TXGOP's anti-Latino redistricting scheme exposed in e-mails

Miriam Rozen at Salon with the gumshoe detective work.

On Nov. 17, 2010, Eric Opiela sent an email to Gerard Interiano. A Texas Republican Party associate general counsel, Opiela served at that time as a campaign adviser to the state’s speaker of the House Joe Straus, R-San Antonio; he was about to become the man who state lawmakers understood spoke “on behalf of the Republican Congressmen from Texas,” according to minority voting-rights plaintiffs, who have sued Texas for discriminating against them.

A few weeks before receiving Opiela’s email, Interiano had started as counsel to Straus’ office. He was preparing to assume top responsibility for redrawing the state’s political maps; he would become the “one person” on whom the state’s redistricting “credibility rests,” according to Texas’ brief in voting-rights litigation.

In the Nov. 17, 2010, email, Opelia asked Interiano to look for specific data about Hispanic populations and voting patterns.

“These metrics would be useful to identify the ‘nudge factor’ by which one can analyze which census blocks, when added to a particular district [they] help pull the district’s Total Hispanic pop … to majority status, but leave the Spanish surname RV [registered voters] and TO [turnout] the lowest,” Opiela writes to the mapmaker.

Interiano responded two days later: “I will gladly help with this Eric but you’re going to have to explain to me in layman’s terms.”

Opiela, you may recall, was also a GOP candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner who failed to clear his primary and make the runoff last spring.

Two years and seven months after that email exchange — and one year ago on June 25, 2013 — the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that had allowed the federal government to “pre-clear” redistricting maps proposed by Texas and other states with a history of discriminating against minority voters.

In a follow-up email on Nov. 19, 2010, Opiela explained to Interiano that he called his proposed strategy: “OHRVS” or “Optimal Hispanic Republican Voting Strength.” Opiela defined the acronym-friendly term as, “a measure of how Hispanic, and[,] at the same time[,] Republican we can make a particular census block.”

Lawyers for the African-American and Hispanic voting-rights plaintiffs consider Opiela emails “a smoking gun.” The correspondence will play a starring role at a trial scheduled to start today in a San Antonio federal court in a redistricting case, Perez v. Perry. The litigation pits the plaintiffs, who have been joined by the Obama administration, against Texas and its Republican state leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry in his official capacity.

Did someone mention that the trial began today?

Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in San Antonio, who represents Perez plaintiffs, believes Opiela’s emails show evidence of intentional discrimination and thereby provide the federal government with a spare key to restart Section 5, replacing the one the Shelby decision removed from the ignition.

[...] 

Clare Dyer helped gather that data for Interiano. She serves as a mapping and redistricting researcher for the Texas Legislative Council, a state agency, which provides, according to its website, “nonpartisan research” for all state players in the redistricting process.

When MALDEF’s Perales asked Dyer at her May 15, 2014, deposition about the emails, the state researcher said that Opiela appeared to be asking for “metrics,” which Interiano later sought from her office. Her interpretation of Opiela’s meaning in his emails: “[H]e’s trying to shore up — well, he says that — shore up districts so he can get — have them appear to be high Hispanic, but low Spanish surname registered voters. … You could give the appearance of having a Hispanic majority district, but it wouldn’t have the capability to elect — for the Hispanics in the district -- to elect the person of their choice.”

Sure seems like a lot of trouble to go to in order to try to win an election, doesn't it?

In its list of witnesses filed on June 9, though, the federal government has included Interiano as one it intends to call and Opiela as another it might call. Interiano testified at an earlier redistricting case for Texas — one the state filed in a D.C. federal court before Shelby in July 2011.  In its complaint in that case, Texas sought a declaration that its redistricting plans complied with the Voting Rights Act.  A three-judge panel of the D.C. federal court denied Texas the declaration and found the state in violation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. After Shelby, the D.C. court had to vacate its ruling. And the court had never ruled on the question of Texas’ alleged intentional discrimination, since prior to Shelby, such a finding was unnecessary to find the state in violation of Section 5.

In its opinion, however, the D.C. court expressed doubts about Interiano’s testimony. “[T]he incredible testimony of the lead House map drawer reinforces evidence suggesting map drawers cracked VTDs [vote tabulating districts] along racial lines to dilute minority voting power. … This and other record evidence may support a finding of discriminatory purpose in enacting the State House Plan. Although we need not reach this issue, at minimum, the full record strongly suggests that the retrogressive effect we have found may not have been accidental,” the D.C. judges concluded.

We should see some restrengthening of the fifty-year-old Voting Rights Act... if there is justice, and not just for Republicans.  More on today's opening arguments from the Dallas News.

Related reading from last week on Greg Abbott's other courtroom losses:

-- Texas Largely Loses Motion to Dismiss Voter ID Claims

-- Texas voter ID law must stand trial, judge rules

Man, Abbott is a really shitty lawyer.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance asks: "Who Would Jesus Deport?" as it brings you the best lefty blog posts from across Texas last week.

Off the Kuff discusses the latest advances in voter ID litigation.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos reports on the busy week in Texas politics: Greg Abbott blames terrorists for his Koch problem. Meanwhile the POTUS pays us a visit.

