San Antonio legislator says commission may take over redistricting

Paper: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX)

Date: May 19, 2006

Texas lawmakers may remain so embittered by the redistricting battles that cost West Texas a U.S. congressman that they take themselves out of the process, a state senator said Thursday.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, told a gathering of political scholars and experts that the hard-fought map of U.S. congressional political districts in 2003 spoiled the bipartisan strength of Texas government for some legislators. He has pushed legislation to change the redistricting system for a decade.

Wentworth saw no chance of legislators removing their ability to draw the state political boundaries that create their own districts, he said. But giving the process determining federal district lines over to an outside, bipartisan commission was a fairer way that takes over a legislative session every decade, he said.

"That is the big gorilla in the living room, and all of the other things that the people of Texas really do care about take a back seat," Wentworth said. "They're on a back burner while we focus on our self-preservation, and helping our friends who want to run for Congress and the rest."

The Senate passed legislation he helped author in 2005 that would create a 10-year commission of citizens who aren't seeking or holding public office and who are not registered lobbyists to draw the political boundaries of federal office holders in Texas. It did not make it out of a House committee.

The controversial Texas redistricting plan finished in 2003 drew national attention as state Democrats fled the state twice in a failed attempt to stop a U.S. congressional map that favored a Republican majority. It also combined the districts of U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, and U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in December to hear arguments that the new districts violate the voting rights of Texas citizens.

Legislators still smart from the ugly redistricting fight four years later, and he was hopeful that the bill would continue to receive support next session, Wentworth said.

"People remember," Wentworth said. "We had such publicity nationwide that people haven't forgotten about it."

Former House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, told the crowd that those were the hard fights that voters elected legislators to wage.

"I think the people elect their representatives to make those decisions, and can un-elect them," Laney said. "They can't un-elect a commission."

Both men spoke during a roundtable with state and national political experts at a symposium on legislative redistricting hosted by the Texas Tech Department of Political Science.

But while redistricting caused bitter sentiment within the Legislature, they believe the smoke seems to be settling a bit.

Laney and Wentworth, along with Steve Bickerstaff, author of upcoming book "Lines in the Sand" about the 2003 redistricting, discussed the current environment within the Legislature Thursday night during a panel discussion.

"I think we're getting along better," Wentworth said. "I think for the most part it's pretty much dissipated."

He said time has been healing wounds and it will continue to do so.

"It's not going to be permanent," he added.

Bickerstaff agreed that it seems as if the effects have been slowly fading.

(Staff writer Robin Briscoe contributed to this report.)

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Author: ELLIOTT BLACKBURN

Section: local