AUSTIN -- Members of Fort Worth's minority communities expressed outrage Thursday over a proposed redrawing of Texas' 31 state senatorial districts.
A Senate redistricting committee spent much of the day hearing testimony on a redistricting map released a day earlier by Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo.Seliger's plan, which several Republican senators endorsed Thursday, would remove urban minority communities from Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis' Fort Worth-based district and put them in less-diverse districts now based in Denton and Hood Counties.An emotional Davis told the committee that the map was a slap in the face to the African-American and Hispanic communities that were pivotal in electing her to office in 2008."Not very long ago, I was a single mother," Davis said, choking back tears. "I lived in southeast Fort Worth, in a trailer. ... Like many that I represent, I often came home to my electricity being turned off, unable to drive my car when I couldn't afford to insure it."Davis said she still identifies strongly with her humble roots."I am the people of the district that I represent," Davis said.Under Seliger's plan, African-American communities in southeast Fort Worth, Everman and Forest Hill would become part of District 22, which stretches to Waco and is currently represented by Republican Sen. Brian Birdwell of Granbury.Fort Worth's heavily Hispanic north side would shift to District 12, which would also cover Grapevine and much of Denton County and is currently represented by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound.Seliger said he believed that the map complied with federal guidelines."The Voting Rights Act is the law of the land and we intend to comply," Seliger said.About 25 people testified at the hearing, mostly people from the Fort Worth area expressing their opposition to how the map would change Davis' Senate District 10, which currently covers much of the southern half of Tarrant County."It seems pretty obvious that the lines were purposely drawn to divide the minority vote in Tarrant County," said Joe Alviar, a former Kennedale school board member.Monte Elliott, a former chairman of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, said he was "appalled and dismayed" by Seliger's map."How can anybody fathom the notion that south and southeast Fort Worth and Granbury ... be connected in one district?" Elliott said.Several suggested that the map was a repeat of the 2003 congressional redistricting effort that put minority-heavy southeast Fort Worth in a district based in Denton."When will the African-American community in Fort Worth no longer be used simply as a vehicle of partisan politics?" Arnise Porter of Forest Hill said.Jeri Pfeifer, superintendent of the Everman school district, couldn't understand why the proposed map splits her school district of 22,395 people."I understand lines must be drawn somewhere, but Everman ISD is too small to divide among two senators" and expect to be properly represented by either, Pfeifer said.Democrats argued that dozens more witnesses would have shown up if there had been more time between the map's public release and the hearing.Aman Batheja, 817-390-7695
Map: Current Senate District 10
Map: Proposed Senate District 10
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