Horwitz at Texpatriate gives a run-down of the possible Democratic candidates for US president in 2016.

Texas Democrats had much to celebrate last week as former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro cleared Senate confirmation for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. And as Texas Leftist explains, his appointment brings some much needed geographic diversity to the president's cabinet.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson, the people see the government as an abstract entity they have no control over: Transportation Trouble - Every Issue Comes Down to This.

The most important stories in Texas last week were the border refugee crisis and President Obama's fundraising visits to Dallas and Austin, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs assembled several of the various reactions to both.

Another election questioning the Hidalgo County voting machines. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders what will be revealed this time.

Neil at All People Have Value posted from Cincinnati, Ohio this past week. Neil offered nice pictures of Cincinnati and wrote about seeing his friends and the passage of time. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

=======================

And here are more great posts from blogs around the Lone Star State.

Greg Wythe analyzes Houston turnout patterns to get a handle on how the attempt to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance may play out.

Texas Vox believes that US solar manufacturing could make a comeback.

The Texas Election Law blog reviews the lawsuit filed by college students challenging North Carolina's voter ID law.

Unfair Park lauds the Texas Clean Fleet Program, which is designed to get old diesel-powered school buses off the streets.

LGBTQ Insider gives a fond farewell to former Fort Worth City Council member Joel Burns.

Texas Watch reports that workers exposed to cancer-causing asbestos have just had their lives made harder by the state Supreme Court.

Scott Braddock documents the resistance Texas business leaders face on immigration reform.

Socratic Gadfly observes that in the contest between Dallas and Cleveland for the 2016 RNC convention, the Republicks went for the most socialist option.

Lone Star Q has the story of the Grand Saline Methodist minister, an activist in LGBTQ equality, who committed suicide via self-immolation.

jobsanger and the Green Party would just like to remind John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, et.al. that Edward Snowden is never going to receive a fair trial in the United States.

Prairie Weather examines the connection between the coyotes who smuggle cheap labor over the border for the American businesses that demand it, and how that has transformed the Tea Party's stated aims.

Tar Sands Blockade republishes Liana Lopez of t.e.j.a.s. (Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services) and her photo essay of the First Nation's march through Canada's tar sands oilfields.

Paul Kennedy notes the unintended consequences of the Michael Morton Act.

Sunday Funnies

Astrodome will go away in plans by Rodeo, Texans

Without public release of the news, and still awaiting Harris County commissioners' seal of approval, RodeoHouston and the NFL's Texans want to do away with the Astrodome and replace it with green space and a shell of what it used to be (without a roof).

One rendering (with more to see when you click here):

At first blush, and even though this model greatly resembles my previous suggestions, I find myself still disappointed that the two tenants want to knock it down, fill up the hole, and build some Stonehenge-like image of the Dome in its place.  But if this is the preferred way the two wealthy benefactors of Harris County taxpayers' largesse can allow themselves to be inconvenienced to preserve anything of the old girl... so be it.  I suppose.

Wayne was first (in fact I saw his post before I read it in the paper).  Not many other initial reactions yet, but will update here as they come along.

What are your thoughts on this proposal?

Update: John Royal sounds a little bitter, but does note that...

County judge Ed Emmett told Mark Berman last night that the Rodeo/Texans plan was a non-story. 

And at that link, Emmett makes it plain that this isn't what commissioners want.

"I don't think so," Judge Emmett said. "If the decision were to be made to demolish the dome at some point in the future, we'd probably go out and get our own thoughts about how to do it and what to put up in its place.

"The dome belongs to the taxpayers of Harris County. It is paid off. The decision of what to do next is a decision to be made by Harris County Commissioners Court, four county commissioners and the county judge. Then if it involves a level of money that requires a bond, then we'd have to come back to the taxpayers and say 'do you approve this bond?'

"We tried that last fall. They did not approve it, 53-47(%). We're still waiting for better ideas to come forward."

Judge Emmett said converting the Astrodome into a useable facility should not be ruled out.

"I still think we need to find a way to repurpose the structure," said Judge Emmett. "It's the only structure in the world that has 350 thousand square feet of column-free space.

"The Livestock Show and Rodeo could use it. I've met with them. They said 'oh absolutely we could use it. Put all the food and kiddy rides and things like that in there.' The Offshore Technology Conference clearly could use it. They were way out of space this year.

"And the Texans, the fan experience before games, and if could get it done before the Super Bowl (in 2017), think about the week leading up the Super Bowl and the things you could do out there."

So Royal's bitterness is better understood in this context.

Don't blame the voters (last November) for not approving the use of taxpayer funds for a stupid plan that would've gutted the place. Blame those officials who put that idiotic plan up for a vote without pushing for realistic options. Blame the Rodeo and the Texans for vetoing anything that might make them share their valuable parking spaces. Blame Bud Adams, blame Drayton McLane.

The Dome has been doomed to death for a long time now. Maybe now it can be actually put out of its agony.

We get it.  They're all greedy, self-serving bastards.  The question remains: Now what?

Update: Swamplot breaks it down. And Culturemap Houston thinks it's a joke.