US House Redistricting: Texas

[timothyinMD]

The map that the Texas Republican drew sucks.  Its ugly, too partisan and rips a lot of places to shreds.  

I drew a map, and of course I drew it to favor Republicans because I am one, but it doesn't rip communities to shreds as the Legislature's map did.  








I split almost all the heavily populated counties into the fewest number of districts possible

20 districts are 50%+ minorities of all types
16 districts are 50%+ non-Hispanic white
4 districts 27% black or higher (2, 9, 10, 5)
7 districts majority Hispanic (20, 33, 18, 31, 21, 19, 10)
22 districts 20-50% Hispanic

7 McCain 70-77% (36, 24, 35, 34, 23, 25, 17)
8 McCain 60-70% (27, 6, 32, 12, 8, 19, 7, 13)
8 McCain 55-60% (29, 14, 4, 16, 22, 11, 30, 28)
4 McCain 50-55% (15 @ 53.9%, 1 & 3 @ 53.7%, 21 @ 52.6%)

9 Obama districts
2, 9, 10, 26, 20, 31, 18, 33, 5  84.6%-68.7%

[timothyinMD]

Who knows what the statutes are in Texas?

Does the legislature have the right to a redraw or is it in the courts now?

[timothyinMD]

This whole Texas redistricting crap is outrageous.  Basically the DOJ wants Texas to swap one gerrymandered district for another. 

This racial crap is sickening.  The law is one MAN one vote, not one racial group, one vote.  We all have the same right to walk in to the booth and select one candidate for House of Representatives no matter where we live

[timothyinMD]

This is my solution to the Texas redistricting flap.

Harris County 3 Democrat/3 Republican
Navy - 63% McCain 46.7% White, 27% Hispanic
Olive - 61.7% McCain 42.7% White, 35.9% Hispanic
Maroon - 63.3% McCain 49.3% White, 31.9% Hispanic

Yellow - 54.3% Obama 38.7% Hispanic, 35.2% White
Brown - 86.4% Obama 49.3% Black, 35% Hispanic
Pink - 67.2% Obama 74.6 Hispanic, 12.3% Black



Tarrant/Dallas Counties 3 Democrat/3 Republican
Green - 59.4% McCain 55% White, 26% Hispanic
Red - 66.5% McCain 67.7% White, 18.9% Hispanic
Purple - 60% McCain 55.2% White, 28% Hispanic

Blue - 79.9% Obama 42.5% Black, 38.3% Hispanic
Orange - 62.2% Obama 45.7% Hispanic, 28.5% White
Yellow - 67.1% Obama 42.5% Hispanic, 26.2% Black

DWF has the population for 5.98 seats so I just leveled it off and made 6 entirely within those 2 counties.   For the 98,000 extra persons needed to complete Harris' 6th seat, the black seat dips into the black section of Fort Bend Co.


Does't get fairer than 6-6

[timothyinMD]

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

[timothyinMD]

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.

[timothyinMD]

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).

Under the presumption that minorities are sheep and they all vote the same way.  That's offensive.

[timothyinMD]

The Bexar and Travis splits are kinda weird, and there is no need for Harris to be cut in 10, but overall I think it's a good map

[timothyinMD]

This is a good opportunity for Republicans to go back to the drawing board and craft a respectable 25-11 map (2 new Dems 2 new Reps).  Its really quite easy, and it could pass muster

[timothyinMD]

A crappy map, but I guess the best were gonna get with all the obsessive racial issues involved

[timothyinMD]

Map = embarrassing