In the second installment of our December series on seats and offices that will be up for grabs in 2010, we take a look at Districts 10 and 21, with a special emphasis on the impact of redistricting on District 10. Both seats are currently held by Republicans, and both will be challenged by Democrats next year.

District 10, currently occupied by Michael McCaul, is historically a Democratic power perch previously held by Lyndon B. Johnson, Jake Pickle and, until former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay messed things up, Lloyd Doggett. After the Republican legislature re-drew the district in 2003, Doggett wound up in District 25, an oddly shaped creation that stretched from Austin to the Rio Grande Valley. We didn’t lose Doggett, and he will win again next year. But the Democrats’ old District 10 is now held by Republicans.

To help us make sense of redistricting, past and future, we talked with attorney Buck Wood, a nationally recognized expert on election and campaign law who was involved in several lawsuits against DeLay’s scheme. Now in private practice, Wood served as Director of Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s Office and also served as chief deputy when Bob Bullock was State Comptroller.

QUESTION: First, please talk a bit about the rich history of these two Congressional districts.
WOOD: They’re both extremely important. Travis County should dominate at least one of those districts. If they hadn’t been drawn the way they were, we would. The way they’re drawn, we don’t dominate either one, and that siphons off the influence of Travis County in particular.

What I’m hearing about District 10 is that people who think McCaul is not Republican enough will run against him in the primary. He’ll have a more conservative version of himself to run against, and that makes him more vulnerable.

QUESTION: And now tell us about Tom DeLay’s mid-decade redistricting push. What exactly happened?
WOOD: The whole concept of redistricting has always been that it’s a political function. Even the Supreme Court has recognized that redistricting is political and partisan. It’s based on census and number of citizens, but one-man/one-vote didn’t come into effect until the 1970s.

Prior to that, if you had an important incumbent, like Sam Rayburn, you kept that seat and the boundaries of that seat in a fashion that was almost certain to re-elect incumbents. Districts didn’t change a lot. In the ‘60s the 10th District was fairly compact and representative of Central Texas.

What happened after the 2000 census is Republicans all over the country completely abandoned any idea of geographical compactness. You wouldn’t want districts that were drawn 150 miles long and 10 miles wide, like the 10th was, but that’s exactly what happened. They also came into Austin and carved out Republican areas. Not only did they want to maximize their numbers, Republicans sought to pack as many Democrats into a single district as they could so they could strengthen Republicans in other districts.

QUESTION: What was the result of DeLay’s redistricting scheme?
WOOD: Well, it damaged the state’s position in Congress. Seniority is important, and we had a number of Democrats with long tenures in Congress who got beat. We lost Congress to the Republicans, and our Texas congressional leadership has been replaced by short-timers. Doggett is one of our most senior members, but Texas’ overall power has been diminished. Our long-standing position in Washington as one of the most powerful states in Congress has been lost.

QUESTION: After the 2010 census, the Texas legislature will once again take up redistricting. What does the future look like for Democrats in Central Texas?
WOOD: Our districts will be redrawn again. District 10 is less Republican now than it was because the demographics are changing in our favor. District 21 is becoming more Democratic, too. But if we elect a Democrat for governor, that would change everything. The legislature has to pass a congressional redistricting bill, the governor can veto something that’s really unfair and the Republicans wouldn’t have a two-thirds majority to override that veto. It will make a huge difference for redistricting if Rick Perry gets beat by a Democrat in the fall.