ELECTIONS and POLITICS

(from the Texas Almanac 2006-2007)

By CAROLYN BARTA

Democrats lost their last claim to power in the state — a majority in the Texas congressional delegation — after the Legislature produced an extraordinary redistricting re-do in 2003.

The remap had wide reverberations, from Washington to Austin and back to Washington. The impact brought to mind the Energizer bunny: It just kept going and going. For starters, the redistricting drastically changed the partisan makeup of the Texas congressional delegation. Whereas Texas voters sent 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans to Washington in 2002 using federal court-drawn districts, in the 2004 elections the count was 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats under the Legislature's remap.

Four veteran Democratic incumbents who tried to buck the new system went down. Another retired and still another switched parties. While House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) picked up partisan reinforcements in Washington, he also became embroiled in ethics challenges as a result of his redistricting efforts.

Here's what happened. Texas lawmakers failed in 2001 to produce a new map for the state's 32 House seats after census numbers were in, so a federal court crafted a plan that drew two new seats (awarded for population growth) for Republicans but otherwise kept the status quo.

Then, in 2002, Republicans took control of both houses of the Legislature, winning a majority in the House with the help of $1.5 million raised by Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee founded by DeLay to help Texas House candidates.

Nicknamed "The Hammer" because of his arm-twisting talents in Congress, DeLay turned his persuasive tactics on the newly minted GOP-heavy statehouse that he had helped to elect. Even though a congressional map was in place, he pressed legislators to redraw it — which they did, producing districts that heavily favored Republicans and targeted white Democratic incumbents.

Democratic legislators staged several walkouts to deny a quorum during 2003 special sessions called by Gov. Rick Perry to address redistricting, moving temporarily to hotels in Oklahoma and New Mexico. When they fled to Oklahoma, DeLay contacted the Federal Aviation Administration to help locate them — an action that raised "serious concerns" later in the House Ethics Committee. The Republican plan finally passed in a special session in October 2003.

The new plan targeted seven Democratic incumbents, putting them in districts with another incumbent, adding Republicans to their districts or giving them thousands of new, unfamiliar constituents. The plan withstood court challenge and was in effect for the 2004 elections.

One of the biggest dominoes to fall was Martin Frost of Dallas, a 25-year House member who had been touted as a future speaker and who previously had lobbied the Legislature to protect Democrat incumbents. Frost switched from his dismantled District 24 to run against Republican Pete Sessions in District 32 and lost.

Charlie Stenholm of Abilene, senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, lost to freshman Republican Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock in the redrawn District 19. Max Sandlin of Marshall and Nick Lampson of Beaumont also lost re-election efforts in Districts 1 and 2. Jim Turner of East Texas retired after the districts were announced, and Ralph Hall of Rockwall switched parties and was re-elected in District 4.

Of five threatened Democrats running for re-election — who together had 82 years of seniority — only Chet Edwards of Waco survived, winning in the Republican-tilting District 17 that contains President Bush's hometown of Crawford.

Among the Republican pickups were five freshmen from Texas: Louie Gohmert, a former state appeals court judge from Tyler; Ted Poe, a state district judge from Houston; Ken Marchant, a state legislator from Coppell; Mike Conaway, a Midland accountant and former energy business partner of George W. Bush; and Mike McCaul of Austin, a former federal prosecutor and deputy Texas attorney general.

DeLay maintained that the redistricting finally gave Texas voters a level playing field in congressional elections. Opponents said the Texas case opened the door to other states to pursue intra-decade redistricting plans when politics changed. In Texas, the redistricting reduced the number of white Texas Democrats in Congress to three by strengthening districts for black and Hispanic candidates. One who lost in the primary was Chris Bell of Houston, a white Democrat who couldn't hold his seat after the Legislature shifted demographics to favor a black candidate. He was replaced by longtime justice of the peace and black leader Al Green in the Beaumont-Galveston District 9.

Bell complained to the House Ethics Committee about DeLay calling in the FAA during redistricting and for golfing with energy executives with an energy bill pending. DeLay was admonished and eventually faced questions in an escalating ethics brouhaha that questioned his ties with lobbyists, overseas travel funded by foreign interests and other matters, creating a political distraction in Washington — all of this stirring up opposition in his home District 22 and threatening his political career.

Delay said he was the victim of a smear campaign by Democrats, and his conservative supporters rallied around him, even as Democrat Lampson said he would run against the congressman in 2006.

As for Bell, who launched the DeLay inquiries, he said he planned to run as a Democrat for governor in 2006.

Carolyn Barta, a retired staff writer for The Dallas Morning News, teaches journalism at Southern Methodist University.