Nacogdoches remains a great place to live, work and vote but the Texas Legislature sure changed our neighborhood significantly.
That’s not to say most of our new political neighbors are strangers, but we’d wager that more than a few folks in the newly realigned 17th Congressional District, in which we now find ourselves, couldn’t point out Nacogdoches on a map. Forget about having them try to pronounce the name of the Oldest Town in Texas.
Barring any successful court challenges or an election upset, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, will be our new liaison to Washington D.C.
We had been part of the 1st Congressional District, a seat held now by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, in a district made up largely of East Texas.
Waco’s so far away, they don’t even call it East Texas anymore. And it’s not even the farthest point in the district. From Garrison to Round Rock is a solid 230 miles.
The Lone Star State is one of several that during the ever-contentious redistricting process is supposed to preserve “communities of interest.” That’s a $5 government term for areas with the same needs.
Round Rock and Pflugerville are a world away from Garrison, Chireno and Woden.
Waco, however, does remind us a bit of Nacogdoches. It’s a vibrant city with a historic downtown and a college. But one semester at Baylor would make a hefty down payment on a house in Nacogdoches.
Both our city and their’s struggle with poverty, though Waco’s got a much steeper divide between the rich and poor. The McLennan County poverty rate is around 18%. Here it’s about 30%.
We’ve other concerns, but we’ve yet to reach out to Sessions, who could assuage our fears, so we won’t get into them in this space.
Lawmakers in Austin also did a number on our Texas House District 11, but it’s more palatable.
The folks in the Texas Capitol, in their infinite wisdom, decided to drop Cherokee County from District 11 while adding Panola, Shelby, Sabine and Newton counties along with us and Rusk County.
We’ve got far more in common with these counties than we do with suburban Travis County. To us, Cherokee County seemed the best fit. The population is almost equal. Nacogdoches High School competes against Jacksonville. Our current state senator lives in Jacksonville.
Both our towns have early June festivals. They’ve got tomatoes, and we have blueberries, which is fine with us. We have blueberry pancakes. No one wants a tomato pancake.
Rusk County has always been a good fit too. They face the same problems we do. They have a similar population, and the people of Henderson had the good sense to schedule their downtown shindig in the fall.
Now, we find ourselves as the major population center on the far western edge of the district. And we can’t remember the last time we went to Newton County or anyone from there came to Nacogdoches for anything other than a business trip or fleeing a hurricane. Nothing against the good people of Newton County, of course.
It seems as if the Legislature had nowhere else to put them, so they squeezed these counties into our district. How it will work for the next decade remains to be seen.
On the city and county level, voting districts aren’t changing much. Most voters won’t notice a thing.
The city has yet to decide on its new ward boundaries, but council members seem inclined to make the fewest tweaks possible. Commissioners approved precincts with very few changes.
State Senate District 3 didn’t change much either, which is why this story didn’t land higher on our list.
We hope it all works out, and maybe we’ll become better neighbors across a broader region.
The (Nacogdoches) Daily Sentinel
