Redistricting suits focus on Latinos
Illinois Republicans and Texas Democrats have few things in common. But they are borrowing from the same playbook when it comes to congressional redistricting — both are prepping lawsuits aimed at increasing their respective states’ Hispanic-majority districts.
Their similar strategies — both plan to file complaints under the Voting Rights Act — are not a result of a high-minded interest to protect the civil rights of the nation’s largest minority group, though Hispanics clearly would benefit in each case. Nor are the two groups sharing notes as they proceed with lawsuits that could work their way to the Supreme Court.
What the groups do share is the downtrodden partisan minority status in their home states. And they hope to win in federal court what they have failed to achieve legislatively in Springfield and Austin.
The looming Illinois and Texas legal challenges will be key tests of the surging Hispanic population across the nation and that community’s demand for more political influence. The 2010 census counted 50.5 million Hispanics and 38.9 million blacks — compared with 35.3 million Hispanics and 34.7 million blacks in 2000. But those figures have not translated into Hispanic clout in Congress, where — not including delegates or members of Portuguese ancestry — they have 24 House members (17 Democrats and seven Republicans), compared with 42 black representatives (40 Democrats and two Republicans).
The lawsuits won’t be filed until Govs. Pat Quinn (D-Ill.) and Rick Perry (R-Texas) sign the redistricting laws — which could be in the next week or two.
“We are very concerned that this proposal does not fairly represent the significant growth that has occurred in the Hispanic community,” Illinois’s 11 House Republicans wrote in a statement May 27, after Democrats released their plan. “We will take whatever steps necessary to achieve a map that more fairly represents the people of Illinois.”
Some of the 11 are already going their own way in staking claim to a new district — and against one another — which could throw a wrench in their legal strategy. But all have been working with former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner, a Republican and now a partner at Mayer Brown in Chicago, on their planned lawsuit. Delegation members and other GOP sources said the group has agreed not to publicly discuss the details of those conversations.
The 2010 census found Illinois’s Hispanic population booming, with an increase of more than 500,000 in the past decade, for a total of 2.03 million Hispanics and 1.87 million blacks. Even in Cook County, with its historic and vibrant African-American community, blacks outnumbered Hispanics by only 43,000. The redistricting plan approved by the Legislature last week, which could yield as many as five additional Democratic seats, retains the current one majority-Hispanic and three majority-black districts. Complicating the picture is the fact that Hispanic populations sprawl throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, while black populations are concentrated in three revamped Cook County-based districts that are barely more than 50 percent black.
One Illinois House Republican said the lack of a second Hispanic district likely will be the cornerstone of the GOP’s effort to overturn the redistricting plan. “Our goal is districts that are drawn fair and balanced,” he said. If a second Hispanic-majority district is created, Republicans expect a net increase of at least two House seats.
A House Democrat from Illinois — who, like the Republican, would not speak for attribution — cautioned last week that the state plan could be overturned by a federal court. The lawmaker cited his concern that more than two-thirds of the judges in the federal circuit court that includes Illinois were nominated by Republican presidents.
In Texas, Democrats are awaiting the outcome of the Legislature’s special session and the evolving details of the Republican plan; the GOP’s latest version includes seven Hispanic districts for Democrats and one for a Republican incumbent. State Rep. Marc Veasey, the only Democratic lawmaker to offer an alternative map, said his plan could offer an alternative for court review. Veasey’s version would create nine Hispanic-majority districts and four districts that likely would elect a black representative — compared with three seats on the current map that Republicans would retain on the new map.
Hispanics are spread across Texas, making up 38 percent of the state’s total population. Outraged Democrats contend the new map undercuts Hispanics’ explosive population growth — they represent 90 percent of the state’s population gain in the past decade — by aiming to hand Republicans three of the four new seats. Last year, two GOP challengers — including one Latino — ousted Hispanic Democrats in heavily Hispanic districts in south Texas, which could further complicate the court battle.
In their latest redistricting plan, Texas Republicans did not create a Hispanic-majority district in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, even though leaders of their congressional delegation have advocated one and Dallas and Tarrant counties have nearly 1.4 million Hispanics.
“By going for the maximum plan, Republicans are doing a real big dice roll,” said a veteran Texas Democrat. “Republican lawyers must know that they risk losing it all.” He said Republicans’ failure to reach out to Hispanics amounts to “dumb politics.”
The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which has been actively involved in redistricting, has lashed out at the plans in Illinois and Texas. It has given Texas Republicans an “F” for their work on redistricting, and MALDEF director of litigation Nina Perales criticized Illinois’s Democratic Legislature for dividing Latino neighborhoods and elevating “incumbency protection over respect for the Latino community.”
But the Hispanic community in Illinois has been split on redistricting, with some local groups working closely with the Democratic Party. MALDEF says it takes a nonpartisan approach, though it rarely works directly with Republicans. GOP leaders hope MALDEF joins their Illinois lawsuit — the group’s involvement would represent a big coup for Republicans.
Republican redistricting strategists reject the suggestion of similarities between the Illinois and Texas challenges. Republican State Leadership Committee President Chris Jankowski, who is working with local officials on redistricting, said it would be a mistake for the GOP to treat Hispanics as a monolithic foe: “We need to compete. Or we will be a minority party for a long time.”