The biggest news in Texas, and on its political blogs, was the United State Supreme Court's ruling on congressional redistricting. The Central and West Texas district belonging to U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, was ordered back to the judicial drawing board. Both Republicans and Democrats claimed a partial victory.

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Zapped Maps

Houstopia said, "Today's Supreme Court decision was a mixed bag. While essentially only one Congressional district was ruled invalid, any lower court remedy to the 23rd will have some ripple effect to other districts. The breadth of that ripple remains to be seen."

Robert Ricketts, a Democratic candidate opposing U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, for CD-19, posted a review from a West Texas perspective on Burnt Orange Report: "Overall... I am pleased with the Supreme Court's decision. From a purely personal political standpoint, redistricting diluted the Republican base in District 19, and in a number of other districts as well (such as Nick Lampson's District 2)."

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Texas Legislature's authority to redistrict mid-decade was seen as an important precedent. Eye on Williamson County said, "It's open season now and states will be redistricting at every time the power switches early in a decade."

On his blog, A Capitol Blog, Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, agreed: "Partisanship will increase as legislatures around the country, dominated by one political party, will move to solidify their advantage. The precious political center will continue to evaporate as partisanship reigns. Oh, what a legacy Mr. (Tom) DeLay."

Karl-Thomas Musselman at Burnt Orange Report is concerned about last-minute boundary changes just months before the elections: "As was the case in 1996 in Texas when the courts redrew the 1990 census maps, November could become a new Louisiana-style free-for-all primary day resulting in December run-offs for any district with so much as one precinct changed in it. And of course, if the Texas Lege did get to redo the maps, now that mid-decade redistricting is constitutional, there's nothing that says they couldn't take a stab at the entire state. For a third time... "

As for long-term impact, Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House wonders if the ruling will cause state political parties to regain strength: "The declining power of political parties over the last quarter century has been well documented. It will be interesting to see if this stops that slide and indeed, turns it around somewhat. More powerful parties means more party discipline, something both parties could do with a little more of."

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Holding Fourth

Before you lose your patriotic glow, you can re-read the Declaration of Independence, as posted by the Club for Growth, and take this sample citizenship test The Agonist posted. Don't worry, you won't lose your citizenship, no matter what the results are.

Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex took the holiday to remind his readers of the importance of the Voting Rights Act. "The Voting Rights Act is not a 'white' or 'black' or 'Latino' law. It is an American law, and uniquely so," he said.

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Hoof in Mouth Disease

In discussions on the renewal of the Voting Rights Act VRA), U.S. Rep. John R. Carter, R-Georgetown, riled some bloggers (see JustAnotherBlog and Think Progress for examples) with his comment, "I don't think we have racial bias in Texas. I simply believe you should be able to read, write and speak English to be a voter in the United States." In a letter to the editor of the Austin American-Statesman, Rep. Carter said he supports the VRA, he just wanted to delay action on the legislation until after the Supreme Court ruled on Texas' redistricting case.

On the campaign trail, Rep. Carter's Democratic opponent, Mary Beth Harrell, is getting traction in the blogs by responding to Carter's comments, and by attacking him on his ownership of Exxon Mobil stock. Eye on Williamson County said, "John Carter tries to dodge this conflict of interest by saying Mary Beth Harrell is a Yankee and doesn't understand the 'all bidness'." She alleged a conflict of interest because Rep. Carter had a press conference about high gas prices in front of a Shell station.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em: Congressman Carter has also started a blog on his officeholder's website.

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The Unbearable Meaning of "Darkness"

When we mentioned a few weeks ago that a Capitol Press Corps member was joining the "dark side," reporters thought that meant one of their kin was going to become a "flack," or spokesperson. Legislative aides thought that meant someone was going to become a lobbyist. Just for the purpose of this column, the "dark side" means blogging.

So with some good-natured taunting by In The Pink Texas and Pink Dome, and a welcome from the "dean" of the Texas blogosphere, Charles Kuffner at Off the Kuff, Texas Monthly's senior executive editor Paul Burka has unveiled The Burka Blog.

Take one political writer who has angered some politicos for years with his devastating opinions of their work, and add the ability of readers to post comments anonymously, and you have the recipe for one exciting blog. We can't wait to see what happens.

Democrat Nick Lampson has started running commercials, taking advantage of a court battle over who he'll face on the November ballot. Lampson is running in CD-22 — the incumbent there, sort-of, is former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. Texas Democrats sued to keep DeLay on the ballot after he resigned from Congress last month, saying the law doesn't allow him to hop off the ballot. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks is deciding that issue. If DeLay's off the ballot, Republicans get to replace him with another candidate; otherwise, he'll have to decide whether to campaign for the seat against Lampson, himself a former congressman. Meanwhile, Lampson's running two ads. One is biographical, about his family ties to the district (he represented Beaumont when he was in Congress). The other's a spot about cutting the budget and features "voters" hollering instructions to Congress about fiscal responsibility — into a bullhorn. Both spots can be viewed online. The campaign says the ads are running on cable television in the district and say they plan to remain on the air through Election Day in November.

He quit Congress and declared himself a resident of Virginia, but Texas Democrats sued, saying the GOP can't replace him on the ballot with someone they appoint. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, after thinking it over for a week, ruled with the Democrats.

"Tom DeLay is not ineligible to be the Republican Party nominee for the United States House of Representatives from Texas District 22..." he ruled.

The Constitution says members of the House have to be inhabitants of the states they represent, but it says they have to be an inhabitant on the day they're elected. Since Election Day isn't here yet, Democrats argued, DeLay isn't yet disqualified. Sparks agreed: "There is no evidence that DeLay will still be living in Virginia tomorrow, let alone on November 7, 2006, the only day that matters under the Qualifications Clause of the United States Constitution."

