since 2000 — gave Texas four new seats in Congress, for a total of 36. The Legislature-drawn maps would give Democrats fewer Congressional and State House seats than the maps created by the three-judge panel, which could deliver to Democrats as many as four additional seats in Congress and about a dozen in the State House. Several minority groups and lawmakers argued that the Legislature’s maps did not reflect growth in the state’s Hispanic and black populations, and violated minority voting rights laws. Attorney General Greg Abbott and Republican leaders maintain that no court has found the Legislature’s maps to violate any law and say that the federal panel in San Antonio exceeded its authority in issuing its own maps.
“This is all about the changing demographics in Texas and what that means for partisan politics,” said Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “In Texas, most of the growth in population that has resulted in Texas’s four additional Congressional seats is a result of a growth of the Hispanic population. But this Hispanic population generally votes Democratic. At least a segment of the Republican Party is trying to keep the growing Hispanic electorate from negatively impacting their power in the state for as long as possible.”