If Redistricting, Why Not Help?

V. Hugh Lewis/Publisher

I don’t talk state or national politics often – or outside of my normal circles. 

For example, “that Jew” and I talk almost daily. He’s on one side of the political fence and I’m on the other on most items. We both hope to convert the other, but we have healthy conversations on a variety of politically charged topics.

One day this week we talked about Texas Governor Abbott’s  Trump directed order to attempt to redistrict Texas so that the GOP can gain some seats during the mid-term elections.

He and I joked over how obviously some party members are running scared if they’re trying to further gerrymander Texas to the GOP agenda.

While I’m opposed to redistricting outside of the early in the decade as ordered by the U.S. Census, if Gov. Abbott is determined to bow down and further dilute everyone’s vote, then how about doing at least part of it in a useful way?

We all know that North East Texas has been voting republican for most of the last 20 years. And while most of the redistricting work will focus on major metros like Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, why not take the chance to allow us smaller counties to be represented in a way that means something to us?

Now I’ll preface this with that I have no issues with our current State Rep Jay Dean.

 What I do have an issue with is that Marion County is lumped in with Harrison and Gregg counties.

Marion has a population of about 9,900 people. Harrison is 70,000, and Gregg is 120,000. So, if there’s an issue that Marion needs, but Gregg or Harrison is against, guess who wins? Or if they want something that would actually hurt Marion, who wins? Hint, it ain’t us.

HD7 is made up of three counties to reach the “ideal population” per House district. In 2020, the ideal population for a Texas House district was approximately 194,303, based on the total state population divided by 150. So, why not put together several smaller counties of similar sizes to provide better representation?

Our current representation includes 199,900 people.

Camp County is 13,000. Morris is 12,000. Franklin is 11,000. Red River is 13,000. Marion is 9,900. Cass is 30,000. Bowie is 90,000. That would put us at 178,000 people. 

Or, Camp, Morris, Franklin, Red River, Marion, Cass, Harrison (66k) Hopkins (35k) and Delta (5.5k) and have 186k. 

Yes it’s a bigger area, and means our rep would have to work harder to reach their constituents, but, let’s face it, it would be someone more geared at understanding the needs of rural Texans.

Smaller counties have very different concerns and needs than those in more urban areas.

Parts of Gregg County have similar needs – but those areas are shrinking and don’t make up the marjority of the county.

Harrison County is probably the best “large county” in our group that has needs matching ours, but still not the majority.

Having to combine the populations of five counties to match the population of Harrison County, or all five plus Harrison to match Gregg, then one cannot claim the representation is fair.

Bottom line, redistricting should only be done when needed – not to ensure one party keeps a majority or even grabs more seats just because they can.

But if we’re going to be forced to do it, how about getting us some fair representation?