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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gerryredmap619</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">SEE GERRY 2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see Redmap pgm</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">promoted to primary 1/18</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">~ mod: see voter disenfranchise, voting machine, camp finance reform,&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">capt 619</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ok gerry again?!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/scotus-voting-rights/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/scotus-voting-rights/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new in depth</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/27/gop-embracing-more-ruthless-power-grabs-face-huge-political-challenges">https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/27/gop-embracing-more-ruthless-power-grabs-face-huge-political-challenges</a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/a-requiem-for-american-democracy-5-4-supreme-court-vote-rules-partisan-gerrymandering-is-beyond-the-reach-of-the-federal-courts/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">‘A requiem for American democracy’: 5-4 Supreme Court vote rules partisan gerrymandering is ‘beyond the reach of the federal courts’</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/elizabeth-preza/" title="Posts by Elizabeth Preza" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Elizabeth Preza</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">June 27, 2019</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court on Thursday in a 5-4 ideological split rejected limits to partisan gerrymandering, quashing an effort by advocates of political reform to rein in manipulative electoral district boundarie</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tool</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://ballotpedia.org/Influencers&nbsp; includes gerry</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/3/how_voter_suppression_gerrymandering_cleared_the</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio and Georgia attempt to outlaw abortions after six weeks, Missouri legislators approve an eight-week ban and Alabama passes a near total ban on abortions, we speak to journalist Ari Berman about how the widespread attack on abortion rights across the country is tied directly to voter suppression. He writes in a recent piece for Mother Jones, “These states have something else in common: a systematic effort to distort the democratic process through voter suppression and gerrymandering. These tactics have greased the way for near-total bans on abortion and for other extreme right-wing policies.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/3/ari_berman_gop_docs_prove_census</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Newly surfaced documents reveal that a now-dead senior Republican strategist who specialized in gerrymandering was secretly behind the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The New York Times broke the story last week in an article that called Thomas Hofeller the “Michelangelo of gerrymandering.” When Hofeller died last August, he left behind a computer hard drive full of his notes and records. Hofeller’s estranged daughter found among the documents a 2015 study that said adding the citizenship question to the census “would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites” and “would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats.” Census officials estimate 6.5 million people will not respond to the census if the citizenship question is added. This undercount could affect everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funding. We get an update from Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, whose new piece is “Architect of GOP Gerrymandering Was Behind Trump’s Census Citizenship Question.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;GOODMAN: Newly surfaced documents have revealed that a now-dead senior Republican strategist who specialized in gerrymandering was secretly behind the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The New York Times broke the story last week in a story that called Thomas Hofeller the “Michelangelo of gerrymandering.” When Hofeller died last August, he left behind a computer hard drive full of his notes and records. His estranged daughter found among the documents a 2015 study that said adding the citizenship question to the census would, quote, “be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites” and “would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats,” unquote.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Census officials estimate six-and-a-half million people will not respond to the census if the citizenship question is added. This undercount could affect everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funding.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a court filing Thursday, plaintiffs challenging the citizenship question accused two Trump administration officials of falsely testifying under oath about the Justice Department’s motivations for altering the census. The Supreme Court is also set to rule within weeks on whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had the authority to add the citizenship question to the census.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For more, we’re joined by Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, a reporting fellow at The Nation Institute, author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. His new piece is headlined “Architect of GOPGerrymandering Was Behind Trump’s Census Citizenship Question.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ari Berman, welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. So, lay out this exposé.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARI BERMAN: Good to see you again, Amy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, this is really startling smoking-gun evidence in the census case that really undercuts why the Trump administration added this question. So, the Trump administration added the citizenship question, and they claimed it was needed to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. Well, these new documents from Tom Hofeller show that it was not needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act, and, in fact, the people that would be most harmed by the addition of the citizenship question—Latinos and other racial minorities—are the very groups the Voting Rights Act was designed to protect.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And it clearly shows that this question was added to benefit the Republican Party, particularly white Republicans, because Tom Hofeller says in this unpublished study, that is now key evidence in this case, this would be clearly a disadvantage to Democrats and an advantage to Republicans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So there you have it. I mean, this is really black and white. You can’t get any more explicit than this. We now know for certain this is why the question was added to the census.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: And talk about how we know this. Talk about Hofeller’s estranged daughter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARI BERMAN: Well, it’s a pretty wild story. So, there’s a separate case in North Carolina challenging the gerrymandering of state legislative districts. Tom Hofeller has been the go-to expert in the Republican Party for decades on redistricting. He has drawn some of the most extreme gerrymandered maps in places like North Carolina. And so, there’s a case challenging this map in North Carolina. And after Hofeller passed away, his daughter found hard drives with all of his work, and she gave it over to the plaintiffs challenging these gerrymandered—</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: Gave it to Common Cause, right?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARI BERMAN: Gave it to Common Cause and other plaintiffs challenging the gerrymandering in North Carolina. Now some of this evidence has now become public. There is more here, too, by the way, Amy. We’re going to learn more about the role that Tom Hofeller has played in gerrymandering efforts in other cases. But this pertains directly to the census case.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: So, The New York Times calls him the “Michelangelo of gerrymandering.” Talk about his whole history and also how this could have legal bearing, and even going to the issue of the Supreme Court making a decision about Wilbur Ross adding the question, the citizenship question in the census.