Commissioners Court Enters Redistricting Fight For Fort Bliss

If an interim U.S. congressional redistricting map is approved, nearly 60,000 El Pasoans could soon find themselves part of a San Antonio representative’s district.

But not if El Paso’s county commissioners can prevent it.

The big concern is the interim maps cut Fort Bliss completely out of El Paso’s 16th congressional district, making it part of San Antonio’s 23rd congressional district, which isn’t sitting well with commissioners court.

“Our map for El Paso, we were rather surprised, came back and it had very dramatic changes,” said assistant county attorney Cygne Nemir.

Dramatic changes that have upset the county judge and the rest of commissioners court.

“The chief problem for me has to do with the military installation,” County Judge Veronica Escobar said. “It’s like a big claw came in and this swath that took the military installation and big chunks inside the city limits.”

County commissioner Dan Haggerty also has a problem with it.

“My understanding is like 59,000 people are going to be disenfranchised if we just let this slide,” Haggerty said.

And it’s not just Fort Bliss that would be affected.

“If you happen to live on the east side of Mesa Street, you’re going to be represented by a San Antonio congressman,” Escobar added. “If you live in parts of northeast El Paso, you’re going to be represented by a San Antonio congressman.”

Escobar said that could cost El Paso money.

“In an era of shrinking dollars, it becomes a pretty aggressive competition,” Escobar said. “I want someone fighting for our assets.”

Thus commissioners court voted to instruct county attorney Joann Bernal to take any and all legal action to prevent the interim map from being adopted.

“The direction today was, with regard to Fort Bliss, we think that’s important,” Bernal said. “We want to make sure the federal courts know that that’s important to the county of El Paso.”

The county attorney said since it’s so late in the redistricting fight, she would first file a brief, which would allow El Paso to enter its opinion on the interim redistricting lines into the lawsuit.

If possible, Bernal added, they will join the lawsuit, although that could prove costly. That determination will be made next week.