Senator Jeff
Wentworth of Texas (R-San Antonio) filed Senate Bill 1068, which would
create a bi-partisan commission to handle redistricting and set
specific criteria for all future redistricting plans.
“It’s
the right thing to do and the right time to do it,” said Jeff Brooks,
the Public Interest Advocate for TexPIRG. “The people of Texas want a
redistricting process that represents their democratically-expressed
wishes, rather than one which only serves partisan political goals.”
Under current law, the legislature itself draws up congressional
redistricting plans. Whichever party is in the majority in the
legislature has traditionally used its redistricting power to maximize
its own representation in Congress, while minimizing the representation
of the minority party. The result has been that the actual voting
patterns of the people are rarely reflected in the outcome of
congressional elections. Furthermore, by creating districts completely
dominated by single party, partisan redistricting results in there
being very few truly competitive congressional districts in Texas.
“Partisan
redistricting makes a mockery of everything that American democracy is
supposed to stand for,” Brooks said. “If Jefferson, Franklin and the
other Founding Fathers could see how we have handled redistricting in
Texas, they would be pretty disgusted. We need to fix this and we need
to do it now.”
The bi-partisan commission which would be created by Senate Bill 1068
would have strict conflict-of-interest provisions, designed to ensure
that no one with a personal stake in the outcome will be involved in
the drawing up of redistricting plans. Furthermore, half the members
would be chosen by Republicans and the other half by Democrats,
preventing one side from outvoting the other.
Furthermore, specific criteria would be laid out for redistricting
plans.
Existing political subdivision boundaries, such as county lines and
city limits, would have to be taken into consideration, while every
district would have to be shaped as compactly and conveniently as
possible.
“It’s
so simple that any child can understand it: each party should get a
proportion of representation as equal as possible to its share of the
vote,” Brooks added. “Senator Wentworth’s bill would go a long way in
improving the situation.”
Senator Wentworth has filed similar legislation in every session since
1993. In 2005, his redistricting reform bill passed the Senate and died
in committee in the House. However, Representative Joe Crabb, Chairman
of the House Redistricting Committee, has indicated a greater
willingness to hold hearings on redistricting reform bills this
session. The chances of Wentworth’s bill becoming law are better than
they have ever been.
In addition to the Wentworth bill, other legislation has been
introduced to reform the redistricting process. Representative Mark
Strama (D-Austin) has filed House Bill 112 and House Joint Resolution
22, which also would create a bi-partisan redistricting commission.
Furthermore, Representative Allan Ritter (D-Nederland) has filed House
Joint Resolution 31, which would change the constitution so as to
permit redistricting only once every decade.
“This
session provides a unique opportunity for the legislature to act on
this issue,” Brooks said. “Enough time has passed since the Ardmore
incident of 2003 for bad feelings to have faded, while enough time
remains until the next round of redistricting in 2011 for the necessary
reforms to be enacted. The legislature should take advantage of this
window of opportunity and make redistricting reform a top priority.”
