AUSTIN -- An attorney representing state Hispanic lawmakers called Thursday for creating five new Latino legislative districts, including two in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Jose Garza of San Antonio, testifying before the House Redistricting Committee, said Latinos accounted for 65 percent of the state's population growth over the past decade but are underrepresented in the Texas Legislature."Having majority Latino districts in Texas is important because elections in Texas, even today, are racially polarized," said Garza, the voting-rights counsel for the 39-member Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, which has 33 Democrats and six Republicans.One of the proposed Latino districts in the Metroplex would be in western Dallas County, including Grand Prairie, with a portion of the district spilling into eastern Tarrant County, Garza said. The other Metroplex district would be in northeast Dallas County.More than 30 witnesses from across the state appeared before the committee in a hearing on legislative redistricting. Lawmakers must draw new boundaries for Texas congressional districts, the state House and Senate, and the State Board of Education to conform to population changes in the 2010 Census.The committee includes two lawmakers from Tarrant County: Reps. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth and Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth.State House districtsThursday's hearing focused just on House districts and was designed to elicit public input on how new districts should be drawn. Committee members were to meet again today to consider new districts for the 15-member State Board of Education.The 10 House members from Tarrant County have been meeting privately to try to reach consensus on a countywide redistricting plan that will include an 11th seat because of the county's 25 percent increase in population. The lawmakers have been considering making the new House seat a minority district in eastern Tarrant County, but Veasey said Thursday that no decisions have been made.Other options also are being considered, Veasey said, including a Republican-dominated district in the north central part of the county.Garza called on lawmakers to create additional Hispanic seats to more fairly reflect Latino population growth. Hispanics make up 37 percent of the population but constitute a majority in only about a fourth of the state House districts, Garza said.Latino seats proposedIn addition to the two proposed seats in the Metroplex, Garza said, new Hispanic majority seats could be created in Houston, the Odessa-Midland area in West Texas and in Hidalgo and Cameron counties in South Texas. Although state law requires districts to be in a single county, the courts have permitted districts to straddle county lines to insure fair minority representation, Garza said.Two representatives from Grand Prairie urged lawmakers to make sure that the city is adequately represented in the state House when new districts are created for Dallas County.More than 175,000 of Grand Prairie's residents live in Dallas County, and about 53,000 are in Tarrant County. Councilman Ron Jensen said those on the Dallas County side want to be included in a single district instead of being split up and "marginalized" when lawmakers draw new lines for the county.Dallas County faces the loss of one seat and possibly two because of relatively low population growth over the past decade.Dave Montgomery is the Star-Telegram's Austin bureau chief. 512-476-4294Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
