NEW YORK, 29 October 2004 — Every two years Democrats and Republicans battle for control of the House of Representatives; so next week all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election. Only about 25 to 40 seats are truly contested during elections, but it is these races that get the national attention and, most important, money.
The power of incumbency and the process of redrawing district lines every decade have made most members of Congress unbeatable. In the 2002 general election, only four incumbents lost to challengers.
One major reason is money. House incumbents in 2002 raised an average of nearly $900,000, while challengers raised $200,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
In addition, partisan map drawing has always made districts safe for one party of the other.
But last week the US Supreme Court made headline news when it ordered a lower court to reconsider a Texas congressional map that could give Republicans six more seats in Congress in upcoming elections and help the GOP protect its majority.
The justices’ decision gave Republicans a short-term victory because the new district lines — engineered by House Majority Leader and Congressman Tom DeLay, R-Texas — should help the GOP gain seats and extend its 10-year hold on the House. Republicans currently control the chamber by 227-205, plus an independent and two vacancies.
The US Constitution requires states to draw new congressional districts every 10 years to reflect population shifts measured by the census. Texas state legislators failed to pass a new map for the state’s 32 House seats in 2001, after the new census numbers were available, so a federal court drew up a plan.
When the GOP captured control of the Texas Legislature in 2002, Delay urged lawmakers in Texas to draw the state’s districts for a second time to strengthen the slim Republican majority in Washington.
As a result, Republicans are expected to control as many as 22 Congressional seats in Texas after the Nov. 2 election.
Political observers say Texas is only one part of the Republican national strategy. In Pennsylvania, Republicans took control of the state Legislature in 2000 and arranged district lines to give the GOP a 12-7 majority in its congressional delegation.
In Colorado, after the Republicans won control of the state legislature in 2002, they promptly redrew a redistricting map imposed by the courts a little more than a year before.
Political observers believe that 2001 redistricting in newly GOP-controlled Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, along with the ongoing power grab in Texas and Colorado could give the Republicans up to twenty additional House seats in the next election.
