US House Redistricting: Texas

[Miles]

Fresh from Lloyd Doggett's Facebook page:

The DOJ rejected the Texas maps.

[Miles]

To my knowledge, all 435 House districts have a non-Hispanic white person over the age of 25.  Thus, every district in this county is a minority opportunity district.

I'm sick of hearing the Latinos and blacks complain that they need "minority opportunity" districts

So you're saying that the one black guy in Wyoming has an equal opportunity to get elected as one of the hundreds of thousands of black people living in Houston or Dallas?

This country has a long history of racial discrimination and despite electing a black president there are still pockets where it is going strong.  Protecting minority voting rights unfortunately still mandates that minorities be concentrated enough within a district to elect a member of their choosing.

Yup.  Exactly.  Your statement is ridiculous.   Minority voters can always elect a member of their choice.  They walk into the voting booth and choose a candidate for congress.

Opprotunity districts are drawn so that minorities have a chance to actually elect a candidate of their choice, as opposed to just voting for one (as your last post implies).

[Miles]

Nothing much else is clear other than that Scalia wants to use the state's map (C185).

And I thought Sotomayor and Kagan were the activists. Silly me.

[Miles]

11 districts out of proportion? Considering the democrats usually get around 40 percent of the vote, it's not out of proportion at all.

Then shouldn't we give Republicans 3 or 4 seats in Massachusetts?

[Miles]

Changing topic, some, but just by looking at the new 36th, it seems like would be a good chance for Jon Turner to make a comeback. The core of his old 2nd is there, but it also contains eastern Harris county, which would probably be quite hostile.