Wednesday, August 7, 1996

Texas' revised redistricting map being studied

By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Congressional candidates and other politicos pored over Texas' revised redistricting map Tuesday, seeking to decipher how electoral fortunes will change now that new elections have been ordered in nearly half the state's 30 House races.

The decision by a three-judge federal panel in Houston to redraw lines in 13 districts - cancelling election results from the March primaries and April runoffs in those districts - significantly alters the election landscape.

The immediate effect of the judges' order, stemming from their 1994 ruling that three majority-minority districts were unconstitutionally drawn, is to throw into turmoil races in the 13 districts clustered in the Houston and Dallas areas.

Republicans hailed the judges' decision.

"No longer will the citizens of our state be forced to endure a system that is racially unjust and immoral," said Edward Blum, one of the Republican plaintiffs who challenged the constitutionality of the three majority-minority districts.

Democrats weren't pleased.

"I think this process stinks," said Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Houston, who appears to be the incumbent most significantly affected by the judges' order. "This court went far beyond its call. It adjusted 13 districts when in fact it could have only adjusted nine to correct the problem with the three districts found unconstitutional."

The judges' action injects into the election mix a series of variables, including the possibility that:

-Incumbents who weren't challenged in the March primaries now could find themselves drawing opposition. Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston and Republican Reps. Bill Archer of Houston and Sam Johnson of Dallas had no primary or major-party general election opposition.
With the filing period reopened through Aug. 30, others could enter the race.

-Under redrawn lines, some candidates will have to run in communities where they haven't campaigned before, rushing to build name identification and political ties in unfamiliar areas.

-Some outcomes might not be known until Dec. 10 - well after the rest of the country's elections are decided. If no candidate emerges with a majority during the Nov. 5 all-comers primary, a runoff would be held in December.

Democrats, who have resisted having elections under new lines this year, complained that the December runoff will confuse voters and dampen turnout.

"Runoff elections two weeks before the holiday season would disenfranchise many Texans and could lead to members of Congress being selected by an extremely small number of voters," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Bill White.

But Archer, the Houston Republican whose district is among those affected, said the complications are "a small price to pay" to redress inequities in the Texas Legislature's 1991 redistricting process.
The long, tortured saga may not be at an end.

The attorney for Jackson Lee, Bentsen and fellow Houston Democratic Rep. Gene Green said he will ask the Supreme Court to block the judges' order and allow the November elections to proceed under the old lines.

Democrats' fears that the three Republican-appointed judges would tilt the electoral map against them were lessened with release of the plan. Democrats currently hold an 18-12 edge in the delegation, though Republicans are in good position to pick up several seats this cycle.

"It could have been worse, that's all I'll say," said Democratic Rep. Martin Frost, whose Dallas-area district is one of those affected. "It could have been worse."

Frost's own electoral fortunes - and those of his party - are intimately tied to the complicated redistricting process.

Frost faces a strong challenge from Republican Ed Harrison in the 24th District, even as he is trying to wrest control of the House from the GOP in his role as chairman of the Democrats' House campaign committee.

Long considered by Democrats and Republicans alike as the incumbent most threatened by the redistricting, Frost was exuberant Tuesday after seeing that the judges' redrawing of the 24th District makes it slightly more Democratic.

Two of the state's other Democratic seats didn't fare as well. The Houston area's 25th District, represented by Bentsen, has become more Republican. So has the Dallas area's 5th District, where Republican Pete Sessions and Democrat John Pouland are vying to replace retiring Democratic Rep. John Bryant.

Bentsen was singled out by both Democrats and Republicans as the incumbent most hurt by the judges' map.