Burnt Orange Report 11/23/11
Breaking: Court-Drawn Congressional Maps Released

Something staffers, journalists and politicos can truly be thankful for -- court-drawn Congressional redistricting maps were just released today. Filing begins Monday, so no rush, right?

View the maps here. You want to select map C220, Federal Court Proposed Congressional Plan.

We'll update this post with early comments as analysis comes out. Your thoughts, as always, welcome in the comments.

Observations, Tweets, and Analysis:

1. The first big news is that the plan separates Lloyd Doggett and Joaquin Castro, by drawing Travis into only 3 districts (10, 21, 25, as it is now) and making the 25th a natural home for Doggett, encompassing south/eastern Travis County and most of Hays county west of IH-35. District 35, on the other hand, the newly created district where Doggett and Castro were battling it out, encompasses the rest of Hays, plus all of Caldwell and Atascosa, and a wide swath of Bexar.

2. On Twitter, Anthony Gutierrez of the TDP notes that CD-23 no longer includes the South Side of San Antonio, but extends into El Paso. This seat is currently held by Quico Canseco, who defeated Ciro Rodriguez in 2010. Both Ciro and State Rep. Pete Gallego had announced plans to run for the seat in 2012.