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARI BERMAN: So, Tom Hofeller is not a household name, but he’s been an extremely influential person in the Republican Party for decades. He has basically been the Republican Party’s go-to guy when it comes to redistricting. So he’s traveled, since the 1980s, state after state after state, drawn maps to boost Republican representation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And a lot of these maps, particularly after the 2010 election, have been struck down in court. So, really gerrymandered maps he drew in places like North Carolina and Ohio have been invalidated by the courts. In fact, the North Carolina congressional map that Hofeller drew was invalidated by the Supreme Court in an opinion written by Clarence Thomas, who found that it was an unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. So even Clarence Thomas thought that the maps that Hofeller was drawing were too extreme.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And the fact that you had the architect of GOP gerrymandering drawing up the census citizenship question is so startling, Amy, because the census forms the basis for redistricting. So we have to have [a fair and accurate] census data to be able to draw fair districts. If we have skewed census data, that’s going to lead to skewed districts. So, even before they start the gerrymandering itself, they’re essentially gerrymandering the census to give themselves an advantage.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: So, in the ’90s, Thomas Hofeller led the Republican effort to oppose using statistical sampling to gain a more accurate count of nonwhite populations that the Census Bureau tended to miss. At the time, Hofeller wrote, quote, “A census that uses sampling and statistical adjustment will be the biggest victory for big government liberalism since the enactment of the Great Society.” I want to go to Hofeller speaking in 2001 at the National Conference of State Legislatures.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THOMAS HOFELLER: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote a book, On Death and Dying. Her five steps, I believe, can be applied to redistricting. And you can pick the people to whom they apply in the order in which they apply to those people. And those steps are—first is denial: “It couldn’t happen to me”; the next step is bargaining: “Maybe I can make a deal”; the next step is anger—none of us have ever experienced that in a redistricting process; next is depression; and, finally, acceptance. So, you might look at that, and maybe she’ll write a new book on redistricting grieving.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: That’s Thomas Hofeller comparing redistricting to death. Ari Berman?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARI BERMAN: Well, I mean, it is funny, because, I mean, redistricting has led to political deaths, if you think about what they’re doing in places like North Carolina. They’re trying to maximize Republican advantage. And basically, Hofeller is saying his goal with the census is to draw districts—it’s a little technical, Amy, but his goal with the census is to draw districts basically only counting citizens. So, for now and for decades, the way districts have been drawn is you count everybody. Everyone is entitled to representation, whether they are a voter or not, a citizen or not. What he’s saying is, we only want to draw districts counting citizens.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What that means is that white Republicans will get a massive overadvantage. They’ll get a huge boost in representation. And minority areas, where there are a lot of immigrants, they will receive less representation. So, if this citizenship questions is on the census, it will lead to a huge transfer of power to whiter and more Republican areas. And Hofeller has stated that explicitly. And that’s why the citizenship question was added to the census.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: Ari, you write, “[M]embers of Trump’s team may not have been fully forthcoming in their testimony under oath. Neither Trump transition team member Mark Neuman nor John Gore, the former assistant attorney general for civil rights who wrote the Justice Department letter, mentioned Hofeller’s involvement in the letter when they were deposed under oath as part of a lawsuit by New York and 17 other states challenging the citizenship question.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARI BERMAN: Yeah, so, the ACLU and other plaintiffs challenging the census citizenship question are trying to sanction these former Trump officials for lying under oath to conceal Tom Hofeller’s involvement in this case. There’s going to be a hearing in federal court in New York this week. And the big question is: Will this make its way to the Supreme Court? And will it matter? I mean, this case is going to be ruled on in a matter of weeks. The justices have likely already written their opinions. So, this is all very last-minute. And this evidence really, really undercuts the Trump administration’s claims of why they added this question. However, it still remains unclear whether this is going have any impact on the Supreme Court itself.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Critics of United States politics often complain about the two-party system, noting that in many European parliamentary democracies, having five or six major parties in the federal government is the norm. But Wyoming Republican David Dodson, in a May 20 op-ed for the New York Times, addresses another problem that contributes to a lack of real competition in U.S. politics: party primaries, which Dodson complains, discourage competition.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Through a series of anticompetitive tactics,” Dodson asserts, “the two political parties have created a hidden monopoly structure that accounts for a Congress with a 77% disapproval rating yet a nearly 90% reelection rate.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2018, Dodson challenged incumbent U.S. Sen. John Barrasso in a GOP Senate primary in Wyoming, but Barrasso won the primary and the general election as well.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dodson complains, “The political parties understand that in a political world made up mainly of partisan-drawn districts, where 90% of the seats in Congress are not competitive in the general election, controlling the primary process protects incumbents and controls the ultimate outcome.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican discusses his experience running against Barrasso in 2018, explaining, “When I contacted a law firm known to serve Republicans, that firm told me it couldn’t work for a candidate running against an incumbent because it would put its entire practice at risk. As I tried to build an organization to run a credible primary challenge, this story repeated itself, whether I was recruiting campaign staff or a marketing firm.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dodson offers some possible, solutions, however. First, Dodson writes, “nonpartisan committees must take control of the taxpayer-financed primary process and run a single primary ballot, forcing incumbents to compete with members of the opposing party as well as of their own party.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Second, according to Dodson, “federal term limits would break incumbents’ domination, create more open seats and attract new talent to the political process.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And Dodson’s third recommendation is “a constitutional amendment against partisan gerrymandering so that voters choose their politicians instead of politicians choosing their voters.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dodson wraps up his op-ed by stressing that competition is as important to politics as it is to free-market capitalism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The monopolistic forces I witnessed are not inevitable,” Dodson writes. “The solution is to restore congressional accountability to where it belongs: with voters. Just as our economic engine relies on competition to remain healthy, so does our democracy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/as-supreme-courts-right-wing-justices-indicate-theyll-side-with-trump-opponents-denounce-bald-faced-attempt-to-racially-rig-us-census/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Civil rights advocates decried the Trump administration’s attack on immigrant rights and marginalized communities Tuesday as the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the potential addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The nation’s highest court began deliberating Commerce vs. New York, hearing from a number of rights groups who oppose Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s effort to add the question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” to the 10-year survey of all U.S. residents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The court’s more liberal judges and a number of critics argued that the question would result in an inaccurate count of U.S. residents, with many in immigrant communities declining to respond for fear of the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This case isn’t just about a line on a form,” said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, after addressing the court. “It’s about whether or not everyone in America counts. The administration’s own estimate is that if you put this question on the census, 6.5 million people won’t get counted.