The Supreme Court's decision today to uphold most of the Texas congressional map that was redrawn in 2003, dashes Democratic hopes of regaining at least a couple of the seats they lost in the 2004 election.
Under the redrawn map, four Democratic incumbents lost and Republicans picked up the open seat of retiring Rep. Jim Turner. In fact, but for the six seats that Republicans gained in Texas (Rep. Ralph Hall switched parties from Democrat to Republican in January 2004), Democrats actually would have netted two seats nationally (even assuming that Hall ran for re-election as a Republican).
The justices did rule that GOP Rep. Henry Bonilla's 23 rd CD violated the Voting Rights Act because the new lines shifted 100,000 Hispanics out of the CD. Bonilla, who took 52 percent of the vote in his 2002 contest against now 28 th CD Rep. Henry Cuellar, benefited greatly from the mid-decade redraw. After his close call in 2002, Bonilla took 69 percent of the vote against a nominal opponent in 2004.
It is unclear at this point if the 23rd
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