Gerrymandering Texas by Steve Bickerstaff

Abstract

Reviewed by: Gerrymandering Texas by Steve Bickerstaff Brandon Rottinghaus Gerrymandering Texas. By Steve Bickerstaff. Edited by C. Robert Heath. (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2020. Pp. 256. Illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index.) In a 1981 television documentary about the Texas legislature, host, journalist, and author Larry L. King had a frank conversation with Texas [End Page 215] House Speaker Billy Clayton about leading the body’s decennial redistricting process: “How’s your process coming along?” King asked. “Super. We’re really doing good,” Clayton answered. King then asked, “Anybody cried yet?” Clayton responded, “Well, we’re drawing lines, ain’t we?” King summed up the byzantine and highly political redistricting process in a single statement, “Being God ain’t no bed of roses.” Steve Bickerstaff’s Gerrymandering Texas follows this theme and expertly evaluates how legal and political conflicts evolved in a state where every district boundary line drawn since 1971 has become a legal controversy. Bickerstaff, a former Texas Senate parliamentarian, assistant attorney general of Texas, and counsel to more than twenty redistricting litigations, knows this territory well from the inside and the outside. Redistricting, the redrawing of district lines following a decennial census to reshape districts based on population changes, is initiated by the release of population numbers from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and tackled first by the members of the state legislature. If chamber members cannot agree, or if the governor objects to the lines the legislature draws, the Legislative Budget Board, made up of statewide officials and the Speaker of the Texas House, attempts to draw consensual lines for state legislative districts while the federal courts draw lines for federal legislative districts. As Bickerstaff aptly illustrates in this informative book, the redistricting process has taken decades to evolve as state and federal rules clash, voting rights advocates and courts shape outcomes, and, of course, politics gets in the way. Gerrymandering Texas takes a wonderfully broad historical view laced with legal controversies to highlight the gritty parts of this interconnected legal and political process. Bickerstaff identifies the three groups whom redistricting most affects: individual legislators, political parties who recruit and fund candidates, and the racial and ethnic groups whose votes are often used, controversially, to consider where to draw district lines. The book thoughtfully handles thorny political and legal questions, especially where it distinguishes between redistricting and “gerrymandering,” a more politically charged term used to describe boundary lines drawn to benefit an incumbent or dominant political party. Bickerstaff’s experience enlivens the often-dry legal redistricting process. He finds that both parties have used their positions (and bare-knuckled politics) to attempt to rid the legislature of their enemies through the redistricting process. This included a 1971 attempt by the then Democratic Speaker of the Texas House to pair a liberal Democrat and a Republican in the same district and a 2003 attempt by House Republicans to favor their incumbents, motivated by what they claimed were lines drawn politically by Democrats in 1991. Bickerstaff gives us both broad strokes and fine details in a well-paced, specific description about how the courts have handled redistricting: what [End Page 216] the burden of proof is in challenging lines, how populations can be divided, when racial or ethnic groups can be split, and how rapid urbanization fits into the larger redistricting puzzle. He also gives an intriguing insider’s view of the tactics parties use to create or fight against gerrymandering. This strength, however, is also a bit of a weakness. The book jumps from political memoir to the foundations of constitutional government in Texas to a discussion of political history of the parties, often with minimal explanation. Although it is decidedly readable throughout, and its context is helpful, the history is incomplete, and the book is unevenly organized within each chapter at times. Perhaps the most useful part of the book is the final chapter, which outlines ways to combat gerrymandering’s pernicious effects, such as with independent redistricting commissions and the creation of neutral redistricting criteria with fixed (and simple) rules to replace political self-interest with public interest. Without question, redistricting will shape representative government for a decade and perhaps longer, determining who represents...