These lines are the epicenter of the latest redistricting map signed into law by Texas Governor Rick Perry on October 14th. After three special sessions, six months of bitter partisan and intraparty conflict (costing Texans $5,006,000), including Democratic walkouts in both houses of the state legislature, the lines were finally drawn in a conference committee process that purposefully ignored all plans that had come before it, including the plans that both houses had passed into law. After all that had come to pass, the map drawn turned out to be even worse than the initial map drawn by Tom DeLay's assistant Phil King in the days leading up to the end of the 78th Legislature's regular session.