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November 25, 2004
Turning Point?
For the first time in 30+ years, Democrats in Texas picked up seats in the state House. That's not too surprising -- the trend had been Republican since the '60's*. Then, before the '02 session a new redistricting map was adopted that some considered a pro-Republican gerrymander.
What usually happens is that the gerrymandering party maxes out in the election immediately following the map drawing. People in the minority party that win their seats are usually left alone. They are either in ridiculously safe districts or have exceptional political skills and were able to survive against a well funded candidate running in a district tailored to elect that exact challenger. Rematches don't typically work that well and when the district is drawn with someone in mind and they lose, well, how else could someone else have a better shot?
The first election after redistricting also highlights for the minority party which majority held districts were diluted too much to help surrounding districts. Then the minority party targets these districts and is able to knock off oftentimes senior members who had considered themselves invincible and let their districts get a little too competitive (Tom Murphy, Charles Walker).
Anyway, Virginia's Democrats have started to pick up seats in the state House there and as I mentioned above Texas Democrats have started to slowly turn around their legislature. Only in a move straight out of Jimmy Carter's Turning Point, at least one and perhaps three losing Republicans in the Lone Star state are going to petition their state house colleagues to have their elections overturned.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. But, this is the logical next step for DeLay-ism. It is a belief that one is entitled to power regardless of process and without need for accountability. The worrisome thing is that unlike old-fashioned election fraud there isn't even an effort to hide their corruption. It is in full display.
* (In addition, 2002 so far was a low point for Democrats nationwide. For the first time in at least 70 years there were more Republican state legislators in the country elected than Democrats. In 2004, despite losing ground in many Southern states, overall Democrats moved back into a 50+ lead nationwide)
Posted by Chris at November 25, 2004 06:27 AM
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