Gerrymandering in Texas

Gerrymandering is drawing district lines to include or exclude certain groups of voters. Done to significantly help or hurt one party or another. Gerrymandering is suppose to be illegal but is almost absolutely impossible to determine. In 2003 Texas Legislature redistricted breaking Austin into three districts. The three districts that run through Austin which were put in place to break up the strong democratic pull here. Austin is a red dot in a blue state. Some of the districts stretch hundreds of miles to the Rio Grande. District 10 has a nose in Austin then runs to the outskirts of Houston. The new districts of 2003 put five incumbent democrats at risk in the 2004 elections, four of which lost their seats. Texas has clear gerrymandering how can one city be broken into three pieces and it not be gerrymandered. How is a person suppose to be able to represent Austin people and Houston people equally? The two cities are very different, we think differently, and view issues differently as well. Furthermore, how is any representative really suppose to represent anyone outside of their class? We should elect more common people to represent us Austinites.

Comment On "Texas: Biger and Better Government than Your State"

I’m torn on this one. Part of me agrees with Katie and part of me also disagrees. I am big on integrity and agree that Austin should keep their promise on Proposition 2, but who made up this proposition anyway. They must not have been a true Austinite. I also disagree with the proposition itself, why does Austin need to spend any of our tax money to help out the Domain or other big businesses? Don’t they have plenty of money anyway, why should we help the competition? Personally I totally support local business, and will drive out of my way to go to a ma and pa store than to go to a large corporation. I believe that Austin should give this extra money back to Austin and support the local businesses and Keep Austin Weird.