The Texas Constitution limits the state to 31 senate districts, which has resulted in each senator representing almost a million people.
Sens. Kevin Sparks of Midland and Nathan Johnson of Dallas are not averse to considering a constitutional amendment to increase the number of districts, but they say the growth in their numbers of constituents is not their main concern.
Determined by how many people a U.S. congressman should represent, the number of Texas’ congressional districts has grown to 38 as each federal congressman has about 710,000 constituents.
Texas state representatives each represent about 194,000.
“I’ve heard some people say that the reason the drafters of our state constitution chose the numbers they did for the Senate and House, 31 and 150, respectively, was that in the Bible there are 31 Proverbs and 150 Psalms,” said Sparks, a Republican.
“I’m not sure if that’s historically accurate, but it makes sense. However, I am not opposed to hearing arguments in favor of increasing the number of senators in Texas.”
Sparks said systems rarely become less complicated when more people are added.
“The United States has never changed the number of U.S. senators, 50, and House members, 435, in Congress and in that same vein I do not currently see a need to increase our numbers in the Senate simply for the sake of lowering the numbers of Texans represented by each senator.”
Johnson, a Democrat, had also heard the Biblically related reasoning for the numbers of state senators and representatives who convene in Austin. He added that the senators’ having five times as many constituents as the representatives has worked all right since the constitution was adopted in 1876.
“Proverbs is the body of wisdom and the Psalms are close to the people,” Johnson said. “Increasing the number of senate districts is not a subject I have pondered much, but my initial reaction is ‘no,’” he said.
“Maybe that five-to-one ratio is important. “Yes, it is difficult to represent a million people, but then it’s difficult to get 30 people in a room to agree on anything.
“There is some value to having a very large district because it forces you to take into account a wider array of viewpoints.”
Johnson said the key thing about having a great number of constituents “is recognizing that everything you do affects a lot of people, not just one constituency.”
He said gerrymandering, or drawing districts’ lines to favor one political party, would continue even if the House and Senate voted by two-thirds majorities to put the issue to a statewide vote, the governor signed it and the voters approved.
“Right now with the unwieldiness of the large districts, if we were to make more Senate districts, say 50, we’d still be vulnerable to gerrymandering, which is like giving the NBA champion the first draft pick each year,” Johnson said.
“I don’t know that anybody is completely devoted to the idea of having 31 Senate districts,” he said. “It would be an interesting discussion.
“But of all the problems we have in state government, it’s not one of the big ones. Those are polarization, expansive government and factionalism.”
Eighteen senators did not respond to requests for comment from the Odessa American.
