State Rep. Peña responds to redistricting-driven criticism

State Rep. Aaron Peña found himself defending a Republican-drawn redistricting map and then he found himself on the defensive.

Peña, R-Edinburg, supported a GOP redistricting plan late Wednesday that essentially swaps his Democratic district out for the Valley’s most conservative seat, currently held by state Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen. Attempts to modify the plan by Hidalgo County’s Democratic legislators failed along party lines, leaving Gonzales with less than 2 percent of her original district and also significantly modifying those held by state Reps. Armando “Mando” Martinez, D-Weslaco, and Sergio Muñoz Jr., D-Palmview.

But on the House floor during a spirited back-and-forth exchange between the county’s legislators, Peña responded to allegations that he alone drew the map altering the county’s districts and dogged claims about whether he lives within his current district.

Peña said questions of where he lives and other “personal attacks” were motivated by his defection to the Republican Party and are “simply a distraction” from important House debates.

“The fact it was raised now with mere days before the end of the session tells me that campaign season has already started,” said Peña, invoking a regular invitation for a Monitor reporter to meet him at his house. “The debate will not be about the merits but about personal attacks.”

DISTRICT COMPLAINTS

The Weslaco-based Mid-Valley Town Crier reported Wednesday on long-circulated rumors that Peña doesn’t live inside House District 40, based in his hometown of Edinburg. The Monitor first reported on Peña’s residency during his 2004 re-election bid after a Cedar Park man filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office alleging the entrenched Edinburg legislator lived outside his district.

Peña owned two homes at the time: one a mile outside his district at 3101 Lakeshore Drive, and the other inside it at 404 S. McColl Road. But in September 2009, Peña sold the McColl property to his brother, Eric Peña.

The McColl Road house’s deed transfer came the same month Peña sold his Closner Boulevard law practice’s office to future state Rep. Sergio Muñoz Jr., property records show. Peña said he couldn’t afford to keep the McColl Road house while only drawing a $7,200 annual salary for being a state legislator.

Peña said he continued to lease the McColl house from his brother until “sometime last year” and still claimed his district address as the house on McColl Road in campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission in January. But Peña said Thursday he recently moved his residency to his childhood home at 1417 S. 14^th Ave., a home inside his district that is owned by his father, prominent Edinburg attorney Lionel Aron Peña.

In August 2010, voting records show, Peña transferred his voter registration from South McColl to the South 14^th Avenue home.

The Mid-Valley Town Crier reported Wednesday that a sport utility vehicle with state official license plates remained parked outside the Lake Shore Drive home between January and March. But Peña posted photographs on his blog Thursday that show the truck with a flat tire and an outdated inspection sticker and license plates.

“Should I decide to run for re-election, I will live in the district as I always have,” Peña said Thursday, adding that the home on Lake Shore Drive is currently under renovation.

FLOOR FIGHT

But questions over Peña’s residency still spilled into a House floor debate Wednesday over a redistricting map that puts both the South 14^th Avenue and the Lake Shore Drive homes into Peña’s dramatically altered district.

Referencing the Mid-Valley Town Crier article on the House floor, Martinez directly asked Peña whether he lives in his current district. Peña responded that Martinez’s question “was a bit of a slur,” one of several tense exchanges in a heated debate over the proposal for new Hidalgo County House districts.

The Republican-backed map, approved on a 92-52 vote in the wee morning hours Thursday, transforms Peña’s House District 40 from a heavily Democratic seat into one that Peña himself says is at least a tossup for a Republican candidate. But to draw a more conservative district for Peña, it leaves Gonzales representing less than 2 percent of her current district.

Peña sheds Democratic strongholds in the Delta and La Joya, gaining voting precincts with high Republican turnout in affluent portions of McAllen and Mission. Gonzales is left almost completely out of McAllen — where she has strong support — as she takes on a portion of Pharr, all of San Juan and most of Edinburg. At one point in Wednesday’s floor debate, Gonzales said the Hidalgo County redistricting map “throw[s] three members under the bus to save one.”

“I’m in seven new cities now and all of the other cities I had are gone,” Gonzales said. “What I have left in McAllen is the street I live on and right around the corner from my home. The rest of the city is gone.”

Martinez has 72 percent of his original district in the new map, as he lost San Juan and gained the Delta. Since the Republican-drawn map was released, Peña has repeatedly stated he was not directly involved in its drafting even though he is the only Valley representative to sit on the redistricting committee. But when Martinez asked the House redistricting chairman and vice chairman who drew the Valley’s map, neither one could answer.

“There’s something wrong there for a committee to approve such a measure and not even know who drew the lines,” Martinez said, adding that Peña’s claims of not participating seem absurd. “I wish there would have been a better job on the redistricting map, especially with valid concerns from people in the Valley.”

UNCLEAR FUTURE

Although fast-growing Hidalgo and Cameron counties have gained enough residents to support an additional state House district, the map passed early Thursday instead brings the district of state Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, into the rural areas on Hidalgo County’s north side.

The validity of the map then will likely be decided by a court challenge over whether failing to create an additional Hispanic-opportunity seat here represents a violation of the Voting Rights Act, the legislation that prevents discrimination against minority voters.

Although he suggested he preferred to see an additional seat created in the Valley if it didn’t violate a state constitution requirement, Peña said he is confident the Valley map will withstand legal scrutiny. He also said that complaints about him drawing a map for himself assume that he intends to seek re-election to a sixth term next year.

Peña said he is in employment negotiations with a law firm that would require him to move out of the Valley. If he does take the job, he said, he won’t seek office in 2012.

“Elections have consequences and Republicans are going to maximize their opportunities,” Peña said. “Whether I’m here or whether I’m not, this is not about me.

“Divorce myself from the picture and there would still be a conservative seat.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.

Correction: This story has been modified to reflect Rep. Peña is an active attorney with the State Bar of Texas.