The redistricting actions in 2004 of disgraced Republican and former House majority leader Tom DeLay (recently of TX 22, now resigned from Congress), recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, have now handed the voters of District 21 their third major redistricting in as many Congressional terms.

What does this mean for you and me?

New challenges, and new opportunities to go out and meet every single member in District 21.

On Friday, the Texas State Supreme Court are still deciding where District 21 will be, and the likeliest plan -- sponsored by Democrat Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX 28, San Antonio or Laredo, pick one), Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla (TX 23, Laredo or Del Rio, pick one), and Republican Congressman Lamar Smith (TX-21, San Antonio or some place in Connecticut, pick one ), a plan favored by Texas Sytate Attorney General Greg Abbott -- will put me in Henry Bonilla's district, which under this plan would not just stretch from just wast of El Paso to Laredo and up to San Antonio like it does now, It would also reach up and touch all of Western Travis County.

Now I ask you -- does Austin belong in the same district as the sagebrush flats of Socorro, a stone's throw from El Paso?

You know, personally I just cannot visualize Henry Bonilla ever attending a constituent event at Hippie Hollow on Lake Travis, right outside of Austin and less than two miles from my campaign headquarters.

It's hard to visualize Lamar Smith at Hippie Hollow either, but let's not go there. My point is -- no part of Austin belongs in a Congressional district that streches two-thirds of the way across the state of Texas.

Win or lose, nobody in my neighborhood wants a Congressman who's not from around here. At least Lamar Smith and John Courage, my opponents, are mostly from San Antonio. We don't want our representative in Congress hailing from Van Horn or Alpine or Marfa. We want a local representative.x that URL?

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