Redistricting debate to come to West Texas

Enrique Rangel
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
June 5, 2010

AUSTIN - The redistricting debate is coming to West Texas this summer.

Two Texas House subcommittees will hold a mid-August hearing in Lubbock to get public input on the contentious issue the Legislature will take on when the lawmakers are back in session next year. OAS_AD('Position3');

"West Texas is an important part of the state and it needs to have fair representation," Rep. Aaron Pena, D-Edinburg, chairman of the House Redistricting Subcommittee, said Friday.

Pena's three-member panel will hold a joint hearing with the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Subcommittee, which also consists of three members. The newly created subcommittees are under the umbrella of larger House committees by the same names. Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, chairs the Redistricting Committee.

The subcommittees haven't set a definite date, but the Lubbock hearing will be between Aug. 16 and 18 and will be part of a schedule that also includes El Paso, Pena said.

Jones stressed that the dates are tentative and could still be changed. The location is not definite either, but it is likely to be at Texas Tech.

Moreover, since he is the Redistricting chairman, Jones said, he plans to chair the Lubbock hearing.

The Lubbock and El Paso hearings are among 13 stops across the state the subcommittees have tentatively scheduled between June 21 and Nov. 17.

No other West Texas city is included in the tentative schedule. The parent committees plan to have at least one full joint meeting in Austin before the 82nd Legislature convenes on Jan. 11.

Jones, who won't be back for next year's session because he was defeated in the April 13 Republican primary runoff, has said that both committees expect to lay the groundwork when the Legislature is back in session.

Federal law requires state legislatures to redraw congressional and legislative districts every 10 years after the U.S. Census Bureau completes its mandatory population count. Because of its explosive growth of the last two decades, and particularly since 2000, Texas is expected to gain at least three congressional districts.

However, it is a different story for West Texas because more than two dozen rural counties have continuously lost population. Consequently, the region is expected to lose at least one Texas House seat and possibly a congressional district, as well.

This is why it is critical the two subcommittees hold hearings throughout the state, Pena said. The lawmakers need to hear from Texans everywhere about the fairest way to redraw the boundaries.

"We have a lot of work in front of us," Pena said. "My aim is to ensure that Texans across the state have an opportunity to be part of the redistricting process. We have already scheduled an exhaustive itinerary of hearings and I look forward to driving into the process."

Jones and other West Texas officials say the process is critical for the region.

"It is something that I am concerned about not just for Lubbock but for the entire area," Lubbock Mayor Tom Martin said.

At a Redistricting Committee hearing in February, panel members were told that the new congressional districts would represent 811,221 people compared to about 750,000 now, and Texas House districts would represent about 167,652 residents compared to about 140,000 now.

This led some lawmakers, including Jones, to conclude that the Panhandle/South Plains region stands to lose at least one House district and one congressional district because with a combined population of no more than 800,000 the area does not have enough constituents to keep its current number of seats.

Martin said that despite the expected loss of political representation, he is hopeful the Panhandle/South Plains region may keep all six of its Texas House districts and its two congressional seats, even if the districts have to be enlarged farther east toward Dallas or farther south and then west toward El Paso.

"It will ultimately be a political decision," he said.

But if, as expected, Republicans retain control of the Legislature, it could happen because the Panhandle/South Plains is heavily Republican, Martin said.