Redistricting Update from Senator Dan Patrick

Friends, I'm not involved in the House or Congressional maps, however as Chairman of the Tea Party Caucus Chairman, I felt someone needed to further clarify the information concerning the current state of maps. I hope this will help everyone better understand where we are and why. This current mess was brought upon us by the courts. It's easy to be confused. I've done some research in the last 24 hours to be sure the following is correct, at least as of today. There is still a lot of mis-information being e-mailed around concerning an alleged agreement by the A.G on an 87 seat House map. Last night, in response to e-mails concerning this alleged map I made contact with the A.G office. I knew that story was wrong, but I wanted to get confirmation. I sent out an e-mail saying that the e-mail was totally false. I hoped that would settle the issue. This morning I was sent an e-mail from those still not sure. They said that two Houston area House members had told them about the 87 seat agreement. I asked for the names of the two members and was given one name, Rep Ken Legler. Ken is a friend and a fine Representative who had his district wiped out by the Courts. I personally talked to Ken today in person. He assured me he did not tell anyone that the A.G. had agreed to an 87 seat Republican map and that it must have been an honest misunderstanding by someone he had had a discussion with concerning various maps. He gave me permission to share this with you. There is a lot of confusion, and justifiable concern about the maps and the election. The erroneous e-mail was a result of confusion by someone, and the understandable concern by those who received it. Let me try to help clarify where we are, and how this story probably got lost in translation. The redistricting map enacted by the legislature created 99 likely Republican districts. The San Antonio court drew new maps. Their map created 86-87 likely Republican districts. The Attorney General successfully appealed to the Supreme Court and struck down that map. Since then the A.G has negotiated on behalf of the House with the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force to restore 6-7 likely Republican seats, getting the House back to a total of 93 possible, or likely Republican districts. The Latino Task Force agreed to this map over a week ago. Negotiations with other groups, who still opposed the 93 seat map, have broken off negotiations as I stated in my e-mail last night. The following statement is important for everyone to understand, The A.G is not drawing maps. The A.G. is the lawyer representing both the House and Senate. The 93 seat map was drawn by House leadership, and posted on Red Apple, by House Chairman Solomons. The 93 seat map is a House leadership drawn map, not an A.G map. If there is a later agreement on a different House map, that map and decision will be from the House, not the A.G. The A.G is also the lawyer for the Senate. Even though the D.O.J. did not object to the Senate map drawn by the legislature, Senator Wendy Davis sued over District 10. While we did not get the exact map the legislature drew we have resolved that issue. We have an agreed to Senate map. The A.G didn't draw it, he represented Republicans in the Senate. Every Republican Senator signed off on the final map. Regarding Congressional maps, there is still no agreement as of today. I hope this helps clarify where we are at this point, how we got there, and who drew the maps. The next question is where do we go from here. There are lots of opinions and theories. No one knows for sure. The D.C Court is expected to rule in a few weeks. The San Antonio Court may issue a map before that ruling, or wait for that ruling. Depending on the D.C. Court ruling, and the decision of the San Antonio Court, we could have a primary on May 29, or we could be back to square one, and the primary could be delayed even further. If you feel frustrated by what is happening, so is every candidate and elected official. As a member of the Senate Redistricting Committee I believe we drew fair and legal maps. Please forward this to your vast e-mail lists so that everyone in the grass has the facts. To keep up with the latest breaking news on this and other issues, follow me on twitter @danpatrick or/and on facebook at www.facebook.com/dan.patrick.texas I have a lengthy post today on my facebook page about Rick Santorum's visit to Houston, and the connection between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul Thank you for your continued commitment to Texas and to our country, Dan Patrick Senator District 7 Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be with grace seasoned, as it were with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.”