House Joint Resolution 20

Author: Rep. Aaron Peña, R-Edinburg
Filed: Nov. 8

Democrats are still feeling burned by Peña’s party switch after the November election, which gave Republicans a supermajority in the House. However, they – and also many Republicans – may be pleased by something else Peña did shortly after Election Day: filing this resolution to limit when redistricting may be conducted. Generally, redistricting is performed by the Legislature once every 10 years, shortly after the decennial federal census numbers are released. But under the arm-twisting of then-U.S. House majority leader and current felon Tom DeLay, the Lege re-redistricted in 2003 in a successful ploy to elect more Repub­lic­ans to Texas’ congressional delegation (see “Painting by Numbers“), an action with repercussions and bitter feelings that still linger under the pink dome. Peña’s resolution proposes a constitutional amendment that would prevent a repeat of that fiasco by generally limiting redrawing of the lines to the session during which census numbers are released, or in the case of congressional boundaries, the same calendar year.

This article appears in January 28 • 2011.

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