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s a wrap! We just argued before the Supreme Court for a 2020 census that counts all communities. pic.twitter.com/KQFehKAUYd</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— ACLU (@ACLU) April 23, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There’s no doubt that people will respond less,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said during the hearing. “If you’re talking about prediction, this is about 100 percent that people will answer less.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three federal judges have blocked the addition of the question, which has not appeared on a U.S. census since 1950.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross broke federal law when he moved to add the question, Judge Jesse Furman argued in his January ruling in the Southern District of New York. The commerce secretary claimed the question had been requested by the Justice Department in order to ensure proper enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. Ross had in fact asked the DOJ to make the request, Furman said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There needs to be a reason to add the question, and I don’t see any reason,” Justice Elena Kagan said Tuesday. “It did seem the secretary was shopping for a need.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration argues that the citizenship question is needed to ensure proper enforcement of the Voting Rights Act—an argument Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh reportedly appeared prepared to accept on Tuesday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Author and voting rights advocate Ari Berman denounced the claim as a “complete farce.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Trump DOJ hasn’t filed [a] single lawsuit to enforce [the Voting Rights Act] and has strongly supported GOP efforts to make it harder to vote,” Berman tweeted.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s complete farce Trump admin argues citizenship question on 2020 census needed to enforce Voting Rights Act. Trump DOJ hasn’t filed single lawsuit to enforce VRA & has strongly supported GOP efforts to make it harder to vote https://t.co/BgMmbghZu6</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) April 23, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to concerns about why and how Ross attempted to add the question, civil rights groups say the citizenship question would have grave implications for marginalized communities beyond 2020. The 10-year survey of all residents in the U.S. is used to determine how many representatives states have in the U.S. House, as well as appropriations of federal funding for local governments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The decisions about where to build hospitals, schools, roads, and add new businesses are linked to the decennial count of the population,” said the New York Immigration Coalition in a statement. “The distribution of more than $700 billion in federal resources is also tied to the census.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The facts are clear: the census is simply an enumeration of residents, as constitutionally mandated,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. “Adding the citizenship question will have an especially chilling effect on communities of color, depriving immigrant-rich states of federal dollars and political representation, while virtually erasing our communities.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Common Cause, Planned Parenthood, and Make the Road New York were among the groups who assembled outside the Supreme Court to call on the justices to reject the addition of the question....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ca ny tex lose big time, fed funds, seats in congress</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the Trump administration’s plans to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Voting rights activists fear that adding the question will deter immigrants from participating in the census and lead to a vast undercount in states with large immigrant communities. Census officials have estimated 6.5 million people will not respond to the census if the citizenship question is added. This undercount could affect everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funding. The case centers on whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had the authority to add the question to the census. The American Civil Liberties Union and 17 states have sued, saying Ross’s move was aimed at deterring immigrants from participating in the census. During the oral arguments, the court’s conservative majority appeared to side with the Trump administration, while the liberal minority questioned the administration’s motives and methods. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “There’s no doubt that people will respond less. If you’re talking about prediction, this is about 100 percent that people will answer less.” We speak with Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. MALDEF is representing plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits challenging the census citizenship question. We also speak with Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones. His new piece is titled “In Census Case, Supreme Court Suddenly Cares a Lot About Voting Rights Act.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Transcript</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the Trump administration’s plans to include a question on citizenship to the 2020 census. Voting rights activists fear that adding the question will deter immigrants from participating in the census and lead to a vast undercount in states with large immigrant communities. Census officials have estimated 6.5 million people will not respond to the census if the citizenship question is added. This undercount could affect everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funding.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The case centers on whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had the authority to add the question to the census. The American Civil Liberties Union and 17 states have sued, saying Ross’s move was aimed at deterring immigrants from participating in the census. During the oral arguments, the court’s conservative majority appeared to side with the Trump administration, while the liberal minority questioned the administration’s motives and methods. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, quote, “There’s no doubt that people will respond less. If you’re talking about prediction, this is about 100 percent that people will answer less.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to support the addition of the citizenship question, saying it was, quote, “quite common” to add a demographics questions to the census. He asked the plaintiffs in the suit, “Do you think it wouldn’t help voting rights enforcement?” Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the United Nations recommends countries ask a citizenship question on the census, listing a number of countries that ask about citizenship, including Spain, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Mexico. After the Supreme Court heard oral arguments, New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who helped bring the lawsuit, spoke outside the court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ATTORNEY GENERAL LETITIA JAMES: Adding that particular citizenship question could lead to the undercounting in communities across America, particularly in immigrant communities and Hispanic communities. It would mean that communities entitled to resources wouldn’t get those resources. It would deny certain communities of equal representation. And so, in the interest of fairness, in the interest of upholding this quintessential American promise, we are obligated to ensure the most accurate count in the 2020 census. And as such, we must use every tool at our disposal, in our arsenal, to fight to protect its integrity. And that’s what we did today.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMY GOODMAN: [We go now] to Los Angeles, where we’re joined by Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. MALDEF is representing plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits challenging the census citizenship question. And here in New York, we’re joined by Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, reporting fellow at The Nation Institute, author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, Ari, you attended the Supreme Court oral arguments yesterday. Set the scene for us. And were you surprised by the tenor of the questions?