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One particularly illustrative example of this trend toward increased partisanship in drawing legislative districts involves U.S. Representative Martin Frost, a Democrat deeply involved in the congressional redistricting battles of 1991, 2001 and 2003.
Frost began his congressional career in 1978 by building a multiracial coalition to defeat a conservative fellow Democrat vying for the same district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Already the increasing numbers of racial and ethnic minorities (and their increasing rates of voter participation) were making an impact on electoral outcomes.
After the legislature failed to draw new districts for Congress and the State Board of Education during the 1991 session, Governor Ann Richards called two special sessions on the matter that same year, and another one in 1992.1
During the second of the 1991 sessions, the state legislature adopted a plan for the State Board of Education (Plan E522) and a congressional redistricting plan (Plan C657). The congressional plan was "pre-cleared" by the U.S. Department of Justice as not under-representing minorities, and was later approved by the U.S. District Court.
This plan stayed in effect until 1996 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in Vera v. Bush that three of the districts in the 1991 plan were unfairly gerrymandered on the basis of race. Ultimately the U.S. District Court in Texas adopted a new plan that redrew thirteen of the state's thirty congressional districts.
The congressional map used from 1996 through 2000 demonstrated a fair bit of creativity that ultimately favored Democrats. Observe particularly how District 24 (Martin Frost's district) cuts into the heart of Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth. Meanwhile, District 6 resembles a series of small islands connected at times only by bodies of water. The federal court's actions in approving Plan C746 left the Democrats able to maintain control of the Texas delegation in Congress.
Next: Redistricting in the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex, 2001-2003 >
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