The issues in the Texas redistricting

World Socialist - : "The Republican redistricting drive in Texas is a flagrant power grab, since the current district lines were established only a year ago, by a nonpartisan panel of federal judges, based on the 2000 Census figures. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, said the district boundaries could remain in force, as is customary, until the next census in 2010.

In the case of Texas, this means taking a state with 17 Democratic and 15 Republican congressmen, and creating 10 districts that are overwhelmingly Democratic (all are majority black or Hispanic) and 22 districts that are solidly Republican (and largely exclude minority voters).

The new district lines include some of the extremely convoluted shape that gave rise to the term “gerrymander” (after Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, who in 1812 created a district so contorted that it resembled a salamander). One district reaches from Austin all the way east to the suburbs of Houston. Another stretches south from Austin 300 miles to the Mexican border."