2002, A Redistricting Odyssey

...It may be another generation before the GOP can persuade a substantial percentage of minority voters to support its presidential candidate, but that doesn't have to be the story in down-ballot, off-year races—witness the black support George W. Bush received in his reelection bid for governor of Texas in 1998: 27 percent of the black vote (more than three times the paltry 8 percent of the national black vote he won in his presidential race...

...But these Democrats soon acquired some unlikely allies...

...How their party addresses this issue may well determine whether minority voters, especially blacks, will consider voting Republican for Congress or anything else for years to come...

...From the beginning, the Republican party was concerned about these challenges...

...After the last census, in 1990, Republicans controlled the legislatures of states with a total of only 5 House seats, while Democrats controlled states with 172 seats...

...During the upcoming redistrict-ing, the Republican National Committee likewise must resist the temptation once again to concentrate minority voters...

...As each decision came down, the civil rights establishment—including the Congressional Black Caucus, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the NAACP—decried it as a return to the days of literacy tests and poll taxes...

...Conversely, the interracial coalition-building that is a political fact of life in racially mixed districts is conducive to the emergence of black leaders who can win the support of a broader spectrum of voters, both black and white...

...It is this second proposition that Republicans must embrace if they hope to attract minorities into their party...

...Conservative legal groups joined the fray starting in 1994, filing challenges to minority-majority districts in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, New York, and other states...

...In fact, strange as it may seem to these groups, the Court's decisions could ultimately ensure the election of more minorities, not fewer, to Congress...

...Now it's 2001, and the Republicans face the old dilemma with a new twist: Racial gerrymandering is clearly illegal...

...One thing, however, hasn't changed since 1990: The Republicans again face a legal and philosophical dilemma over race and redistrict-ing...

...A new round of racial gerrymandering, even if less extreme, would be a mistake, for two reasons...

...The only question, according to this view of things, is the size of Republican losses in 2002...

...In fact, not a single minority incumbent has lost a bid for reelection to the House since 1992, although dozens of districts have been redrawn with smaller minority shares of their population...

...In the course of the 1990s, as the gerrymandered districts were struck down, they were redrawn under court order with fewer minorities...

...28 in 2001, including those of critical states like Texas and New York...

...Justice Department, aided by the civil rights groups, had argued for making the minority-majority districts at least 65 percent minority...

...A new round of racial gerrymandering would merely reinforce the status quo and prevent Republicans from developing ties with minority voters...

...Washington state's congressional delegation, for example, went from eight Democrats and one Republican to just two Democrats, with House speaker Tom Foley among those put out of a job...

...Dozens of heavily minority districts with twisted and contorted shapes were drawn in the Deep South and elsewhere, including New York City...

...And the best means of doing this is not window-dressing at a national convention every four years, widely viewed as a cynical ploy, but careful bridge-building at the local level...

...Supreme Court, and in a dozen decisions handed down from 1992 through 2000, the Court forbade the use of race as the primary criterion for drawing electoral districts...

...There are good grounds to quarrel with this wisdom, notably the GOP's improved position going into congressional redistricting...

...But after dozens of these gerrymandered districts were redrawn, with black or Hispanic populations as low as 35 percent, minority candidates succeeded in retaining their seats...

...Today, the GOP controls the legislatures of states with 98 House seats, while the Democrats hold sway over states with 144 seats...

...Whether the districts played a significant role in the GOP takeover of the House in 1994 is open to debate...

...If Republican officeholders put their ideals before what some see as their immediate political interests, they will come to represent more minority constituents and, in the process, earn their confidence and trust...

...Instead, they should vigorously refute the contemptible claim that all Republicans are closet racists...

...First, the Republican party must stand for the principle of equal rights under law...

...Second, the GOP's best chance for ever attracting blacks and Hispanics to their ranks is for Republican politicians to represent them in legislative bodies and learn to work with them to solve local problems...

...Many of the lawsuits filed in the 1990s went all the way to the U.S...

...Republican members of Congress grudgingly admit they know very little about the needs of minority communities, which is unsurprising when there are so few minorities in their districts...

...The lawsuits were brought by white Democrats, who may have anticipated the GOP's coming electoral success...

...As early as 1992, however, the racially gerrymandered districts came under legal challenge, first in North Carolina (Shaw v. Reno), then in Louisiana (Hays v. Louisiana...

...For one thing, the president's party almost always loses seats in "off year" elections...

...minority candidates, they said, needed that percentage to compete effectively in primaries and general elections...

...But for another, two years from now Democrats—especially black Democrats—will be mobilized with a vengeance to defeat the party that "stole" the 2000 presidential election from Al Gore...

...In addition, the number of Republican governors rose from 19 in 1991 to Edward Blum is director of legal affairs at the American Civil Rights Institute...

...Former Republican National Committee chief counsel Ben Ginsberg, who had worked diligently to maximize the number of minority-majority districts in 1991, believed conservative efforts to dismantle them were misguided in light of the electoral benefits they would bring Republicans...

...Local issues often trump ideology in congressional elections...

...In the remaining states, the legislatures were split between the parties, or redistricting boards managed the process...

...Back in 1991, the civil rights division of the U.S...

...Roger Clegg is general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity...

...Conservatives must not oppose racial preferences in university admissions and contracting, yet favor them in voting...

...Republicans should neither abandon efforts to attract minority voters nor adopt a me-too version of the NAACP's racialist agenda...

...In 1990, the Congressional Black Caucus and leading racial advocacy groups formed a political alliance with the GOP to promote the creation of ultra-safe "minority-majority" districts...

...While many states where these districts had been created saw Republican gains, so did states with small minority populations...

...Republicans reasoned that these racially gerrymandered districts would so concentrate minorities that the surrounding districts, purged of a core Democratic constituency, would be more likely to vote Republican...

...Here's why...

...Some believe this had as much to do with the Republican gains in 1994 as did President Clinton's unpopular health care initiative...

...Isolating blacks, in particular, in heavily minority districts pushes their leadership to the left and marginalizes moderate and conservative African Americans...