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.
This article appears in June 3 • 2011.