Tensions on redistricting, Looming Battle In Austin

Even as they hopped across Texas to listen to the public on the contentious issue of redrawing the state's congressional boundaries, Texas lawmakers were girding themselves for what they expect to be an especially bitter special session that begins Monday.

Republicans say they have every right to tinker with the boundaries in a heavily Republican state that still sent 17 Democrats to Washington — but only 15 Republicans — in the 2002 elections.

Democrats say the current districts already heavily favor Republicans and that the GOP has some explaining to do on why its candidates couldn't win 2002 congressional elections in five districts that voted Republican in statewide races by margins ranging from 56 percent to 68 percent.

At least two Democrats must vote with the Senate's 19 Republicans for a Senate bill to move forward. That has resulted in charges by Democrats that Perry is engaging in political blackmail by dangling offers of support for important local projects to peel off Democratic votes.

The main bait, Democrats claim, is the prospect of funding badly needed medical school complexes in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, both in Senate districts held by Democrats.

Some 70 people, about half of the crowd that attended the Laredo hearing, signed up to give their views Saturday. Only one, a young Hispanic man who said he has been a Republican since he was 5, said he favored redistricting.

"I don't care if I am called a sellout or a coconut, I support Tom DeLay," said Jaime Mendoza, drawing applause from two others in the hall.

What a coconut.