Redistricting map "eviscerates" conservative representation

Joe Nixon's H155 map offers alternative to committee chair Bert Solomons' pairing of conservatives to eliminate them - H113

BULLETIN: The Solomons Plan, H113, passed by 92-52 at 3 a.m. The H155 Nixon Plan never came up for a vote. - The Legendary

(click here to see the proposed map, select Overlay Plans and scroll to Plan H113, H155)

Austin – Newly elected conservative representatives who swept liberals out of office in the elections of 2010 will be paired against one another under the new plan filed by Redistricting Chair Bert Solomons – R-Carrollton.

Mr. Solomons is a committee chair appointed by House Speaker Joe Strauss, whose re-election as Speaker was bitterly opposed by conservatives and Tea Party activists alike.

A vote on the plan could come as early as this coming Wednesday on the House floor, according to John Kuempel, R-District 44, Seguin.

Former Rep. Joe Nixon, R-Houston, teamed up with Trey Trainor, a voting rights lawyer, to draw a new redistricting map that is more pleasing to conservatives.

Mr. Nixon represented Dist. 133 and authored both the tort reform legislation passed in the 78th Legislature and the its companion Constitutional Amendment, Proposition 12.

The Nixon Plan, H155, is based on three major criticisms of the Solomons Plan, H113:

1. The Solomons plan, H113, is “not reflective” of voting patterns because it pits newly elected conservatives against one another;

2. It violates voters' rights;

3. The districts are not compact in their territory. One west Texas district is 400 miles wide.

They are urging concerned citizens to contact their representatives to voice their concerns, hopefully to plug the Nixon redistricting plan, H155.

Their claim is that the Nixon plan will allow conservative representatives to run against challengers, and not each other.

Said Representative Nixon of the Solomons plan, “It sends conservatives home.”