Political Legal Consultant Chris Gober Discusses SCOTUS Impact on Texas' Election Cycle

In this NBCDFW news report, Dallas Political Legal Consultant Chris Gober tells KXAS-TV News anchor Jane McGarry that it's very likely that Texas' primary elections won't occur on April 3, the date election officials had hoped for. "Just a couple hours ago ... the San Antonio district court issued an order setting a status conference to be held Feb. 1," says Gober, of the Dallas law firm Gober Hilgers PLLC. "What that tells me is, most likely -- should that hold -- the primary election will be pushed off again because, in order to maintain that April 3rd date, the district court needed to set forth a plan by Jan. 27. And they're saying, 'We don't even want attorneys to come in and we aren't even planning on talking about this until that (Jan. 27) date has passed.' " Last year, a U.S. District Court tossed out a redistricting map approved by Texas legislators, claiming that the map doesn't reflect the state's growing Hispanic population. That court then drew up its own redistricting map. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the district court's map on Jan. 20, saying the district court overstepped its bounds and sent the matter back to the lower court. Gober says that the vast majority of the electoral map approved by the Texas Legislature should stand because it properly represents the change in Texas' voting-age population. "A lot of Hispanic population growth in Texas is below the age of 18," he tells McGarry. Gober has represented high-profile clients -- including U.S. senators, congressmen, and multi-billion-dollar companies -- in federal and congressional investigations, administrative enforcement actions, and other compliance matters. Prior to co-founding Gober Hilgers PLLC, Gober worked for Fish & Richardson P.C., where he served as head of the firm's Political Law section and practiced white collar criminal defense, representing both political and non-political clients. In addition to representing more than a dozen U.S. senate, congressional and gubernatorial campaign committees during the 2010 election cycle, Gober successfully represented U.S. Sen. John Ensign of Nevada in investigatory inquiries by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission. Aristotle Inc. -- a national political consulting firm -- recently named Gober to the 2011 Republican Dream Team for his legal work on behalf of Republican candidates. For more information about Chris Gober's legal practice, please visit his professional website at http://goberhilgers.com/chris-gober.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Chris Gober
• U.S. Supreme Court
• SCOTUS
• white collar criminal defense
• political strategy
• campaign strategy
• political consultants
• Dallas political advisers
• Texas political consultant
• Gober
• Hilgers
• legislative redistricting