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Travis To Split Five Ways?

Newest congressional district map would force Doggett to move – again

By Lee Nichols, Fri., June 3, 2011

The Republican redistricting chairs of the House and Senate – Burt Solomons and Kel Seliger, respectively – rolled out a new congressional redistricting map on Tuesday ... and it rolls right over Austin U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett. Redistricting wasn't on the special session's agenda, but Solomon and Seliger had come up with a map just in case Gov. Rick Perry decided to add it – and by the end of the day, Perry had done just that. Travis County would be split five ways under the new plan, and Doggett's District 25 – which now covers east and south Travis County, plus several rural counties to the southeast – would instead cut through Central Austin and then extend far west into the Hill Country and north almost to Dallas: precincts that voted 55% in favor of Perry in 2010, and 56% for GOP presidential candidate John McCain in 2008. In the 2003 redistricting, which also targeted Doggett, he had to move to East Austin to get re-elected. Now, he may have to move farther east or south into the new District 35, which reaches from east Travis down into San Antonio – precincts that went for Democrats Bill White (57%) and Barack Obama (61%) in those '10 and '08 elections. "I'm ready to live in a Winnebago if that's what it takes," Doggett told us. The Senate Redistricting Committee will hold a public hearing on the map at 9am in room E1.016 of the Capitol Extension on Friday, June 3. For a closer look at maps of the proposed new districts and election stats, go to austinchronicle.com/legeland.

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