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ARI BERMAN: I did. And this really is one of the most important cases for democracy in decades, Amy, because the census determines so many things in our society: how $880 billion in federal funding is allocated, how voting districts are drawn, how many House seats, how many Electoral College votes states have. There really is nothing we do that’s more important in a democracy than the census. And this one question about U.S. citizenship has the possibility to derail the entire census. One of the most important and longest constitutional responsibilities that our government has could now be derailed and turned into a political weapon by the Trump administration to target immigrants and places where lots of immigrants live.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And so, I was hoping I would hear these big-picture debates in the Supreme Court about the importance of the census and how this question threatens the census. Instead, the conservative justices on the court seemed very sympathetic to this question. They really didn’t question the motives of Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, who added this question, even though three different federal courts have struck it down. Six years ago, I was in the Supreme Court when they railed against the Voting Rights Act, called it an act of regional discrimination against the South. And then, suddenly, six years later, the same conservative justices that gutted the Voting Rights Act suddenly believe that this citizenship question is now necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act, which every voting rights lawyer will tell you it’s not. And so, once again, we have a situation where the Supreme Court seems like they are about to side with folks that want to gut voting rights, roll back civil rights, target immigrant communities, as opposed to protecting one of the most important constitutional responsibilities that we have.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://theconversation.com/want-to-fix-gerrymandering-then-the-supreme-court-needs-to-listen-to-mathematicians-114345</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/03/partisan-gerrymandering-cases-could-shape-future-southern-politics</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The 2018 midterm elections resulted in a surge in turnout for Democratic voters across the South, but the increase in Democratic participation didn't translate directly to an increase in Democratic power because of gerrymandering — the drawing of electoral district lines to benefit one party or racial group over others.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But gerrymandering is facing an unprecedented challenge, with two landmark lawsuits over the practice now being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This week, the high court heard arguments in cases challenging the congressional maps drawn by Republicans in North Carolina and by Democrats in Maryland. The Brennan Center for Justice, a voting rights advocacy group, calls those states' maps "among this decade's starkest examples of extreme partisan gerrymanders."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Federal judges had previously struck down North Carolina's Republican-drawn congressional maps as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders that diluted the power of black voters by packing them into two congressional districts. But in redrawing the maps for the 2016 election, the Republican-controlled General Assembly engineered them to ensure that the GOP would control 10 of the state's 13 congressional seats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State Rep. David Lewis, who led the latest redistricting effort in North Carolina, said he drew the maps that way only "because I do not believe it's possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats." The lawsuitfiled over those maps is titled Rucho v. Common Cause.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Showing that the maps are functioning as intended, 48 percent of North Carolina voters chose a Democrat to represent them in the U.S. House in the 2018 election, but Republicans held on to their overwhelming advantage in the state's congressional delegation. The GOP currently controls eight of the state's 11 congressional seats, with elections set for later this year to fill vacancies in the state's 3rd District, where Republican Rep. Walter Jones recently died, and the 9th District, where the Republican win was thrown out amid charges of manipulated absentee ballots.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court also heard arguments this week in Lamone v. Benisek, a case out of Maryland that accuses Democratic lawmakers of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering. Democrats who controlled the state's redistricting in 2011 increased their 6-2 hold on congressional seats to 7-1 and helped unseat a 20-year Republican incumbent by adding thousands of Democratic voters to Maryland's 6th District.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During oral arguments in the cases, the Supreme Court justices appeared to be divided on partisan redistricting. The conservative majority did not dispute that extreme partisan gerrymandering is a problem but questioned whether judicial intervention by the Supreme Court is the solution.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Have we really reached the moment, even though it would be a big lift for this court to get involved, where the other actors can't do it?" asked Justice Brett Kavanaugh, referencing the states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The liberal justices seemed more responsive to the argument that extreme partisan gerrymandering undermines the basic principle of one person, one vote. "Does one person have one vote that counts equally with others if the impact of her vote is reduced based on her party affiliation?" asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This isn't the first time a partisan gerrymandering case has landed at the U.S. Supreme Court. Last year the court had a chance to rule on a partisan redistricting case out of Wisconsin, but it opted out of making a decision and instead sent the case back to a lower court. With the North Carolina and Maryland cases, the justices have another chance to establish a standard for determining unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Allison Riggs with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham argued the North Carolina case before the Supreme Court. If the justices fail to act, she said, they would back up the legislature's belief that the court would "implicitly endorse unfettered partisan manipulation in redistricting by declining to rein in this most egregious example.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The court is scheduled to announce its decision in both cases by the end of June.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Controversy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schuette was working to strike down a ballot initiative to eliminate partisan gerrymandering, which has gained enough signatures to be on the Michigan ballot in the November 2018 election.[42] The issue went on to the state supreme court, where "Five of the seven justices were nominated or appointed by Republicans, and two of those have received financial backing from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which also happens to be one of the main funders of the opposition campaign. Both justices have refused to recuse themselves from the case."[42] The court upheld the inclusion of the initiative on the ballot which was approved by voters.[43]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">off bs omg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gov. Scott Waker Named National Finance Chairman for the National Republican Redistricting Trust</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 21, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alexandria, VA – The National Republican Redistricting Trust (NRRT) announced today that former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will serve as the group’s National Finance Chairman. In this position, Governor Walker will help lead the effort to raise the resources needed as the NRRT prepares for the next round of redistricting in 2021.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The NRRT was formed in 2017 and serves as the central resource to coordinate and collaborate with Republicans on a 50-state redistricting effort, focusing on the party’s legal and data needs ahead of the 2020 redistricting process.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adam Kincaid, Executive Director of the NRRT, said, “Governor Walker will be a tremendous asset to the NRRT as we prepare for the next round of redistricting. There is no legal strategy the Democrats won’t try in order to litigate their way into power.