Elections cost Texans Capitol clout

Wednesday was a bad day for Texas clout on Capitol Hill.
That's because the state's influence in Congress is tied these days to the Republican Party, just as it was tied to the Democrats for much of the 20th century.
When Republicans win, it helps the state by placing senior GOP members in position to steer jobs and funds to the state. But when the GOP loses, as it did last week, Texas loses too.
This is an outcome top Republicans hardly expected when they passed the controversial 2003 House redistricting plan to strengthen their hold on Texas congressional seats.
Its adoption led to retirement or defeat of five veteran Texas Democratic congressmen.
Three of them -- Martin Frost of Arlington (Rules), Jim Turner of Crockett (Homeland Security) and Charlie Stenholm of Abilene (Agriculture) -- would now be in line to chair House committees.
A fourth, Rep. Ralph Hall of Rockwall, would have chaired the Science Committee, but he became a Republican.
A Republican win in the House would have kept Rep. Joe Barton of Ennis as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. Henry Bonilla of San Antonio as head of an appropriations subcommittee, and made Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Instead, Texas probably won't have any committee chairmen. None of its 12 Texas Democrats has enough seniority, though Rep. Silvestre Reyes of El Paso may head the Intelligence Committee.
In a sense, the Texas congressional ties to the GOP represent the state's political transformation over recent decades. But they mean the next stretch of national Democratic control will be far different for Texas from the last one.
Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.