Redistricting begins: Texas stands to gain 3 more US House seats

I guess in Texas, it's called Perrymandering

With the release of new census information, the expectations for Texas are that it will gain 3 new US congressional districts. The state will have to be redistricted and that favors the republicans since they control our current legislature. No doubt, the GOP will be out to gerrymander in order to maximize its gains. Recently, some of the valley's political leaders spoke out on this expectation. From the McAllen Monitor:

City leaders don’t want McAllen lumped into a so-called “fajita” or strip district stretching north from the border, according to an Oct. 22 letter from Mayor Richard Cortez to State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa. They’d prefer east-west congressional districts stretching along the Rio Grande.

In other words, McAllen would prefer more districts like Texas’ 28th, which stretches from Laredo to McAllen, and fewer like Texas’ 15th, which heads north from Hidalgo County. Those districts roughly split McAllen, giving Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, the city’s southwest side and Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, the city’s northeast portion.
“I would rather be bunched together with some border cities that have some of the same issues we have rather than go all the way to Corpus (Christi) or all the way to San Antonio,” Barrera said.

Get your crayons and your scissors out. It's gerrymandering time in Texas again. The democrats might as well not even bother flying to Ardmore, Oklahoma this time around. The Texas GOP will have the numbers to continue it's work without them.