The Mess With Texas
A reader writes:
can you sic your bullshit radar on this and get back to me? truth or what?:
Dear MoveOn member,Impeachment.
The 2000 Election.
The California Recall.The pattern is becoming clear: there's a group of men in power who will do anything to consolidate that power, including undermining our democratic institutions. We've got to fight back. In Texas, they are fighting back. And while the world is focusing on the California mess, they are fighting alone. They need our help.
A partisan plan pushed by Karl Rove and Tom Delay will redistrict up to 7 Democrats out of Congress. Right now, 11 Democratic State Senators are hiding across state lines -- with the Texas Governor calling for their arrest -- to prevent this illegitimate plan from being strong-armed into law. They have put their reputations and careers on the line for all of us. A letter below from State Senator Rodney Ellis explains the situation in detail. Please read it, and then please help us launch a hard-hitting ad campaign to fight back in Texas. Whether you donate $5 or $5000, you will be helping to hold accountable reckless leaders who think they can get away with anything.
The Texas special session that was called to gerrymander the Texas congressional districts ends early next week, and the pressure is building. These courageous leaders need to see real support now, or they won't be able to hold out.
Our numbers our great enough now to fight back effectively against these attacks on democracy. Please get even more people involved by forwarding this email to everyone you think would like to help.
Thanks,
--Zack and Wes
MoveOn.org PAC
August 20th, 2003
Well, dear Reader, Texas is, not surprisingly, a Republican-leaning state, and would have a majority of Republican congresspeople if the districts were drawn completely fairly by, say, a computer. District lines are never drawn fairly (gerrymandering is almost 200 years old) and in this case Democrats got the upper hand on the Republicans and succeeded in creating a 17-15 bias in favor of Democratic congressmen. In Texas! Where every statewide officeholder is a Republican.
So Republicans are trying to draw the lines 'fairly' according to the Republican Party of Texas.
All in all, completely legal ball on both sides (Republicans to try to draw the lines, Democrats to pull stunts like moving out of state to avoid voting).
I imagine the PR war will end up slightly in the Republicans' favor on this, though there is widespread disaffection among rank-and-file Democrats about "political tactics" such as these and the California recall (though, not surprisingly, those sentiments don't cover such de noveau developments like filibustering Federal court appointees.)
