Democrats thrilled that remapping is in court

Paper: Austin American-Statesman (TX)

Date: March 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - Three years ago, fighting for their political lives, several congressional Democrats from Texas walked into the Department of Justice to argue against the state's 2003 redistricting map.

The Democrats - among them Reps. Charlie Stenholm, Martin Frost, Max Sandlin, Jim Turner and Nick Lampson - entered a conference room and sat across a large table from four career attorneys from the department's Voting Rights Division. Off to the side, President Bush's appointee Hans von Spakovsky, an attorney who had assisted in the 2000 Florida recount, watched quietly.

The Texans brought in maps and a legal brief and walked the lawyers through their argument that the state Legislature had violated voting rights by redrawing congressional lines at the urging of then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, to send more Republicans to Congress.

''I never felt that it was a 'Thank you very much; now get out of here' type deal," said Stenholm, of Abilene, who had served 26 years in Congress and had become the ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee. ''I felt like they were listening.''

But it was over. Despite the judgment of the department lawyers that redistricting had indeed violated the Voting Rights Act, von Spakovsky overruled their objections.

The rest is history: In the 2004 elections, Texas Democrats went from holding a slim 17-15 majority in the state's U.S. House delegation to being members of a 21-11 minority.

Stenholm, Frost, Sandlin and Lampson lost their seats. Turner didn't seek re-election. Rep. Chris Bell, whose Houston district was redrawn to include more African American voters, lost to Al Green in the Democratic primary.

Of the Democrats targeted for defeat by redistricting, only Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco beat his Republican opponent.

Stenholm, Turner and Sandlin now are lobbyists; Frost is with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan institute that studies national and world affairs. Lampson is challenging DeLay for his District 22 House seat. Bell is running for governor.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether the redistricting was constitutional.

''At least we're going to find out now,'' Stenholm said. ''We kept hearing that some at Justice were agreeing with us, but no one was coming forward. Now we're told the entire professional staff agreed with us that the maps were not drawn constitutionally. Now that we have the Supreme Court hearing it, well, I can certainly live with that decision.''

Stenholm spent his first year out of Congress doing pretty much what he did inside Congress: pushing for changes in Social Security and a balanced budget. He joined the policy groups For Our Grandchildren, the Concord Coalition and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Last year he became a lobbyist with Olsson, Frank and Weeda, a Washington agricultural and health care law firm.

''I don't miss the environment on Capitol Hill for one-half a second,'' Stenholm said. ''And it is worse today than when I left.''

Frost, who represented the Dallas area for 26 years, is now an analyst for Fox News and writes a column for the network's Web site, in addition to being with the Wilson center.

In January, he called today's court arguments ''the single most important redistricting case of this decade.''

''DeLay was always trying to push things as far as he could, to see what he could get away with,'' Frost said. ''This may be one of the things he doesn't get away with.''

Frost supports Lampson's run against DeLay and thinks a DeLay defeat ''would be sweet. . . . It couldn't happen to a more deserving fella,'' he said.

After Lampson was defeated in his Beaumont district, he spent five months consulting with a biodiesel fuel company in East Texas and taught a political science course at Lamar University in Beaumont. Then he moved and filed for candidacy in DeLay's Houston-area district. His fellow ousted Democrats are pitching in, he said.

''I've spoken with all of them. They all (have) a very big interest in helping me,'' Lampson said. ''They saw what changed . . . and they are interested in putting things back the way they should be.''

tcopp@statesman.com; (202) 887-8329

Author: Tara Copp

Section: News

Page: A01