i hear that said often but at the end of the day, the voting still occurs by the population that goes and votes. but if you decide that the population that s going to vote for you are like-minded people well, communities of interest. communities of interest isn t just code for keeping republicans with republicans and democrats for democrats? i don t believe so, no. reporter: jaton served on the texas house redistricting committee. his own district is becoming more republican. when the districts are drawn so that republicans are in safe republican seats, democrats are in safe democratic seats sure. isn t that, by definition, incumbent protection? not necessarily because even if it s a republican district, they still have the republican primary, so their incumbent is not necessarily safe. reporter: true incumbents still aren t safe. but the threat to them in politically gerrymandered districts full of voters in their own party comes from within, not across the
i don t believe so, no. he served on the texas house redistricting committee. his own district is becoming more republican. when the districts are drawn so that republicans are in safe republican seats, democrats are in safe democrat seats sure. isn t that by definition incumbent protection. not necessarily. even if it s a republican district, they still have to have a republican primary. the incumbent isn t necessarily safe. reporter: true incumbents aren t necessarily safe, but the threat to them in politically gerrymandered districts full of voters from their own party comes from within, not across the aisle, pulling lawmakers even more to the extreme. texas state representative, chris turner, a democrat. there is no scenario in which a republican could win my house district. that could pull you left if you did have a primary opponent. sure. there s no question. reporter: there are different kind of gerrymandering, packing,
what does it look like you to? well, to me the new map is it s incumbent protection. the red seats got redder and blue seats got bluer. reporter: professor lublin of american university. when you have a lot of redistricting manipulation it feels more and more like the representatives are choosing their constituents rather than vice versa. reporter: texas state republican j.c. jatan. i hear that said often but at the end of the day the voting still occurs by the population that goes and votes. reporter: but if you decide that the population that s going to vote for you are like-minded people. communities of interest. reporter: communities of interest isn t just code for keeping republicans with republicans and democrats for democrats? i don t believe so, no. reporter: jatan served on the texas house redistricting committee. his own district is becoming more republican. when the districts are drawn so that republicans are in safe republican seats, democrats are in s
what does it look like you to? well, to me the new map is it s incumbent protection. the red seats got redder and blue seats got bluer. reporter: professor lublan. when you have a lot of redistricting manipulation it feels more and more like the representatives are choosing their constituents rather than vice versa. reporter: texas state republican j.c. jatan. i hear that said often but at the end of the day the voting still occurs by the population that goes and votes. reporter: but if you decide that the population that s going to vote for you are like-minded people. communities of interest. reporter: communities of interest isn t just code for keeping republicans with republicans and democrats for democrats? i don t believe so, no. reporter: jatan served on the texas house redistricting committee. his own district is becoming more republican. when the districts are drawn so that republicans are in safe republican seats, democrats are in safe democratic seats
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