It’s a Silly Map!

From today’s Houston Chronicle: Senators rebuke House on remap, eye own plan. Said Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco,

“It’s a silly map. I can’t support that. I can’t support splitting my county.”

Currently the Texas Senate is not even debating redistricting but rather debating whether to debate redistricting, a process that takes a 2/3 majority votte to end. However, it’s still not a great outcome:

Loosely following state Senate district boundaries probably would cost Democrats at least four U.S. House districts, because Republicans hold 19 of the 31 Senate seats. They hold 15 of the state’s 32 U.S. House seats.

However, I’m not sure that this would really be that bad. Just because 19 of 31 state Senate seats are Repblican does not necessarily meand that those districts would elect a Republican representative to the U.S. House. Incumbency is a big advantage and Demcorats would, by virtue of their current majority in the U.S. House, have that advantage. Still, it would likely cost the Democrats more than one seat. Off the Kuff has a nice news round-up.

AB