&nbsp; To fight back we need Republicans like Governor Walker who believe in the future of our country and our party. When Democrats don’t win at the ballot box they are determined to sue until it’s blue.&nbsp; Governor Walker’s support and work on behalf of the NRRT will help us fight back against the Democrats’ nationwide judicial power grab.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Governor Walker said, “Republican reforms work.&nbsp; We need to make sure Republican candidates have a chance to make that case to voters across the country. To do that, we need fair legislative districts. I am honored to help lead the NRRT as we fight for fair maps in the next round of redistricting. The far left is highly organized and well-funded.&nbsp; Barack Obama and Eric Holder want to gerrymander Democrats into permanent control, so we are working to ensure that our side has the organization and resources to combat their efforts. Our reforms work, and if we have a fair chance to make our case, we win.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The purpose of the NRRT is to fight for fair, constitutional redistricting for all Americans. For more information about the NRRT, click here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Meadows and the gerrymandered district: How Republicans ‘cracked’ the liberal city of Asheville — and elected a right-wing buffoon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans "cracked" the liberal city of Asheville into two safe…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a major victory for voting rights, a federal court has once again struck down North Carolina’s gerrymandered congressional district voting map, saying it was unfairly drawn to help Republican candidates. In 2016, Republicans won 77 percent of the state’s House districts despite receiving just 53 percent of the statewide vote. A redrawn map could put more seats into play for Democrats in November, but the case may first go back to the Supreme Court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3 recent scotus, not all good?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">slate:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clarence Thomas Joins Liberals, Shocks World</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A strange Supreme Court alliance just struck a blow against racial gerrymandering in the United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Mark Joseph Stern</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the memorial service for his former colleague Antonin Scalia on March 1, 2016, in Washington, D.C.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision holding that two congressional districts in North Carolina were racially gerrymandered in violation of the Constitution. The broad ruling will likely have ripple effects on litigation across the country, helping plaintiffs establish that state legislatures unlawfully injected race into redistricting. And, in a welcome change, the decision did not split along familiar ideological lines: Justice Clarence Thomas joined the four liberal justices to create a majority, following his race-blind principles of equal protection to an unusually progressive result</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MARK JOSEPH STERN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Joseph Stern covers courts and the law for Slate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/05/in_cooper_v_harris_the_supreme_court_strikes_a_blow_against_racial_redistricting.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cooper v. Harris, Monday’s case, involves North Carolina’s two most infamous congressional districts, District 1 and District 12. In the 1990s, the Democratic-controlled state legislature gerrymandered both districts into bizarre shapes that appeared to be drawn along racial lines. A group of Republican voters sued, arguing that the state had used race to shape the districts in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. North Carolina acknowledged that it had used race in redistricting, but argued that it did so for a constitutionally permissible reason: It wanted to comply with the Voting Rights Act, which bars states from diluting minority votes and, at the time, required the creation of majority-minority districts in historically racist states. To ensure compliance with the VRA, North Carolina asserted, it had drawn both districts to be majority black.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clarence Thomas’ consistency handed Democrats—and the principle of equality—a remarkable victory.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1996’s Shaw v. Hunt, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote that these districts violated equal protection. In this case, the conservatives formed the majority, while the liberal justices would have affirmed the constitutionality of the racially gerrymandered districts. At the time, progressives viewed Shaw and its predecessors as an assault on the VRA—a Republican effort to prevent states from helping black voters choose their own representatives. The liberal justices, on the other hand, saw many racial gerrymanders as a kind of affirmative-action program. They insisted that North Carolina’s districts were merely “designed to accommodate the political concerns of a historically disadvantaged minority.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There was some truth to this idea, but also a great deal of naïveté. The majority-black districts that progressives defended were frequently drawn with the help of Republicans, who appreciated the clustering of Democratic voters around a few safe seats. By packing black Democrats into a handful of districts, Republicans made their own seats safer. Had the Supreme Court’s conservatives held fast on Shaw, these majority-black districts might have been invalidated. But in 2001’s Easley v. Cromartie, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor unexpectedly flipped, siding with the liberals to ease restrictions on racial gerrymandering. Easley cemented the notion that states may gerrymander along partisan lines, even where race and political affiliation are intertwined. Since then, plaintiffs have struggled to prove that gerrymanders used race as a “predominant factor” (illegal) rather than party registration (legal).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wisc</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/06/18/us-supreme-court-decision-roadmap-ruling-partisan-gerrymandering-case</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Gil vs. Whitford, a case challenging the extreme partisan gerrymandering of Wisconsin voting districts by the GOP legislature. The Court remanded the technical issue of “standing” back to the same three-judge panel that had ruled Wisconsin legislative districts unconstitutional. The Court did not rule on the merits, leaving the door open for a ruling that may still rein in computer-aided, hyper-partisan gerrymandering. Read the ruling here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ruling was described as a “punt” by some observers, but the lawyer representing disenfranchised Wisconsin voters is hopeful that the issue can be remedied and sent back to the court for a ruling on the merits. Advocates are hoping that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has expressed concern about this type of gerrymandering may pave the way for a positive outcome.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Citing Kennedy, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her concurrence that “partisan gerrymandering, as this Court has recognized, is ‘incompatible with democratic principles’… the practice enables politicians to entrench themselves in power against the people’s will.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paul Smith of the Campaign Legal Center argued the case before the Court on October 3, 2017. He explained today’s ruling at a press conference.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Court issued a unanimous decision saying that the plaintiffs did not yet prove they had standing to persue the gerrymandering claim… saying essentially that our theory of statewide vote dilution does not work under a standing law that does not produce a sufficiently ‘concrete and particularized’ injury for each of the plaintiffs,” said Smith. The Court said “you have to look at the issue on a district by district basis.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The constitutional requirement of “standing” limits participation in lawsuits to those directly impacted. To have standing, a party must show an “injury in fact” to their own legal interests. The court effectively ruled that the lead plaintiff, William Whitford, lacked standing because he was not sufficiently harmed. Whitford, who lives in a Democratic district in Madison, was asserting a statewide harm, but the court said “[t]o the extent that the plaintiffs’ alleged harm is the dilution of their votes, that injury is district specific.