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December 7, 2001

Redistricting process
punitive to agriculture

By Donald Patman
Texas Farm Bureau President

One of the biggest issues facing farmers and ranchers at present is redistricting of Congress and the State Legislature.

Frankly, we feel that the recent efforts of the Legislative Redistricting Board were extremely political and punitive to rural and agricultural interests. This has also been the case in the past, under the influence of both political parties. All that is being sorted out now in the courts.

There has to be a better way. Farm Bureau believes a non-partisan citizens commission could do the hard work of drawing new Legislative and Congressional Districts. It is an issue fresh on our minds now, and it has important implications for the future.

To be sure, no one issue will poison the relationship that Texas Farm Bureau has with elected officials. Farm Bureau has never been, and can never afford to be, a single-issue group. There will always be multiple issues important to farmers and ranchers, and we'll continue to seek allies among elected officials as we continue to work our legislative program. In short, we'll move on to fight other battles on behalf of our members.

With regard to redistricting, however, we must begin to think about a long-range plan. Legislative and Congressional districts will be shuffled once again following the census of 2010. That may seem like a long time right now, but there is much work to be done. If present trends continue, we can expect a smaller rural population, and fewer rural representatives.

We cannot afford to allow partisan politics to reduce that number even further. We have to begin talking about it now, visiting with our elected officials and shaping our policy to reflect the best interests of agriculture and rural Texas.

In drawing new districts for the Texas House of Representatives earlier this year, the LRB produced a plan that would force many rural leaders, of both parties, to run against each other. This would eliminate many outstanding legislators with decades of knowledge and experience in dealing with rural and agricultural matters. Court rulings are pending, but this is a very serious matter for those of us that live in rural Texas.

It seems that under the current method, we cannot escape politics as the driving force behind redistricting.

Farm Bureau has called for a non-partisan citizen's commission to perform the bulk of the work on redistricting in the future. We should push hard for that and other reasonable approaches for redistricting in future sessions of the Legislature. It's time to take politics out of redistricting and the shaping of our representation at least to the greatest extent possible.