At this late date you should have a pretty good idea in which city council district you'll be in, should the map going to council next month wind up as the one officially adopted. And when it comes to redistricting, well, it's left the Dallas Independent School District one trustee short of a full board. But when it comes to the state's new map, perhaps you were unaware: A trial's set to start later this week down in San Antonio over the proposed congressional boundaries.
The man tracking that not-at-all-transparent process is Dallas attorney Michael Li, who's been guest-posting to Burnt Orange Report. That's where, on Friday, we found a cache of redistricting-related emails made public record in recent courthouse filings -- including the one you see above from former Carrollton mayor-turned-U.S. congressman Kenny Marchant. See, in politics it's always personal.
That post sent us PACER, where we found in the case jacket an affidavit submitted last week by Eddie Bernice Johnson, who's displeased over the way redistricting has been handled ("... it does discriminate against African-Americans") and is concerned she's about to get written out of the 30th. "My home and office are not in the district," she writes.
Also eliminated from the 30th are Love Field, Uptown, downtown -- and, she mentions specifically -- "the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park ... the Art's District ... [and] DART headquarters," which, she writes, "have long term relationships with me." She also notes that "the District removes one of the largest LGBT areas (Oaklawn) that works effectively with other communities of interest within my district." She has several other issues as well. Read the laundry list below.
