ECON WRITES ;
Flounder, you are down close to Delay's district. What is the feel down there to the situation and I am not trying to get you in any trouble here.
snip...
be anectdotal only and not related to your personal beliefs.
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econ, i don't believe you :lol:
Feb. 28, 2006, 6:00AM
Justices to revisit remap
Court could toss out Texas' revised districts or uphold them
By PATTY REINERT
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
RESOURCES
Congressional district map
QUESTIONS FOR THE COURT
•Should the Texas Legislature have been allowed to redistrict in 2003, instead of immediately following an every-10-years census, solely to benefit the Republican Party?
•Does the new map amount to excessive political gerrymandering in violation of the U.S. Constitution?
•Does the map violate federal law or the U.S. Constitution by diluting minority voting rights?
WASHINGTON - The Texas congressional redistricting war, which led Democratic lawmakers to flee Austin, infuriated many minority voters and spawned the indictment of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, returns to Washington this week as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on whether partisan map-drawing has gone too far.
On Wednesday, the high court will consider the validity of the state's bitterly contested 2003 congressional districts map, which state lawmakers redrew at DeLay's insistence and which cemented Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the last election.
By July, the justices will decide whether to uphold the map or throw it out, potentially forcing a do-over of the March primaries in Texas and boosting Democrats' chances of taking back the U.S. House in November.
Confused? Wait until Wednesday afternoon. In a special two-hour argument session, a newly reshaped high court is expected to ping-pong questions at lawyers on each side of the dispute. The justices' task is to dissect the finer points of four cases that challenge everything from the timing of the redistricting to the alleged dilution of minority voting strength to the inherently partisan nature of political gerrymandering to whether the court should even be deciding these matters.
Arguing against the map will be Washington lawyer Paul Smith, who represents congressional Democrats unseated in Texas after the redrawing, and Nina Perales, a San Antonio attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who represents Latino voters in South and West Texas. Those residents say their voting power has been weakened in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Defenders
Defending the map will be Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, aided by a Bush administration lawyer, Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Gregory Garre.
"This case is fundamentally about democracy," Cruz said last week. The 2003 redistricting, he said, simply made Texas' congressional delegation reflect Texas voters' preference for Republicans in statewide elections. It also created two additional districts where black and Latino voters could significantly influence the outcome of elections, he said.
"Every court that has considered the plaintiffs' claims has rejected them, and we're confident the U.S. Supreme Court will do the same," Cruz said.
Long process
But J. Gerald Hebert, who has argued against the new map in lower courts, called the 2003 redistricting "one of the most notorious partisan power grabs in the the history of our country, with the single-minded purpose of gaining partisan (Republican) advantage."
"It was an abuse of government power, and if the Supreme Court doesn't step in, there will literally be a festival of redistricting across the country" every time Democrats or Republicans take over a state legislature and get out their pencils, he said.
The 2003 map was approved after Democratic Texas lawmakers fled the state twice to halt the process by depriving Republicans of a quorum.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry called lawmakers back for three special sessions before the plan passed.
Political appointees at the U.S. Justice Department, which must review Texas redistricting plans because of past discrimination against minority voters, approved the map over the objections of career lawyers in the department. The objectors had concluded that the map illegally undermined minority voting rights by reconfiguring districts in North Texas, resulting in blacks losing voting strength, and in South Texas, where Latino voters were disadvantaged.
A three-judge panel upheld the map after a trial in Austin in December 2003.
On its first trip to the U.S. Supreme Court last year, the justices returned the matter to Texas for reconsideration, and the result was the same. The plaintiffs again asked the high court to take the case.
DeLay, meanwhile, has been accused of illegally diverting funds to the campaigns of Republican candidates for the Texas statehouse in 2002. Once elected, those lawmakers redrew the state election map to favor the GOP and helped send six more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004. That brought the composition of the Texas delegation to the House to 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats.
The Sugar Land Republican was rebuked by the House Ethics Committee for some of his actions in the redistricting. He has denied any wrongdoing but was forced to step down from his leadership post last September after being indicted on money-laundering and conspiracy charges in Travis County.
Three Republicans are challenging DeLay in the March 7 GOP primary for his Houston-area seat. If he wins, as expected, he will face former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson in the fall. Lampson, a Beaumont Democrat who served four terms in Congress before being unseated thanks largely to the new map, changed his residence to run against DeLay.
Lawyers involved in the Supreme Court cases said DeLay's involvement in the Texas redistricting squabble, along with the Justice Department's questionable review of the Texas map, are in the background of this week's arguments.
But most said the justices likely will focus on the legal briefs filed in the four cases and on the specific questions before them.
May go back to Legislature
If map challengers win at the high court on any of those issues, it's unclear what happens next.
Smith and Hebert are seeking a return to the previous map.
Perales will argue to preserve the Latino-influenced district created in 2003, but redraw it so that it includes more Latinos in South Texas and fewer Anglo residents in the Hill Country.
If the justices do overturn the map, they could decide on a remedy or, more likely, leave the matter to a court in Texas, which in turn could send the matter back to the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature.
[email protected].
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3689662.html
Feb. 1, 2006, 3:50PM
DeLay's defense fund in red
Congressman raised $590,000 last year but still owes hundreds of thousands more
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
RESOURCES
TOM DELAY
• HOME: Sugar Land
• AGE: 58. April 8, 1947.
• EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree, University of Houston, 1970.
• EXPERIENCE: Owner, Albo Pest Control, 1973-84; Texas House, 1978-84; U.S. House, 1984-present; House majority whip, 1994-2002;
and House majority leader, 2002-2005.
• FAMILY: Wife, Christine; daughter, Danielle; and 1 grandchild.
CHRONICLE POLLS
*
• March 2005: Complete results of poll designed to discover whether any changes have occurred in constituents' support for Rep. DeLay since facing ethical and criminal investigations.
Video
*
• Controversial ad: Political TV announcement from the Public Campaign Action Fund that Houston-area stations declined to air.
• AP: DeLay steps down as majority leader (1/7)
• AP: DeLay's staff tried to help Abramoff (11/3)
• DeLay appears in Austin court (10/21)
• DeLay booked in Houston (10/20)
• Texas court issues warrant for DeLay (10/19)
Audio
*
• DeLay will run for re-election: Jan. 7, 2005 (CNN)
• Lawmaker insists he's done nothing wrong: Jan. 7, 2005 (CNN)
• Representative says he will be exonerated: Jan. 7, 2005 (AP)
TEXT
*
• DeLay to constituents: Announcing Jan 7 he will not attempt to regain the majority leader spot.
• Letter to House members: Jan. 7 announcement.
• Letter to Speaker of the House: Statement to Rep. Dennis Hastert upon DeLay's Jan. 7 announcement.
DOCUMENTS
*
• Court records, DeLay's casino letter and more
GRAPHICS
*
• The Abramoff connection: Diagram of links between lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rep. Tom DeLay and former DeLay aides, Abramoff's Indian tribe clients and businesses and their contributions to dozens of lawmakers
• Map: DeLay's 22nd Congressional District
• Charge against Tom DeLay
• Swapping funds: How Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt swapped donations through PACs
interactive
*
• Donor's dollars: The jet-setting, luxury lifestyle of DeLay and his aides
• Investigation: Tom DeLay-Roy Blunt links
• Timeline: Key events in the investigation of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff
• Investigation: Analyzing the link between casino gambling and donations by lobbyist Abramoff to various congressional figures
ON THE WEB
*
• TomDelay.com
• MajorityLeader.gov
• Official House site
• Texas Ethics Commission
• Federal Election Commission
• RonnieEarle.com
• Travis County District Attorney
• Dick DeGuerin
These free downloads may be required: Real Player, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, Flash plug-in or Acrobat Reader.
Video courtesy Associated Press.
WASHINGTON - Embattled U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay raised more money for his legal defense in 2005 than ever before but still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawyers, according to documents released Tuesday.
DeLay, fighting an indictment in Texas on charges of illegal fundraising while facing scrutiny by federal prosecutors in Washington for his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, raised $181,851 between Oct. 1 and the end of the year. That amount brought the total raised for his legal defense fund in 2005 to $590,520 — significantly more than the $439,550 recorded in 2004.
But during 2005, DeLay's legal expenses topped $1 million, said Brent Perry, a Houston attorney who administers the fund.
"We paid out well over $500,000 in legal fees (in 2005)," he said. The payments would leave DeLay owing lawyers at least $500,000, a figure Perry said was probably low.
DeLay, of Sugar Land, raised $318,000 in the third quarter of 2005, during which he was indicted in Travis County. Perry said the falloff in the final three months should not be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm among donors.
"I have not experienced any reluctance to give," Perry said. "We've already taken in $100,000 in January, without any fundraising events."
As reported in required disclosures to the U.S. House, contributions to the fund in the fourth quarter trailed Republican DeLay's legal expenses for the same period, which came to $239,257.
Attorney Dick DeGuerin of Houston, who represents DeLay in the Travis County case, was paid $150,000 by the fund in the fourth quarter.
Robert McNair, oil and gas billionaire who owns the Houston Texans, gave the maximum $5,000 contribution in the final quarter of 2005, as did Robert J. Allison Jr., chairman emeritus of Anadarko Petroleum Company. Nina Hendee, co-owner of the Taste of Texas restaurant with her husband, Edd Hendee, a Houston conservative radio host, donated $5,000. Texas chicken entrepreneurs Lonnie A. Pilgrim and Lonnie Ken Pilgrim gave a combined $6,000, and the family's Pilgrim's Pride Corp. sent another $5,000.
Lobbyists are not allowed to contribute to the fund.
Perry noted that federal law restricts people, businesses and political committees to donating $5,000 each a year. Publicity about DeLay's legal troubles during the third quarter of the year prompted many of his friends and political allies to give the maximum contribution earlier in 2005, Perry said.
But Public Citizen, a Washington watchdog group that monitors money in politics, saw signs that Republican lawmakers were less supportive of DeLay than in the past.
Only 31 of 239 Republican House members donated to the legal fund through political committees, down from 44 who gave in 2004, Conor Kenny, a researcher for the group, pointed out.
"The fact that less than 15 percent of Republicans in the House contributed shows that many in (DeLay's) party want a break with the ethically challenged leadership of the party," Kenny said.
[email protected].
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3626670.html
http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/