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Smith, “the basic bottom line is there will be plaintiffs with clear standing, there will probably be more added, and when we get back to the district court we should be in the position to win very substantial relief.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHITFORD: “WE HAVE A ROADMAP”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whitford, a Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin who envisioned the case along with redistricting expert Wisconsin Rep. Fred Kessler, said he was both encouraged and discouraged by today’s decision.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I am encouraged because here is no reason to think we can’t present the evidence about plaintiffs that the court seems to want… [A] number of the plaintiffs already can meet that burden,” he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Whitford was discouraged by the long delay. “This case was filed in 2015. We have had two elections under what I think is a clearly unconstitutional apportionment already, that give the Democrats no chance of getting the majority, and have many negative consequences in terms of policy. I don’t know how long it is going to go on, but we need to keep in mind that it is important to have a new legislative districting before the 2020 elections. Those are very important elections because that legislature will participate in the redistricting after the new decennial census.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;U.S. Supreme Court on Monday all-but dismissed one of the most-watched election law cases in recent years, saying those in Wisconsin filing a lawsuit that sought to show how extreme partisan gerrymandering was anti-democratic had no basis to sue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It also took no action on a second partisan gerrymandering case from Maryland.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Court has not found that this presents an individual and personal injury of the kind required for Article III standing,” the majority said in the Wisconsin case, sending it back to a lower court. “A citizen’s interest in the overall composition of the legislature is embodied in his right to vote for his representative. The harm asserted by the plaintiffs in this case is best understood as arising from a burden on their own votes.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Wisconsin case sought to show how the state’s GOP-led legislature in 2011 segregated each party’s reliable voters by party to draw legislative districts after the 2010 Census to create a red super-majority. In the Maryland case, those suing said a Democratic-led legislature had overreached to erase a GOP-held House seat.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Wisconsin suit was the most carefully watched of the two gerrymandering cases, because it involved statewide jockeying of political districts, as opposed to a single congressional seat. It was also the platform for advanced analysis that showed how the use of technology was able to tilt the electoral playing field to game political advantage based on voter turnout patterns.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The decision will reverberate on many political and cultural levels. Seen from a partisan standpoint, the Court is saying that the plaintiffs’ efforts to demonstrate that Wisconsin’s Republican mapmakers were able create a structural head start in the likely popular vote was fair game—even if it led to one-party rule for most of this decade. Beyond the technicalities of how the GOP nullified their opposition’s ability to win in typical election cycles (2018 is not a typical year), the Court’s majority is saying that rebalancing elections to create greater equality among voters is not a constitutional priority.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Going deeper, the Court’s action is likely to signal that ruling parties in supermajority state legislatures are free to tinker with the rules of voting and elections as they see fit—to preserve their power. (Wisconsin was one of more than a dozen red states that drew extreme gerrymandered maps after the 2010 census, leading to super majorities in their state legislatures and House delegations. Those ultra-red majorities then passed many of this decade’s voter suppression, anti-union, anti-abortion, anti-LGBT and anti-safety net laws.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On a cultural level, the Court is signaling that American democracy will remain a deeply uneven system, where governing classes can advantage themselves and take steps to undermine the participation and power of their opponents or under-represented constituencies.While there is a tendency among the judiciary to keep a certain distance from the political process—as a co-equal branch of government and separation of powers—the fact remains that the Court is not seeking to rebalance the most glaring anti-democratic features in the fundamentals that shape the electoral process.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Inequality in elections is going to remain a formidable obstacle. Only last week, in purple North Carolina, did the Republican-led legislature propose anew series of election rules that would disadvantage a key Democratic voting block—African Americans who voted on the weekend before the Tuesday general election. The state’s GOP proposed, among several measures, to eliminate the early voting option used by 200,000 citizens in 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That move came despite a federal appeals court in 2016 rejecting an earlier slate of anti-participatory election reforms, saying those measures targeted the state’s black voters “with almost surgical precision.” But now, with the Supreme Court not acting on the partisan gerrymandering cases, the political process will be freer to revert to more aggressive tactics to advantage one side—where partisan power apparently carries more constitutional weight than equality among the electorate.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shankar Vedantam</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The researchers believe this is because politicians in gerrymandered districts are less likely to advocate for goods on behalf of their constituents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5/1</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.npr.org/2018/05/01/607303602/in-gerrymandered-districts-constituents-likely-to-lose-economic-security</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/democrats-target-2018-races-12-states-prevent-another-decade-republican-gerrymanders</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Forget, for a minute, which party controls the House after November’s elections. There’s another decision that will be made this fall that will determine if Republicans will likely dominate the 2020s as they have this decade, in Congress and state capitals.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That fateful decision concerns whether the GOP will monopolize the process for revising political maps that will hold for a decade of congressional and state legislative elections starting in 2022. Ten years ago, after being trounced by President Obama and seeing Democrats take full control of Congress, Republicans plotted a comeback by targeting this same process in 16 states. They wanted to monopolize redistricting and they did, producing gerrymanders that diluted Democrats’ power.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Wednesday, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee revealed its 2018 strategy. The NDRC is targeting 12 states it believes hold the key to preventing another decade of runaway Republican rule. Their strategy is not to turn the tables on the GOP—they can’t; they’re too far behind. Rather, Democrats hope to elect a slate of governors wielding veto pens and to retake enough state legislative chambers to force Republicans to negotiate sharing power.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“During the last redistricting process in 2011, Republicans had trifecta control [the governor and both legislative chambers] in 19 states, which gave them complete power over the drawing of 213 congressional districts,” the committee said. “The NDRC is committed to changing that and making sure Democrats have a seat at the table in the 2021 redistricting process.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is a critical election year for redistricting because it is the first cycle where the officials elected will serve during the redistricting process in 2021,” the NDRC continued. “NDRC is targeting 12 states during the 2018 election cycle, including 9 gubernatorial races, 20 legislative chambers, 2 ballot initiatives, and 2 down-ballot races. There are 8 additional states on our Watch List.