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Redistricting in Texas follows the rule of of thumb that whoever is the most petty and ridiculous wins some kind of jewel on their Republican crown.

This year it’s Charlie Howard.  Y’all have heard me stomp about Charlie before.  He’s been listed as The Single Most Conservative member of the Texas House, which is no small fete in Crazyville.  He’s a gun nut.  And admits to me that his major fault as a Super DeLux Brand Christian is that he’s greedy.  Very greedy.

And hypocritical.  He’s a regular on Texas Monthly’s Worst Lege List, even after shaking his finger at his first opponent for making the list once.  He’s serving his 8th term after running on a term limits platform.

Well, I found out this morning that after working for ten years to get my own personal state representative I could be proud of,  redistricting will put me in Charlie Howard’s district.  I’ve been riding in the back of the wagon all day.  No kidding, I cried like a little girl.

But that is not the best part of this story.  It’s just the personally sad part of the story.  A little girl; I cried like a little girl.

The best part of the story is that Charlie Howard knew he was going to have a tough opponent in the GOP primary next election.  Jacquie Baly Chaumette has been telling people that she is going to run against him in the GOP primary.  It’s a very Republican district.

Jacquie is currently on Sugar Land City Council, and has been active in the area doing good works for 18 years.  You might notice that she is a perfectly gorgeous African-American woman.  She is also well liked, accomplished, and smart as Rice University with a 50 pound dictionary.

Charlie cut her out of this district.  Seriously.  He split a voting precinct in half – something that very rarely done – and put her house one street over outside his district.

Son of a motherlessgoat.

She can literally throw rocks across the arbitrary district line, and I’ll admit she ain’t got much of an arm.

The Republicans will do anything – anything! – to keep a minority or a woman from winning a GOP primary.  Even something this openly petty.

Charlie Howard is going to lie about this and say he had nothing to do with it.  But, it hardly matters because he’s going to hell for being a greedy slob anyway.  I mean, what’s he got to lose by tellin’ a few lies?

Look, the bottom line is this.  The Republican Party  controls the state lege.  If they allow this to happen, it’s clear that they don’t have out the welcome mat for women or minorities.