Of Cabbages and Kings
by BOB BARTON
Three dozen or so precisely drawn county redistricting plans later, the Hays County Commissioners Court is nearing the end of the once-a-decade challenge of ultimately recreating the boundaries of the four county commissioner precincts which will mark their fiefdoms for the next 10 years.
That is, of course, unless death, defeat or the allure of seeking some higher office doesn’t upset someone’s political apple cart.
Yesterday’s public hearing will be followed by the last hearing next Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 16, on the third floor of the Courthouse. All proposals have been reduced to map form, mostly by commissioners aided by supporters with varying degrees of mapmaking experience. More maps may appear before next Tuesday’s final public hearing. So it goes.
This is my fifth visit to this particular political rodeo, starting back in the dark ages of 1970, after enactment of the Civil Rights Bill by a Congress dominated by our Blanco County neighbor Lyndon Johnson.
A political wound had festered in San Marcos since Hispanic soldiers had returned to their homes and established their families on the Southside. They didn’t cotton too much to having no sidewalks or mail service, or particularly their lack of representation in county, school and city positions of leadership.
They broke through first with the election of Ruben Ruiz to the San Marcos City Council, and then again when Celestino Mendez won a spot on the same city council.
But the county commissioners court was much tougher, and controlled by forces sympathetic to the old belief that “minorities” had their place, but it certainly didn’t involve occupying an elective office.
The solution: Gerrymandering! Named for an obscure New England governor, Eldridge Gerry, who perfected the drawing of political election lines to favor the viewpoints he held, even when a majority of nearby neighbors didn’t share them. Crooked election lines that snaked to friendly territory became his specialty and put him in the history books.
The “old” Hays County order in the early ’70s, headed by powerhouse County Judge Max Smith, did Gerry proud. Their redistricting narrowly placed commissioner candidate Ruiz from the San Marcos far southeast side, into the precinct centered around Dripping Springs and a second San Marcos southsider into a narrow district that stretched all the way to Wimberley.
Needless to say, Ruiz and his cohort won their home areas easily, but lost to a larger majority which stretched clear across the county.
It was a big and disheartening loss for the minority community, one shared emotionally by a sizeable contingent of progressives of all shades who had been inspired by the presidencies of both Jack Kennedy and LBJ.
Richard Milhouse Nixon was president by then, but HIS Justice Department took their responsibilities seriously, and complaints from Hispanic and an emerging “rainbow” of folk who thought it was past time for Hays County to start obeying the law of the land, were filed.
And then it happened, not quite out of the blue. U.S. Justice Department representatives ruled that discrimination by the “ins” against the “outs” clearly existed. They told County Judge Smith in no uncertain words to make amends immediately. He did with hardly a whimper. By the time the next election rolled around, election districts were overhauled.
As a result Ruiz easily became the Precinct 1 commissioner at the next election. It’s the seat that Debbie Gonzales Inglesbe still holds today.
Sometimes grassroot, small “D” democracy does work. I witnessed it 57 years ago and it “tasted” mighty good then, and still does today.
I’m ready for a few more helpings – perhaps from the Redistricting Committee that has put some pretty big “hits” on Buda and Kyle because they have too many folks living in Precinct 2.
When 52.4 percent of the children who attend public schools in this county are enrolled in Hays CISD classrooms and another 25.4 percent go to school in San Marcos, it doesn’t seem quite right for someone who lives in Woodcreek to be making decisions for us.
Let’s try something revolutionary like asking the folks who live there whether they want to be in a San Marcos or Dripping Springs precinct. It might be a helpful answer – one that Eldridge Gerry would appreciate.