There's a state law that requires candidates for the Legislature to be residents of their districts for a year before their elections, but it doesn't apply to federal office-seekers, Sparks wrote. The GOP, in this case, doesn't have the power to declare DeLay ineligible.

"Were the Court to adopt Defendant's position, either political party could and would be able to change candidates after the primary election and before the general election simply by an administrative declaration of ineligibility by the party chair based on a candidate's 'move' to another state," he wrote. "This would be a serious abuse of the election system and a fraud on the voters, which the Court will not condone."

The Texas GOP will appeal to the 5th Circuit, Chairwoman Tina Benkiser said in a written statement. Benkiser, an attorney, said the decision "effectively throws the federal election process into total chaos, and we will ppeal this decision in order to protect the voters of Texas and their right to vote for a nominee of their choice."

DeLay won the GOP primary in March, and his replacement, if ther is one, won't be chosen by voters. Instead, Republicans from the four counties that have a piece of the district — Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, and Harris — were set to appoint someone to put on the ballot. One precinct judge from each of the four counties (chosen, in turn, by the other precinct chairs in their county), would vote on a replacement candidate if DeLay came off the ballot. And a number of candidates were actively lobbying for that appointment. Sparks' ruling, unless it's overturned, corks that bottle.

Barring a successful appeal of Sparks' ruling, Democrat Nick Lampson, a former congressman from Beaumont, will face DeLay in November for a full term in the U.S. House. In any case, Gov. Rick Perry will call a special election to fill what's left of DeLay's current term; that'll likely be held in November, with the winner serving until January.

Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace — one of a herd of Republicans vying for DeLay's spot on the ballot — said he's proceeding on the assumption that the courts will take DeLay off the ballot and that Wallace will have an advantage over other contestants financially. But he says — as Benkiser says — that if DeLay's on the ballot, DeLay will win the election in what both call a conservative district. Others seeking the seat include attorney Tom Campbell (who lost to DeLay in the primary), state Reps. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land, and Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, Houston City Council member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, and state Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte.

That raises a purely speculative question. If DeLay stays on the ballot and if he wins in November, would he return to Congress or would he refuse to take office? The latter would set up another special election and staying out of that one would be easy: He could simply fail to file for office.

And another (this one posited by James Bopp Jr., the Terre Haute, Indiana lawyer for the Texas GOP): If DeLay is eligible today for the ballot, but isn't eligible to serve (since he's arguably a resident of Virginia), could he win the election and then be barred from taking his place in Congress? In Bopp's view, that's a hole card for the Democrats if Sparks' ruling holds and if Lampson loses to DeLay in November. And it's part of what's wrong with the ruling, he says, because it "denies voter choice to require an ineligible candidate to remain on the ballot."

Sometimes the cleanest way to settle a disagreement is to go ahead and fight. It looks like the bickering over whether the state should hire Washington, D.C., lobbyists with taxpayer money will go to the Legislature.The Sunset Advisory Commission's staff wants to make the state's Office of State Federal Relations a division of the governor's office and to make it clear that the state can contract with Washington lobbyists. That recommendation will go to the full commission and then to the Legislature for consideration during next year's regular session. That'll put the argument squarely before the House and the Senate and could prove an interesting counterpoint to state efforts to stop local governments and school districts from using their tax dollars to lobby Austin. In their report (found on their website), the Sunset staff made a point of saying they "chose not to make a judgment about the appropriateness of the state's use of federal consultants," but wanted to put contracting rules in place if the state keeps hiring them. They also said OSFR should report to the governor instead of reporting to both the Guv and the Legislature. They pointed out that the state's four largest cities, its two biggest counties and a mess of other local government agencies hire Washington lobbyists, and also found that Texas is the only state that has a separate state agency to deal with the feds. Most states have made that a function of their governors' offices. The report produced jabs from Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who's running against Gov. Rick Perry, and from Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, who heads the House's Democratic Caucus. Strayhorn said that, if elected, she wouldn't hired outside lawyers: "We have 32 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, two members in the U.S. Senate, and one President of the United States looking out for Texas in Washington, D.C." As comptroller, she's been withholding payments to two firms hired to lobby for the state. Dunnam has tried before to get the state to fire its hired guns in D.C., and called on Sunset commissioners to overrule the staff report. Perry's aides have defended the lobby spending, saying the contracts have paid for themselves in higher revenue from the federal government.

Straw polls, budget cuts, and a new law office in Brownsville

• David Wallace, the Sugar Land mayor and would-be replacement for Republican Tom DeLay on the CD-22 ballot, says he won a straw poll of precinct chairs in Fort Bend County. He takes that as an indication that the Republicans in his home county would back him if DeLay's name comes off the ballot. Wallace got 46 percent of the ballots; his nearest competitor, he says, got 30 percent. The tally isn't binding.

• The order for state agencies to cut ten percent from their current budgets when they put together their proposals for next year has made its way into Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's campaign materials. In an email to supporters, Dewhurst says a similar program before the 2003 legislative session led to "approximately $1 billion in savings to the taxpayers of Texas." The email, sent over Dewhurst's signature, says Texas has fewer state employees than when he took office and fewer state agencies. Both are references to the 2003 consolidation of the state's health and human services agencies. And he says all that happened without increasing taxes (the special session, he writes, resulted in "the largest tax cut in our state's history"). Dewhurst also says the growth in the state's general revenue has been lower than the rate of inflation over the last six years.

• Clark, Thomas & Winters opened a Rio Grande Valley office to be headed by Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, son of the state senator and a probable member of the next class in the Texas House. Lucio III won a Democratic primary for Harlingen Rep. Jim Solis' seat in the House and faces a Libertarian in November. The Austin-based law firm also has offices in San Antonio.