Proposed congressional maps being released (LULAC)

[sonias]

AAS 7/14
Proposed congressional maps being released
Hispanics helped, Travis County still split under first two plans
The first proposals to redraw Texas' congressional map and fix Latino voting rights violations would create two new Latino-majority districts in the state but leave Travis County split among three members of Congress.

The two maps were provided Thursday by the League of United Latin American Citizens and are the first of several proposals expected to be released by various groups by this afternoon.

(snip)
The biggest differences between LULAC's two maps are:

•Plan A fuses Laredo back together as part of Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar's 28th District, which currently runs from San Antonio to the border, and shifts Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla's 23rd District north to pull voters from South San Antonio.

•Plan B fuses Laredo back together as part of Bonilla's district and shifts Cuellar's 28th District north to include more of Bexar County.

In Plan A, the members' homes would remain in separate districts in November (Bonilla lives in San Antonio and Cuellar in Laredo) and they could each run in their redrawn districts. In Plan B, it is likely that Cuellar would challenge Bonilla for the Laredo territory.

Let the fight begin! Lloyd Doggett's district of course will be redrawn but according to the article the other surrounding districts are only slightly affected. MALDEF will also release their proposed map later this afternoon with Laredo back in tact. Austin continues to be represented by 3 congressmen.

Sonia

[sonias]

1. CD21 under proposed maps- John Courage's District is scary

Plan A CD21
Crockett
Sutton (part)
Edwards
Real
Bandera
Kerr
Kendall
Blanco
Comal
Hayes
Travis (part)
Bexar (part)


Plan B CD21
Edwards
Real
Bandera
Kerr
Kendall
Blanco
Comal
Hayes
Travis (part)
Bexar (part)

How these counties voted in the 2004 General Presidential election:

2004 General	 Repub	Dem
Crockett	72.22%	27.37%
Sutton (parts)	80.72%	19.72%
Edwards	        77.36%	22.53%
Real	        79.87%	19.75%
Bandera	        79.31%	19.88%
Kerr	        77.84%	21.44%
Kendall	        81.25%	17.99%
Blanco	        71.48%	27.63%
Comal 	        76.92%	22.30%
Hayes	        56.50%	42.05%
Travis (part)	41.99%	56.01%
Bexar (part)	54.84%	44.38%

This is depressing. Numbers aren't exact since I don't know what parts of the partial counties are in the mix, but the trends don't look good either way for CD21.
:cry:

Sonia

[sonias]

2. Kuff has more of an analysis for all the districts under both plans

http://blogs.chron.com/kuffsworld/2006/07/new_maps_are_in.html

Here's my district CD21 (John Courage's)

Plan        District  2002 Rep%   2004 Rep%

===========================================

Current           21       63.8        60.3

LULAC Plan A      21       65.4        62.1

LULAC Plan B      21       65.4        61.9

I guess under this analysis which LULUC must have included in their submission, it wasn't tweaked as bad as it looked above. OK so my panic attack has subsided a bit. I still don't like the look of the district though.


Sonia

[Melissa G]

3. Our mutual friend, just showed me the Abbott map that screws

Doggett and Travis county. STINKY!!!

I hope we get something closer to the LULAC or MALDEF plans which i hear are much better.

It is ridiculous for Austin to be divided into thirds. JERKS!!!