Let’s Talk HD83
Primary season is almost upon us. Now is the time to prepare by becoming informed.
The Texas Tribune has — conveniently in one place — all the info for Texas elected officials you need to get started with an analysis of them. Check out Delwin Jones’ House District 83. Take the time to zoom in on the map of his district within the Lubbock city limits. Notice that middle-finger-looking portion running up from South Loop 289 to 19th Street just south of Texas Tech? My understanding of that funny-shaped foray into Tech Terrace is that it was a fine piece of gerrymandering to keep former Lubbock Mayor Windy Sitton from being able to challenge Carl Isett for HD84, our inside-city-limits house district.
This quirk of HD83 brings me to my three main points for this upcoming February/March Primary elections:
1) Delwin Jones will be the Chair of the House Redistricting Committee in 2011. Republican Primary voters would be foolish to vote Delwin out when he wields so much power. Delwin Jones’ primary challengers (two so far) can’t offer advantages like that for our area.
Meanwhile, I’m holding out the possibility that Delwin will use redistricting to cap his career in an honorable way by un-gerrymandering our area as much as possibile. A dude can dream, can’t he?
2) Delwin Jones is an unstoppable juggernaut of incumbency. He’ll leave office when he retires, not before.
3) You don’t need to vote in the Republican Primary to “protect” Delwin Jones against his challengers. If you’re on the fence about which primary to vote in, see point #2 — he’s whupped all the challengers he’s had over the last decade. There are also compelling reasons to vote in the Democratic Primary this time — several statewide races that are contested, for example. Also, our area’s strength within the Party is determined by governor-year turnout. If you want to see a stronger Democratic Party and a real two-party system in our area, then participate in the Lubbock County Democratic Party Primary to accomplish that goal.
I think Delwin’s got the 2010 primary locked up. Tell us what you think in the comments!
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