The Supreme Court has agreed to look into the Texas Redistricting Fiasco of 2003. To see if it was constitutional. Yeah, I’m not holding my breath, either. (here’s a better link I think, go have a drink)
Take a gander at the map in question (PDF); just who the hell could come up with such a thing? (also, remember that it was kept secret, only the politicians were allowed to know what the proposed map looked like up until the 11th hour)
A couple of notes, for anyone not from around Tejas:
Do you see District 15? Toward the bottom, a long skinny thing. Runs all the way from the Texas / Mexico border up to Bastrop county, which is between Austin and San Antonio. What they conveniently left off of this map is any indication of scale.
It’s 330 miles long, give or take a few (probably longer, if you drive through the district instead of taking the interstate, it goes around several population centers.
Look at how some counties are split. Why do that? Doesn’t that just make it that much harder to figure out who represents you?
The only reason they drew up a redistricting map (and forced it down our throats) was to try and get more republicans elected to congress, by redrawing (dividing) districts where democrats have had strong support for years (and even decades) and placing them with areas of strong republican support. Chet Edwards was supposed to be defeated by some homophobe who I can’t remember her name right now. But having a district several hundred miles long and thirty miles wide? Huh?
Imagine if school districts were drawn this way. In your neighborhood, depending on what street you live on, the kid across the street from you could go to a different high school from yours, and your next door neighbor another one still. Where’s the community? How do you ‘represent’ people who don’t know each other, who can’t meet (“Hi, I’m your congressman, and I’m having a town hall meeting! I know it’s a school night, but please come see us 200 miles from home. We start at 6:00 PM”)
Total horseshit, is what it is. I hope it’s tossed. I’m tired of being the joke of America.