Voting district map set after months of bitter negotiation

By: April Castro

Posted: 10/10/03

AUSTIN - The Texas Legislature may have a congressional redistricting map to vote on before lawmakers skip town for the Texas-Oklahoma football game.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Wednesday that a tentative agreement had been reached after months of bitter negotiations on a map designed to put more Republicans in the Texas congressional delegation. A final map would be unveiled Thursday morning, Dewhurst said.
The announcement appeared to end weeks of squabbling between Republicans over the shape of West Texas congressional districts. The party battle followed months of fighting between Republicans and Democrats, who forced the calling of three special sessions.
House Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican, has been adamant about ensuring that his home district in Midland have a congressional seat to represent the Permian Basin's oil and gas industry.
Recent proposals seem to indicate the map will give Midland that district, but that could mean that the farming and agricultural region from Lubbock to Abilene would lose representation - a move opposed by Lubbock Republican Sen. Robert Duncan. The two chambers have rallied their respective stances, taking shots at each other and refusing to budge.
The deal came as Gov. Rick Perry was out of the state touting Texas' economic development programs with several television appearances. U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had spent the past three days in the Texas Capitol, trudging back and forth between the offices of Dewhurst and Craddick in an attempt to end the strife and broker a deal.
''It is my hope that we can have a final map that we can show you tomorrow morning,'' Dewhurst said.
Craddick said the deal was not finalized, but ''we're pretty much in agreement on the map, but we haven't seen a map per se.''
Small details remain to be ironed out, Dewhurst said.
The conference committee agreement still must receive approval from the majority of the House and Senate. The chambers are scheduled to convene again Friday. There was concern that an agreement couldn't be voted on before lawmakers left town to attend festivities surrounding the Texas-Oklahoma football game Saturday in Dallas.
Perry is expected to sign the redistricting bill.
''Our goal is to have fair lines that respect communities of interest, that complies with the Voting Rights Act and I think we'll be delivering that to you in the morning,'' said Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, a lead Senate negotiator.
The GOP, which controls the Texas House and Senate and occupies every statewide elected office, says conservative voting trends show Texas should have more Republicans in Texas' congressional delegation.
Democrats, who control the delegation 17-15, want to keep current district boundaries.
Democrats boycotted the Texas Legislature twice this year over redistricting to block a quorum and thus kill redistricting bills. House Democrats fled to Ardmore, Okla., in May and stayed away for four days to block redistricting in the regular legislative session.
Senate Democrats went to Albuquerque, N.M., for six weeks beginning July 28 to shut down redistricting in a second special legislative session.
The Democrats returned when one of their own party members defected and said he would return to Austin, giving Republicans the quorum they needed to do business.
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