With Texas Democrats fleeing the state to prevent the quorum state Republicans need to ultra-gerrymander their state, I’m surprised there isn’t more mention of how the exact same thing happened 22 years ago when Texas legislators did the exact same thing. This all happened back in early 2003. More than a few of you will remember this. But it’s more than a bit of interesting trivia. Because the circumstances of that earlier example are a key, though semi-forgotten, step in understanding how we arrived where we are today.
Twenty-two years ago, mid-decade redistricting was unheard of. There was, as we say now, a very strong norm against it. The U.S. Census comes out every decade and then congressional seats are redistricted for the next election. That created regularity and prevented the chaos and gamesmanship of state legislatures rushing to redistrict at every moment of partisan advantage.
