SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? A federal judge advised Wednesday that Texas should plan on a late May primary, even as state officials and minority rights groups worked out a short-term compromise over one of its three disputed electoral maps.
GOP leaders expressed disappointment over the new instructions to aim for a May 29 primary. Texas was originally scheduled to be part of next month's Super Tuesday contests, but as the state's primary date has slipped due to the redistricting battle, so too have its chances of influencing the Republican presidential race.
The grim news of another likely primary date came after the Texas attorney general's office and attorneys for minorities in the Fort Worth area reported some progress in their negotiations.
They told the court they had reached a deal on state Senate maps that would apply only to the 2012 election, however separate challenges to the Texas House and congressional maps remained unresolved. The congressional maps are critical because Texas is adding four seats next year and who wins them could decide which party controls the U.S. House.
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Jerry Smith did not officially set May 29 as the primary date, but he told party leaders to instruct candidates and their campaigns to plan as if that is when Texas voters can finally cast their ballots. An ongoing battle over Republican-drawn voting maps has derailed two previously scheduled primary dates, including April 3.
"Based on all the things going here, it's extremely unlikely there will be a primary in April," Smith said.
Steve Munisteri, the state's GOP chairman, said Texas could still wind up as "kingmaker" on the backend of the primary calendar if Mitt Romney does not clinch the nomination early.
Texas has 155 delegates, second only to California. Yet Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have so far ignored Texas while campaigning in other early primary states.
Only six other states have primaries later than May 29, including California, which has the most delegates of any state.
"I'm very surprised at the lack of attention to Texas," Munisteri said. "Maybe they just haven't done the math."
While the compromise was only a small step toward a deal, it represented at least some progress after months of legal jousting that has reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The two sides didn't exactly come back to the bargaining table on their own terms. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia on Tuesday night ordered them to return the next morning with a deal, sounding as though he was losing patience with weeks of stalled talks despite repeated court-ordered negotiations.
The Republican-controlled Legislature drew the disputed Senate map in a way to make sure one incumbent Democrat, Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, was not re-elected. It also divided up minority voters into districts dominated by whites, something forbidden under the Voting Rights Act.
The compromise restores the district largely to its previous boundaries with a similar racial make-up, a major victory for Davis.
The state House maps remained hung up Wednesday afternoon as lawyers for the minority groups argued that because 89 percent of the new residents in Texas were minorities, those people should have more districts that would allow them to elect a candidate of their choice. The attorney representing Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the minority groups were more interested in benefiting Democrats than making sure minority voters were represented.
By some counts, more than 50 of the state House's 150 districts remained in dispute.
The federal courts must redraw the maps created by the Republican-controlled Legislature because of two parallel lawsuits that have yet to be resolved. Because Texas has a history of racial discrimination, any changes to electoral law must be approved either by the Department of Justice or the federal court in Washington. A three judge panel in Washington declined to approve the maps and the justice department said they discriminated against minorities.
Minority groups also brought a lawsuit against the state in San Antonio, asking the federal court to block the maps because they dilute the voting power of minorities. Pending an outcome of the Washington case, the San Antonio court must draw temporary maps.
The judges in San Antonio have tried to force all the groups to compromise, but so far only the state senate maps have been resolved.
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