House Reapportionment

Population Shifts Every 10 years, a CENSUS is taken to count the population of the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives uses this information to reapportion the seats in the House. Remember, representation in the House is based on population.

435 is enough! Every time we added states (& population) to the nation, we added seats. In 1929, Congress passed the Reapportionment Act to freeze the number at 435. So now, they have to redistribute the seats every 10 years.

For a state to gain seats, another state or states must lose, because they number stays at 435.

1970 Census=24 seats for TX

1980 Census=27 seats for TX Keep your eye on District #16 in far West TX!

1990 Census=30 seats for TX WOW! What happened to District #16?

2000 Census=32 seats for TX Where did District #16 go? TX Average: 651,619 people per district. LINK TO THE NEW MAP U.S.%20Congressional%20%20Districts%2C%2 0110th%20%20CONGRESS

What is a Gerrymander? "The Gerry- Mander" first appeared in this cartoon- map in the Boston Gazette, 26 March 1812 Boston Gazette Boston Gazette

Supreme Court Cases Westbury v. Sanders Baker v. Carr =1 man, 1 vote principle Districts needs to mathematically equal.

What does a gerrymandered district look like? North Carolina black majority 12th Congressional District Gerrymander

What does a gerrymandered district look like?

How do they do this? It’s all in how the lines are drawn! Example

What about Texas? Well, we had some problems in 1996.

Majority-Minority Districts Challenged in the Supreme Court in 1996, (by a HISD government teacher!) Vera v. Bush, and the Justices said that this was unconstitutional. They said you could not segregate people by race for districting purposes. That was a violation of the 14 th ’s equal protection clause.

Democrats in the St. Leg. couldn’t work it out, so a 3-judge panel had to redraw the lines.

Oh, but that’s not the end to our story about gerrymandering in Texas! It got pretty nasty in 2003.

Democrat’s PlanRepublican’s 2003 Plan

Republican plan won.

Demographics: Total Population: 651,620 (+1) AngloBlackHispanicDemsRepsSolid Republican, as of %

Close up of District 10 Where do you live? – wer.htm?Title=PLAN% C%20- U.S.%20Congressional%20%20Districts%2C %20110th%20%20CONGRESS wer.htm?Title=PLAN% C%20- U.S.%20Congressional%20%20Districts%2C %20110th%20%20CONGRESShttp://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/plans/planc01440/vie wer.htm?Title=PLAN% C%20- U.S.%20Congressional%20%20Districts%2C %20110th%20%20CONGRESS

What is the future of District 10? According to McCaul’s Austin office, District 10 now has around 900,000 people in it, as of Oct, So it will have to be redrawn after the 2010 census. Most of the growth in the district has occurred in the Cypress area.

Demographics: Total Population: 651,620 (+1) AngloBlackHispanicDemsReps Solid Republican 67.5% Represented by: John Culberson—Rep.

Demographics: Total Population: 651,619 AngloBlackHispanicDemsReps Solid Republican 60.6% Represented by: Pete Olson—Rep. Originally was Tom DeLay—Rep.

So what happened to Dist. 22? Tom DeLay is under indictment for his involvement in the Republicans state legislators’ redrawing of the district lines in The Republican party has backed DeLay. People in his district were so fed up with him and the Rep. party, that they turned on them and voted for a Democrat, in Hot race in 2008 between incumbent Nick Lampson (D) and Pete Olson. Pete Olson won.

Demographics: Total Population: 651,619 AngloBlackHispanicDemsReps Solid Republican 64.2% Represented by: Ted Poe—Rep,

Demographics: Total Population: 651,619 AngloBlackHispanicDemsReps Solid Democrat 19.7% Represented by: Sheila Jackson Lee—Dem.

Demographics: Total Population: 651,619 AngloBlackHispanicDemsReps Solid Democrat 21.9% Represented by: Gene Green—Dem.

Other Houston Area Districts 8 th : 67% Republican –Represented by Kevin Brady—Rep. 9 th : 70% Democrat –Represented by Al Green—Dem. 10 th : 64% Republican –Represented by Michael McCaul—Rep. 14 th : 61% Republican –Represented by Ron Paul—Rep. (Ran for President last year!)

So… 6 out of 9 districts in Harris County, are supposed to be solid REPUBLICAN, and Only 3 out of 9 districts in Harris County are supposed to be solid DEMOCRAT. Clearly, giving the Republicans the advantage of sending more of their like- minded people to D.C.

Statewide Impact BEFORE (when Dems. drew the lines in 2001) –16 Democrats –16 Republicans NOW (after Reps. redrew the lines in 2004) –11 Democrats –21 Republicans

How could we take politics out of the equation? A Redistricting Commission –AZ does this. –3 Reps, 3 Dems, 3 Indep. Will this happen in Texas? –Probably not. –Why? The stakes are too high. Each party at the state level, wants more power and control in D.C.

New Supreme Court ruling March 9, decision Electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act. –This means that if a district is made up of less than half of a minority group, then the legislature cannot make it a majority-minority district through gerrymandering, and use the VRA to justify it. Impact: This could make it harder for southern Democrats to draw friendly boundaries after the 2010 Census. dyn/content/article/2009/03/09/AR _pf