By Bob Ray Sanders
bobray@star-telegram.com
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will.-- Sam CookeChange is usually slow in coming, and even when it arrives it often is not enough.
So it is with the presumed makeup of the next Texas delegation in the U.S. Congress, which is likely, for the first time in history, to include an African-American from Tarrant County.
There are those who think that had the Texas Legislature been fair, the courts a bit more understanding and some minority leaders a little less eager to compromise, the first Hispanic from North Texas also would be poised to take a seat in Congress next January.
State Rep. Marc Veasey, 41, an African-American from Tarrant County, last week defeated attorney and former state Rep. Domingo Garcia of Dallas, 54, in a runoff election, making him the Democratic nominee for the newly created 33rd congressional district. Although he says he's not taking the election for granted, Veasey is expected to win easily in November against Republican Chuck Bradley.
From the beginning of this electoral cycle, since the day it was known that Texas would get four additional congressional seats based on the 2010 Census, the redistricting process and the elections that followed were doomed to chaos.
Change can be messy.
The Republican-dominated Legislature and statewide leaders were greedy, insensitive and over-reaching on many fronts, including the drawing of congressional district lines.
The state GOP, wanting all four new districts for itself, so gerrymandered the lines that the maps were challenged under the Voting Rights Act. Ironically, their action backfired, causing a chain reaction that pushed back primary and runoff elections, which helped to defeat Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in his bid for the U.S. Senate against Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz.
Specifically for District 33, the Legislature originally drew a map that was centered in rural areas west of Tarrant County, ignoring the fact that the state's population boom came mostly from an increase in minorities, particularly Hispanics.
A district court created a fairer map for Tarrant County that included several minority communities. (There should have been a similar minority district in Dallas County.) Many state officials and others objected, so the court urged compromise on a different map.
With the support of several parties to the suit and candidate-to-be Garcia, the new, predominantly minority District 33 straddled the Dallas-Tarrant county lines. The "minority-opportunity" district, with 66 percent Hispanic residents, was thought by some to be tailor-made for Garcia but, as he would soon learn, that suit didn't fit.
Eleven Democrats fought it out in the primary, with Veasey getting about 37 percent of the vote to Garcia's 25 percent -- a great disappointment for Garcia, who was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars (ultimately more than $1 million) of his own money.
Each candidate initially vowed that the campaign would not devolve into a split between blacks and Hispanics or Dallas versus Fort Worth, but ultimately it did with Garcia proclaiming that the district should be represented by a Hispanic and Veasey instinctively depending on his base of black voters in Tarrant County.
The campaign got personal at times, although Veasey tried to remain dignified, level-headed and statesmanlike.
He had the broadest financial support of any candidate and garnered endorsements from leaders in Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin and Washington, D.C.
Because the redistricting lawsuit is still in the courts and Republicans are likely to still control the Legislature next term, the boundaries of District 33 may change again before the next election.
But regardless of what happens with the politics of redistricting, Veasey has to do what I'm convinced he's capable of doing: Get to know the entire district in Dallas and Tarrant counties, be a unifying force between the different geographic and ethnic communities, and serve all constituents well.
"For me, this election has never been about a contest between Dallas and Fort Worth or between one racial group and another," Veasey said after his runoff win Tuesday night. "From the beginning I believed that this district, rather than serving to divide us, would bring us together....
"Whether you live in Fort Worth, Dallas, Stop Six or Oak Cliff -- I will not let you down. Whether you voted for me or my opponent -- I will not let you down."
Veasey must know that we will hold him to that promise.
Otherwise, what good was the change?
Bob Ray Sanders' column appears Sundays and Wednesdays.817-390-7775Twitter: @BobRaySanders
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