Sorry to keep posting this stuff, but folks, this is the most important redistricting case in the modern era. It will profoundly influence how things are done. And while many of you may think TX is a lost Republican cause, the fact is that the state's demographics are changing so rapidly (i.e. huge growth in Hispanic population, moderate growth in African American population, flat or falling Anglo population), that it is not a lost cause.
This plan must be stopped. The insider buzz on the rationale for this plan being rammed through by Delay is that he's only 5 or 6 votes short of being Speaker. He thinks this new TX plan will get him the votes he needs. This is serious shit, people.
We've got to shine a light on this.
Again, from www.quorumreport.com
December 20, 2003 5:46 PM
HEBERT SAYS SIGNIFICANT THAT VOTING DIVISION CHIEF DID NOT SIGN PRE-CLEARANCE LETTER
Says it is the first time since passage of Voting Rights Act
As a former acting chief of the Department of Justice Voting Division, Democratic attorney Gerald Hebert is aware of their practices. In fact, he says that over his 20+ years in the agency, he was involved in somewhere around 20,000 pre-clearance cases.
The preclearance received on Friday by Texas Secretary of State Geoffrey Connor is the first ocassion in Hebert's memory that the Voting Division Chief did not sign the letter. Hebert says this is a dramatic departure from standard practice and suggests a profound disagreement between political appointees and career staff.
He added that the only time during his tenure that an appointee simply vetoed staff recommendations without any hair splitting was in a 1981 Louisiana congressional redistricting case. The following year, a federal court threw out the map as a deliberate effort to limit African-American participation.