WASHINGTON (AP) -- Over the vehement protests of Democrats, Republicans are trying to use newly won clout in the Colorado and Texas legislatures to redraw congressional districts that are less than two years old, part of a highly unusual tactic to strengthen their control over the House of Representatives.
In Denver, Republican lawmakers pushed through legislation Wednesday that is designed to give first-term GOP Rep. Bob Beauprez political breathing room in a district he won by only 121 votes last fall. White House political adviser Karl Rove lobbied for the plan, and Republican Gov. Bill Owens is expected to sign it.
In Texas, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay flew to Austin and made a personal pitch on Thursday to Republican legislators expected to vote soon on a new, GOP-drafted plan. Democrats say it could cost them six or seven seats, while forcing the state's senior Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Martin Frost, into an extremely difficult race next year.
"In Texas, politics is a contact sport," Frost said wryly in an interview. "This isn't patty cakes."
Republicans say that legislatures are exercising their legitimate powers.
"For several years now, we've allowed judges to draw districts. Our founders never intended it to be that way," DeLay told reporters this week. "They are very specific in the Constitution that the State legislatures are to draw congressional districts."
But Democrats say the Congressional Research Service has found no mid-decade redistricting has occurred for at least 50 years, and they accuse Republicans of a raw power grab. "Are we going to turn this into a country where every election, whoever is in power, whoever takes the majority, then decides to redraw the lines? I think it's really a disservice to the American people," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Whatever it is, in Texas, Democrats are battling to block passage of the GOP-engineered plan. With a 29-12 margin in the state Senate, the GOP needs two Democratic votes to achieve the needed two-thirds majority, and the bill's prospects are uncertain.
Democrats have pledged court challenges if either plan is approved, and racial politics has become entwined in the redistricting battles, as well.
Texas State Rep. Richard Raymond filed a complaint with the Justice Department alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act, and DeLay and Frost have clashed publicly over which plan -- the one in effect or the GOP proposal -- would do more for minority representation.
Republicans control the House of Representatives by a margin of 229-205, with one Democratic-leaning independent. Victory in a new round of redistricting, particularly in President Bush's home state of Texas, would significantly aid them in a drive to retain or boost their majority in 2004.
The struggles are leftover business from the past two years, when the states were required to adjust congressional district boundaries based on the 2000 census. In both Colorado and Texas, the state legislature deadlocked, and judges implemented new district maps on their own.
Republicans saw an opportunity for gains after the voters handed them control of the state Senate in Colorado and the state House of Representatives in Texas.
DeLay argues that in Texas, voters cast 57 percent of their votes for Republican candidates, but the GOP holds less than a majority of the seats -- 15 -- compared to 17 for the Democrats. Republicans also say the current district map is little changed from the one put in place in 1991, when, they argue, Frost and Democrats used their political power to partisan advantage.
Democrats say the redistricting offensive is simply bare-knuckled politics. "It's a naked power grab by the Colorado Republicans and I think it's coordinated by the White House," said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., who challenged Beauprez earlier in the week to disown the effort.
In an interview on Wednesday, he said he had not seen the new map.
In Texas, the stakes are higher, and spiced by antagonistic remarks from DeLay and Frost, two senior lawmakers from different parties.
"Tom DeLay is not telling the truth on this," Frost says of the Republican's claim that the GOP-sponsored redistricting plan would increase minority districts.
"Well, I have noticed that Mr. Frost and others will make any argument out of desperation that they can, and they have changed their arguments almost on a daily basis trying to find one that may work," DeLay said.
The issue of race has emerged as a key point of controversy in Colorado, as well.
The Colorado legislative map turns a district that had roughly equal percentage of Republicans and Democrats into a district where the GOP would have a 29,000-person voter registration advantage. When the new map was released in Colorado, Democrats accused Republicans of "weakening Hispanic voters" by reducing the Hispanic population from 19.6 to 14.3 percent.