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Americans keep hearing that the House will be up for grabs as 2018 is turning into a blue wave year, these statewide races—especially for governor where there are open seats due to term limits—are arguably more important if one doesn’t want to live under outsized GOP rule for another dozen years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“People need to keep in mind that the GOP has key structural advantages,” said David Daley, author of Ratfked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy, which documents the GOP’s gerrymander of 2011. “Turnout [next fall] matters. Democrats need to run everywhere, while prioritizing ruthlessly: if they miss these targets in 2018, they will not have another shot at the maps in many of these states until 2031.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They also need to understand taking back the House and having a seat at the table in redistricting are two different things,” he continued. “The first could happen. But the second is arguably more important — and that’s a harder, longer fight that needs to be measured in flipping state legislative chambers in key states, and winning seats at the table in 2021.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, getting that negotiating power is the goal, NDRC founder, former Attorney General Eric Holder, told the New York Times. “From my perspective, success is if you break a trifecta… I don’t think that in December of 2018, you measure success by whether you have assumed control of a particular state.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NDRC’s 2018 Targets&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To break up red-state monopolies, NDRC is targeting open governors’ seats in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, Nevada and Maine. The NDRC also wants to keep Democratic governors in office in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, just as it wants to challenge GOP governors and legislators in Wisconsin and New Hampshire.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In some states, like Ohio, the NDRC will also be targeting the secretary of state and auditor races, as those officials sit at the table shaping political maps. In other states, like Nevada, it wants to break the GOP’s legislative monopoly. It is also targeting ballot initiatives in Michigan, Ohio, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and South Dakota.&nbsp; &nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These priorities make sense, Daley said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/supreme-court-rejects-effort-keep-pennsylvania-gop-gerrymander</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.democracynow.org/2018/1/23/headlines/court_rules_pennsylvanias_congressional_map_is_unconstitutional</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/supreme-court-just-blocked-order-north-carolina-redraw-gerrymandered-congressional</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">North Carolinians may vote in the 2018 midterm elections under a congressional map that has been gerrymandered by Republicans. The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a lower court ruling ordering the U.S. House of Representatives district lines be redrawn by January 24.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor both objected to the order.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reuters explains the initial ruling that ordered the district lines be redrawn:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The three-judge panel ruled that the Republican-drawn districts violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law by intentionally hobbling the electoral strength of non-Republican voters. Two of the three judges also said the plan ran afoul of the Constitution’s First Amendment by discriminating based on political belief and association."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court is reviewing cases of alleged gerrymandering in Wisconsin and Maryland. The implications of these cases on other states, including North Carolina, remain to be seen.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/us/north-carolina-gerrymander.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A&nbsp; panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina’s congressional map on Tuesday, condemning it as unconstitutional because Republicans had drawn the map seeking a political advantage. The ruling was the first time that a federal court had blocked a congressional map because of a partisan gerrymander, and it instantly endangered Republican seats in the coming elections.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Judge James A. Wynn Jr., in a biting 191-page opinion, said that Republicans in North Carolina’s Legislature had been “motivated by invidious partisan intent” as they carried out their obligation in 2016 to divide the state into 13 congressional districts, 10 of which are held by Republicans. The result, Judge Wynn wrote, violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ruling and its chief demand — that the Republican-dominated Legislature create a new landscape of congressional districts by Jan. 24 — infused new turmoil into the political chaos that has in recent years enveloped North Carolina. President Trump carried North Carolina in 2016, but the state elected a Democrat as its governor on the same day and in 2008 supported President Barack Obama.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The unusually blunt decision by the panel could lend momentum to two other challenges on gerrymandering that are already before the Supreme Court — and that the North Carolina case could join if Republicans make good on their vow to appeal Tuesday’s ruling.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Continue reading the main story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED COVERAGE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justices Reject 2 Gerrymandered North Carolina Districts, Citing Racial Bias MAY 22, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pennsylvania Lawsuit Says House Redistricting Is Partisan Gerrymander JUNE 15, 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In October, the court heard an appeal of another three-judge panel’s ruling that Republicans had unconstitutionally gerrymandered Wisconsin’s State Assembly in an attempt to relegate Democrats to a permanent minority. In the second case, the justices will hear arguments by Maryland Republicans that the Democratic-controlled Legislature redrew House districts to flip a Republican-held seat to Democratic control.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court has struggled without success for decades to develop a legal standard for determining when a partisan gerrymander crosses constitutional lines. The court once came close to ruling that such cases were political matters beyond its jurisdiction. But the rise of extreme partisan gerrymanders in the last decade, powered by a growing ideological divide and powerful map-drawing software, has brought the question back to the justices with new urgency. A Supreme Court ruling outlawing at least some such gerrymanders could reshape the political landscape.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fights over voting rights and election procedures have often taken center stage in Raleigh, North Carolina’s capital, and Tuesday’s ruling noted that “partisan advantage” had been a criterion lawmakers used when mulling how to map the state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican officials in the General Assembly said Tuesday evening that they intended to appeal the ruling, which many elected officials and political strategists were still scrambling to digest. Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, criticized Judge Wynn and accused him of “waging a personal, partisan war on North Carolina Republicans.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a separate post on Twitter, Mr. Woodhouse argued that Judge Wynn had concluded that North Carolina’s Republicans “should not be allowed to draw election districts under any circumstances under any set of rules,” an effort he called “a hostile takeover” of the General Assembly and legislatures nationwide. Republicans could ask the Supreme Court to stay the decision and allow the disputed map to be used this year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But critics of the congressional map welcomed a decision that was notable for its tartness and urgency.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Clearly, the courts have realized that they do need to step in and police extreme partisan gerrymanders, and the court recognized that North Carolina’s gerrymander was one of the most extreme in history,” said Ruth Greenwood, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center and a lawyer representing some of the map’s challengers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Wayne Goodwin, said the decision was “a major victory for North Carolina and people across the state whose voices were silenced by Republicans’ unconstitutional attempts to rig the system to their partisan advantage.