Takin' on the Hammer

The down and dirty politics of redistricting got a bit dirtier in Texas last year. While the rest of the country made jokes about it, many of us were quite proud of the Texas House Democrats who shut down the Legislature by de-camping for Ardmore, OK. We were just as proud when the Texas Senate Democrats headed for Albuquerque, NM, and shut down a special called session. In the end, we still wound up with some seriously gerrymandered districts and the potential loss of some fine members of Congress, thanks in very large part to the heavy interference of Congressman Tom Delay, the U. S. House Majority Whip.

For all the silly arguments that Mr. Delay made regarding the need to redistrict, the whole exercise was just another grab at more power. Texas had already been redistricted, as is required after the national census. After 30 years of living in Travis County and being represented by a Democratic state senator, I was shifted to a new state senate district and had to be represented by a Republican. I did not like this. I was already used to the back and forth on my state house district, since we live in a precinct that regularly gets shifted during redistricting. It was nice to have a Democratic voice speaking for me in the Texas House for the ten years between censuses, but I've had to cope with a Republican Representive before, so it wasn't that much of a shock. I was, however, really unhappy to realize that our precinct had been shifted over to a Republican district for the congressional seat. Lloyd Doggett has been my Congressman for several years. I was comfortable with him. No, really damned proud of him. So I was not pleased to be shifted over to a district represented by a conservative Republican.

Still, I accepted those changes as being part of the sausage-making that goes on with redistricting and comforted myself that, at least, Congressman Doggett would still be fighting the good fight for Texans, that my values would still be represented in Congress.

Then along comes the Hammer to try to silence that voice. Nothing would stop him it seemed. And there were, of course, many Republicans in and around state government who went out of their way to help him do it.

Happily, we still have a man of courage in our local district attorney, Ronnie Earle. He has decided to follow the money, and there was a lot of it. As he begins to make the case that corporate funds were illegally used to influence Texas' general election, there is some possibility that even Mr. Delay may face some legal battles in the coming months.

Here are a couple of recent stories:

Citizens group wants outsider to referee election dispute

GOP lobbyist led 2002 election ad campaign

In more good news, it appears that Mr. Delay may, in fact be vulnerable in the next election. Richard Morrison, a SugarLand attorney, is running a strong campaign to unseat the increasingly unpopular incumbent. You can check out his campaign web site at http://www.richardmorrisonfordistrict22.com

There's also a new weblog (that may be related to Morrison's campaign) called
Taking on Tom Delay.

Finally, The Free State Standard has expanded its focus from just one Texas county to cover all 254! Vince Liebowitz seems also to be tracking some the stories on the redistricting and campaign finance issues as they play out in the courts.