A Winding Route to New Texas Congressional Map

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-redistricting/redistricting/a-winding-route-to-new-texas-congressional-map/

When it comes to congressional redistricting in Texas, inaction is louder than words.

It’s all but certain now that when Texans go to the polls next year, they’ll elect their 36 members of Congress from maps drawn by federal judges — not by state legislators.

Texas outgrew the rest of the states during the last decade and, as a result, will have four more seats in Congress.

Three members of the congressional delegation are in dangerous waters. Francisco "Quico" Canseco of San Antonio and Blake Farenthold of Corpus Christi are both freshman Republicans who won in districts that usually elect Democrats. Rep. Lloyd Doggett isn’t popular with the party drawing the maps. He’s a Democrat. He’s from Austin. And he wrestled with the governor after attaching strings to more than $800 million in federal education funds; the state accepted the money only after the strings were cut. Now, Gov. Rick Perry and others would like to draw a district he can't win. His best arguments are more likely to begin with “May it please the court” than with “Hey, buddy, I need a favor.”

The mapmakers in the statehouse have been busy, but not with congressional maps. They knocked out new maps for the State Board of Education pretty quickly, and those have already become law, albeit without Perry’s signature. State House and Senate maps are in the final stages. The combatants never really drew blood. The state Senate map gives each incumbent a district, putting only one — Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth — in political peril next year. The other districts should remain safely in the paws of current incumbents who choose to run.

It's going to get nasty.......