BELL COUNTY, Texas — When Texas legislators headed back to the Texas Capitol to discuss redistricting, many Bell County leaders asked lawmakers to keep Texas House District 55 intact. Among them, longtime Rep. Hugh Shine.
"Spend your time working on those other districts that are either short or have too many people and let's put our effort there," Shine said. "Whereas in our district, we can remain pretty much the same, plus we have a community of interest in District 55."
Shine, Belton ISD Superintendent Dr. Matt Smith, the Belton Mayor and others told lawmakers: "If it ain't broke don't fix it."
Lawmakers went ahead to "fix it."
As you can see below, District 55 became much more compact, and moved to the northwest side of the county. District 54, which had included the Killeen area and Lampasas County, now inhabited the south and western portion of Bell County. Both representatives lost constituents. Shine filed an amendment to get the lines changed Sunday, though both representatives would be remaining in Bell County.
"I am firmly committed to protecting my community of interest with Temple and Belton and all the communities across Bell County," Shine said. "The first map that came out split Temple and Belton down the middle, took me to the west side and gave me a good portion of Killeen. That was totally unacceptable."
Of course, Shine also knew exactly why the change occurred. Texas House District 54, held by Rep. Brad Buckley, traditionally needed Republican votes in Lampasas County to overcome the Democratic voting block in Killeen.
Due to population growth, Bell County had enough people for two districts. If Buckley was going to keep his seat in Bell County, he needed some of Shines' Republican voter base. If Buckley stayed exclusively on the Killeen side, he would be in danger of losing the seat to the Democratic Party.
"It was always Lampasas that put the Republican ahead to win the election (in District 54). So the dilemma is, since we have to be within the boundaries, for Republicans to be elected in District 54, District 55 has to make concessions," Shine said.
Shine said his amendment would draw a new map that would split voters effectively without splitting as many cities and school districts between two representatives. He said the Killeen/Harker Heights area would most likely need to be split simply because of the size.
In reality however, many house districts across Texas had been gaining and losing entire counties to make the numbers work, and to keep Republicans in power. Shine said, that latter reason may not be right when you come down to it.
"Don't look at whether it is an 'R' district or a 'D' district," Shine said. "This is where I will probably come to odds with some of the Republican leadership. I believe that community of interest is the first priority. The second thing that you have to make sure is the district has the correct population...and quite frankly, if you are an 'R' and the numbers don't work out for you then thank you for your service. If you are a 'D' and the numbers don't work out, thank you for your service."