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May 1, 2004

Write-In

Thanks to the machinations of Tom DeLay and the Texas Republicans, Austin is now the largest city in the nation without its own seat in the House of Representatives. Travis County was chopped up and parceled out between three Districts:

  • District 21, which extends to San Antonio.
  • District 10, which reaches the suburbs of Houston.
  • District 25, which snakes hundreds of miles south to the Mexican border.
Texas Redistricting map.

Our former Congressman Lloyd Doggett is running in District 25. We ended up in District 10, a challenge viewed so hopeless, that the Democrats did not even field a candidate in the Primary. That’s right, here in our part of the City of Austin, there’s no Democrat on the ballot, come November.

Lorenzo Sadun

My colleague at UT, Mathematics Professor Lorenzo Sadun was sufficiently disgusted that he decided to run as a write-in candidate.

Sign the ballot petition (if you’re registered to vote in the 10th District), give him money or just wish him luck … He’ll need it.

Posted by distler at May 1, 2004 3:44 AM

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2 Comments & 0 Trackbacks

Re: Write-In

Isn’t that whole thing a mess? It really makes me sad because aside from the truly dirty state politics I really love TX.

Posted by: Matt on May 2, 2004 12:50 AM | Permalink | Reply to this

Slime

It’s been nearly 10 years since I moved to Texas and, yes, I love this place.

But Molly Ivins has made a career cataloguing the corruption, venality and shear stupidity of the Texas Legislature. This little exercise in off-year redistricting/gerrymandery is only slightly more egregious than average.

The professional Democratic politicians have just written off the 10th District. I really admire Lorenzo’s willingness to set aside his personal comfort and do something about this outrage.

And, hey, his campaign has a blog.

Posted by: Jacques Distler on May 2, 2004 1:23 AM | Permalink | PGP Sig | Reply to this

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