Houston Democrat Harold Dutton isn’t ashamed to admit that his community and Harris County as a whole spawn a ton of criminals. But as with most lefties, Dutton is so concerned with political power that the he doesn’t care how bad a light the facts of his redistricting lawsuit cast on his county.
Dutton is saying that his area produces so many criminals that if they were counted as residing in Harris County, as opposed to being counted where they reside – elsewhere in state prisons, that Harris County could keep an entire House seat, its 25th.
The New York Daily News reports: “Under the federal Voting Rights Act, the Department of Justice has just approved counting inmates in their hometowns – not where they’re locked up – for the purposes of political redistricting.”
The stupid decision applies only to New York and its prisoners but, Dutton’s lawsuit in Texas is along the same lines.
Democrats argue, rightly by the way, that the Federal Census is to count all persons residing in the U.S. – whether legally present or not. Presumably Texas Democrats also believe that those persons, even if here illegally, should be counted where they were residing at the time of the census.
Put it this way: Would Texas Democrats accept us counting all illegal aliens, but for redistricting, grouping their numbers in an empty West Texas county since their legal place of residence is justifiably in question? That’s exactly what Dutton and others want to do with prisoners. They want to count them, not where they were residing on the Census snapshot-date but, where Democrats find it most advantageous to have them counted.
The Obama D.O.J. decision for New York doesn’t surprise, it is corrupt and Dutton’s lawsuit shameless. But, that sort of behavior is standard for Democrats in Texas, and across the nation.
Robert Pratt is host of the top-rated Pratt on Texas radio program which can be heard at www.PrattonTexas.com
© 2011 Pratt on Texas
