Rigging the districts is a long-standing Texas tradition, running straight back to the state’s founding. Under the current map, the State Senate is so meticulously drawn that Texas would need a 60/40 Dem voting majority to have a prayer of flipping it.
Abbott is trying to squeeze yet another ounce of tomato juice from a crushed can.
At this point the only way to realistically get that squeeze is to create more districts that are “very safe” versus “locked in,” and at least some Republicans will push back to save their own skin. Texas won’t need to go blue for this to backfire or at least be of minimal impact.
This is as close as I get to optimism about state politics though.
The GOP has a lot of techniques to drive down voter participation and soften up democratic opposition. Rewriting the districts just lets them define the terms of engagement.
This is as close as I get to optimism about state politics though.
Until we get a Wisconsin-style full-state flip and some replacements at the state level, or a Federal DOJ willing to drop the hammer on all the little parasites skittering around the state, there’s very little the state-level Dem Party can do to resist this kind of malfeasance.
Abbott’s been consolidating more and more power in Austin as the various municipal and county level seats have flipped to Democrat. With Trump at his back, the state is increasingly feeling like a single-party dictatorship.
Don’t forget the Lt governor has more power than the governor
That stopped being true decades ago, when Perry was granted a bunch of appointment power under the Republican legislature.
The Lt. Gov set the agenda in the State Senate, which made the position a bottleneck in the legislative process. But Senate Republicans are in total lockstep. The real legislative power rested with the House calendars committee for a few sessions, as the legislature was only in session for a few months every few years and the House could kill a bill by timing it out.
But of late, Abbott has excercised his ability to call “emergency” sessions liberally. And since he can get the agenda in these sessions, he can bully the House Reps into compliance by dragging them back over and over again until they concede.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redistricting_in_Texas#History
Rigging the districts is a long-standing Texas tradition, running straight back to the state’s founding. Under the current map, the State Senate is so meticulously drawn that Texas would need a 60/40 Dem voting majority to have a prayer of flipping it.
Abbott is trying to squeeze yet another ounce of tomato juice from a crushed can.
At this point the only way to realistically get that squeeze is to create more districts that are “very safe” versus “locked in,” and at least some Republicans will push back to save their own skin. Texas won’t need to go blue for this to backfire or at least be of minimal impact.
This is as close as I get to optimism about state politics though.
The GOP has a lot of techniques to drive down voter participation and soften up democratic opposition. Rewriting the districts just lets them define the terms of engagement.
Until we get a Wisconsin-style full-state flip and some replacements at the state level, or a Federal DOJ willing to drop the hammer on all the little parasites skittering around the state, there’s very little the state-level Dem Party can do to resist this kind of malfeasance.
Abbott’s been consolidating more and more power in Austin as the various municipal and county level seats have flipped to Democrat. With Trump at his back, the state is increasingly feeling like a single-party dictatorship.
Don’t forget the Lt governor has more power than the governor, and the railroad commission right next to him.
That stopped being true decades ago, when Perry was granted a bunch of appointment power under the Republican legislature.
The Lt. Gov set the agenda in the State Senate, which made the position a bottleneck in the legislative process. But Senate Republicans are in total lockstep. The real legislative power rested with the House calendars committee for a few sessions, as the legislature was only in session for a few months every few years and the House could kill a bill by timing it out.
But of late, Abbott has excercised his ability to call “emergency” sessions liberally. And since he can get the agenda in these sessions, he can bully the House Reps into compliance by dragging them back over and over again until they concede.