From Stateline.org:

Say the word “redistricting” or “reapportionment” and even some political junkies’ eyes glaze over. But for most lawmakers, it’s a subject that can get their “blood boiling, their hearts racing and their dander up,” Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth says, because the redrawing of district lines could cost lawmakers their jobs and their parties power for the next 10 years.

The last time Texas went through the redistricting process in 2003, the Texas Legislature became such a laughingstock that Jay Leno made jokes about it on TV. At the time, 51 Democratic state lawmakers fled to neighboring Oklahoma to deprive the Legislature of a quorum, a move that succeeded in killing a GOP-backed redistricting bill. Later that same year, Texas approved a controversial mid-decade plan engineered by former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Texas Republicans that ultimately gave the GOP six more seats in Congress.

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