Forgive me if today's posts seem rather Texas-centric - there was a lot of good stuff coming out of the Lonestar State's newspapers today! Also, I'm from Texas, and no one's stopping me.
From Dave McNeely of the Midland Reporter-Telegram, an excellent review of the redistricting mess Texas made headlines with, and also the potential for a bipartisan redistricting commission.
Redistricting by the Texas Legislature is seldom pretty.
But the massacre in congressional districting in 2003, besides being unnecessary, had all the subtlety of a multiple ax murder.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, has been trying to put the chore of at least congressional redistricting with a bipartisan commission of non-elected officials since 1993. About a dozen other states have at least some of their redistricting performed by some body other than their legislature.
Wentworth says Texas doing so could save Texans millions of dollars in legal fees and costs of unnecessary legislative sessions, and avoid enormously bloody infighting that is a constant by-product of partisan redistricting.
The article spells out the obstacles, but it does seem like there's hope that Wentworth and his supportive colleagues (yes, there are a bunch of them) may eventually get their way. Here's hoping they do!
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