While the redistricting battle drags on in court and the Texas primary remains uncertain, fears are building over the strain on voters as well as campaign budgets.
As judges mull over district lines, candidates have to keep campaign momentum going, and local party leaders and candidates are struggling to keep voters interested as they wait on the final filing date, maps and a primary election date.
"I know from my own point of view, I am hesitant to spend a whole lot of campaign funds," said Michelle French, who is running against Mike Moffitt for Denton County's open tax assessor/collector seat.
"You're trying to budget everything you do to make sure your funds will last, and at this rate, it may be three more months; it may be four months," she said.
French said the fundraising season is a couple of months long, and if a candidate has to raise more money in an effort to make it to the end of the campaign, supporters could get tapped out.
French also worries about campaign-related reports that must be filed before the election.
"The date keeps moving, so you don't know when to send those reports in," she said.
The San Antonio court in charge of the new redistricting maps said that if the parties in the lawsuit can't compromise by Monday, the April 3 elections will be pushed back while the court draws its own maps.
The vote has already been delayed once, from March 6.
Moffitt said he anticipates voters will be ready to make a decision soon, but their ability to make that decision will be delayed.
"Some voters may forget about the process altogether because of the delay, and that's really the sad part of this whole process," he said. "Millions of voters are simply going to go away or not vote because it is not convenient."
From a national perspective, Moffitt said, Texas will have less and less impact on deciding the GOP's presidential nominee.
"For us to be such a large state and have such a little impact, it's unfortunate," he said.
The ongoing legal battle centers on a requirement in the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act, which mandates that certain states with a history of discrimination, including Texas, be granted "preclearance" before changes in voting practices can be enacted. The legal standard is whether the proposed changes have the purpose or effect of diminishing voting rights based on race or color.
The Justice Department contended that Texas' legislative and congressional maps are retrogressive - that is, minority voters' ability to elect their candidates of choice is diminished.
Nine groups representing minority groups, or politicians representing minorities, have filed a lawsuit to block legislative and congressional maps drawn by the Republican-dominated Legislature. Those maps have failed to win judicial approval, so temporary maps are needed pending the outcome of the cases being fought in San Antonio and Washington.
Denton County Democratic Party chairwoman Phyllis Wolper sought a silver lining in the whole ordeal.
"It's not been pleasant, but it hasn't all been negative," she said. "The positive aspects of it [are] giving some candidates time to get their campaigns together, and it helps with petitions."
Wolper's Republican counterpart, Dianne Edmondson, said the ripple effect of the delay extends to the parties, which have to reschedule polling places and try to get election workers.
"How do I know I can be an election worker when I don't know the days you're asking me to do it?" Edmondson said. "It's a terrible, terrible mess these unelected judges have put us in."
She had been slightly encouraged by recent reports of negotiations with the possibility of primaries in April.
"I think it's unlikely it will happen at this point because the talks don't seem to be particularly productive," she said. "When you have that many people trying to make a deal, it becomes real difficult."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com.
