Republican State Rep. Todd Hunter lays out Texas House redistricting bill October 12, 2021

 

 

Republicans Map Poised to Pass
as House Dems Decry Race Impact

Capitol Inside
October 12, 2021

GOP leaders defused an early assassination attempt by Democrats on Tuesday when the Texas House prepared to approve a map for its members' own districts amid assertions that it's designed to boost white Republican representation at the expense of minority voting rights.

The House set the stage for the eventual outcome when it voted 81-63 along party lines against a motion to extend the time for questions on an amendment that Democratic State Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas proposed in a move that would have buried the map by striking the enacting clause.

The House followed that up with a 82-65 vote to torpedo the Anchia amendment as GOP Speaker Dade Phelan's team appeared to have the Republicans united and poised to keep House Bill 1 intact without revisions on the floor unless the majority consents.

Democrats decried the proposed map as an assault on the electoral strength of Black and Hispanic voters with cracking and packing tactics that ignore the fact that minorities accounted for 96 percent of growth in Texas during the past decade.

Anchia and other Democrats contended that the plan was being rammed through in a fast-track process that took place largely behind the scenes without the opportunity for sufficient public review.

State Rep. Todd Hunter - a Corpus Christi Republican who's the author of HB 1 - argued that the plan complied with federal voting rights requirements and would not dilute minority clout at the polls as alleged by Democrats. A former Democrat who's served as the Redistricting Committee chairman this year, Hunter said that the map includes two new Hispanic majority districts and one for Blacks.

But Democrats were using the debate on the floor to lay the groundwork for a court fight on the map - and they did so with a string of amendments that were all doomed to die on party line votes.

The House voted 81-64 to kill an amendment that Democratic Toni Rose of Dallas proposed that would have required the state to have a federal court's stamp of approval before the redistricting plan could take effect.

Democrats disputed Hunter's analysis - saying the plan in HB 1 would actually boost the number of districts with white majorities despite the fact that the Anglo population here grew less than 5 percent in the past decade. Democrats contended that HB 1 cuts across county lines in attempts to weaken Latino and Black voters in Cameron and Henderson counties respectively.

The map would culminate in a net gain of one or two seats on paper for the ruling Republicans, who have 83 House districts now.

more to come ...

 

 

 


 

 


 

 

 

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