New congressional maps proposedtoday by a San Antonio court will protect Hispanic influence in federal politics, according to a group of Latino state lawmakers.
A panel of three judges proposed this map today and is seeking feedback by Friday. Their proposal comes after a federal court in Washington, D.C. blocked redistricting maps drawn by the Republican-dominated state legislature.
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus held a conference call over the noon hour to provide its preliminary reaction. And it was positive.
Here’s what MALC attorney Jose Garza had to say about it during the conference call:
“Let me start by saying our analysis is very preliminary. We’ve just received from the order from the court minutes ago and started reviewing this plan very recently. I think the chairman is absolutely correct in assessing the overall analysis of the plan. We’ve always advocated that the 23rd district needs to be a real opportunity district, not just one that looks good on paper. We contested the state’s removal of the Latino population from Nueces County from a district in which it had an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. Beginning with those two things, it appears that the court plan has in fact corrected those problems. It does appear in Central Texas that we have a brand new opportunity district that begins in south Bexar County and moves up along a portion of the I-35 corridor and into Hays County and Caldwell County that will provide Latinos with an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. And it does appear that there is a district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that could very conceivably provide an opportunity for the Latino community to elect a candidate of their choice. Our initial review is a positive one. It’s certainly better than the plan adopted by the state of Texas. It’s not the optimum plan or the maximum plan. But I think there is a lot of positive that you can derive from this plan for the minority community.”
