Under pressure from President Donald Trump, Texas’ dominant Republicans are attempting to redraw the state’s congressional districts and thus increase the number of GOP-held seats after the midterms.
Under pressure from President Donald Trump, Texas’ dominant Republicans are attempting to redraw the state’s congressional districts and thus increase the number of GOP-held seats after the midterms.
Republicans have a paper-thin majority in the House of Representative. Trump obviously fears that Democrats could win control next year and he wants mid-decade redistricting to make congressional regime change less likely.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders want to counter the nakedly partisan effort in Texas by gerrymandering California’s congressional districts to neutralize whatever Texas does. It’s faintly reminiscent of the Spy vs. Spy comic strip in MAD Magazine that baby boomers might recall, or perhaps the classic Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
However, there’s nothing funny about trampling — in the lust for partisan political power — the quaintly democratic notion that congressional districts should fairly represent the characteristics and values of their constituents.
Newsom wants the Legislature to place a measure on the November ballot that would set aside — temporarily, he says — the state’s constitutional requirement that redistricting be done once a decade by an independent commission.