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The judges issued their decision fewer than 24 hours before the General Assembly was to convene in Raleigh for a special session. The ruling unmistakably placed lawmakers on the clock, giving them two weeks to present a “remedial plan” and declaring that the court would institute its own map if it finds the new district lines unsatisfactory.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Politically, this gives hope to Democrats,” said J. Michael Bitzer, a professor of political science at Catawba College, which is near Charlotte. “I can imagine the Republicans being furious, but they have to see political reality, and it’s not just in the next two weeks: It’s come November.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Professor Bitzer, though, cautioned that the ultimate political fallout would not become clearer until the courts settled what could be a cascade of appeals and injunctions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ruling left little doubt about how the judges assessed the Legislature’s most recent map. Judge Wynn, who sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and was a member of a special panel considering the congressional map, said that “a wealth of evidence proves the General Assembly’s intent to ‘subordinate’ the interests of non-Republican voters and ‘entrench’ Republican domination of the state’s congressional delegation.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most federal lawsuits are first heard by a district court, and later — if needed — by an appeals court and the Supreme Court. But under federal law, constitutional challenges to the apportionment of House districts or statewide legislative bodies are automatically heard by three-judge panels, and appeals are taken directly to the Supreme Court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to Judge Wynn, an appointee of Mr. Obama’s, Senior Judge W. Earl Britt of the Federal District Court in Raleigh joined the opinion. Judge Britt was appointed by President Jimmy Carter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Judge William L. Osteen Jr., who was appointed by President George W. Bush and sits on the federal bench in Greensboro, said he agreed that the existing map violated the 14th Amendment, but he disputed other parts of Judge Wynn’s opinion, including the decision to appoint an independent expert to begin preparing an alternative map.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/study-finds-democrats-wont-take-back-house-2018-giant-wave</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://democracynow.org/2016/11/23/headlines/wisconsin_court_rules_state_illegally_gerrymandered_districts_to_favor_gop</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Wisconsin, a court has ruled the state Legislature engaged in unconstitutional gerrymandering to favor the Republican Party when it redrew the State Assembly districts in 2011. The case is likely to go to the Supreme Court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see CA Chs munger jr 3x propostions?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gilliard and hiltachk</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_20,Congressional_Redistricting(2010)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supporters</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Munger launched the campaign to qualify the Congressional Redistricting Initiative for the 2010 ballot. Munger was also a key supporter of 2008's Proposition 11, having given about $2 million to that effort.[5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times characterizes Proposition 20's supporters as "an unlikely collection of election-reform groups, civil rights nonprofits and former officials from both major parties who say that the current system of redistricting has left politicians unaccountable."[6]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supporters of Proposition 20 include:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California Chamber of Commerce</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California State Conference of the NAACP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AARP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California Common Cause</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bay Area Council</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Full list of supporters of Proposition 20 from the "Yes on Proposition 20" website (dead link)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arguments in favor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arguments were submitted to the official California Voter Guide on behalf of a "yes" vote on Proposition 20, as were rebuttals to the arguments provided by Prop 20 opponents. The signers of these arguments were:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Pacheco, the California President of AARP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kathay Feng, the executive director of California Common Cause</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">John Kabateck, the executive director of the California chapter of the National Federal of Independent Business</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alice Huffman, President, the California chapter of the NAACP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Julian Canete, the executive director of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Richard Rider, chairman of the San Diego Tax Fighters</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The arguments made on behalf of Proposition 20 focus on these themes:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Proposition 20 will create fair U.S. congressional districts, which will in turn make California's representatives to the U.S. Congress more accountable and responsive, as well as making it easier to vote them out of office.[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Proposition 20 ends the current system of members of the California State Legislature being in a position to draw the U.S. Congressional district boundaries "for their friends in Congress—districts that virtually guarantee Members of Congress get re-elected even when they don’t listen to voters." Also, "Right now, legislators and their paid consultants draw districts behind closed doors to guarantee their friends in Congress are re-elected. Sacramento politicians pick the voters for their friends in Congress, rather than voters choosing who will represent them."[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Proposition 20 is a simple and intuitive extension of a ballot initiative that California voters already approved, California Proposition 11 (2008).[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under the current system, politicians have used their redistricting powers to bring about unfair results, and Proposition 20 will put an end to that. For example, "In the last redistricting, Latino leaders sued after a California Congressman had 170,000 Latinos carved out of his district just to ensure he’d get re-elected. Now he’s leading the charge against 20!"[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donors</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Main article: Donations to California's 2010 ballot propositions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The "Yes on 20" campaign raised about $13.4 million. Donors of $50,000 and over to the "Yes on Proposition 20/No on Proposition 27" campaign committee were:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donor<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Amount</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Munger<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$12,157,441</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charlotte Lowell<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$956,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eli Broad<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Diane Wilsey<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$100,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California Chamber of Commerce<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$85,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Susan Groff<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$50,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rebecca Q. Morgan<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>$50,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Note: Charlotte Lowell and Charles Munger are married to each other.[8]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Consultants</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also: Vendors and consultants to California's 2010 ballot proposition campaigns</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Political consultants who provided paid services to the "Yes on 20" campaign included:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AC Public Affairs: $147,500</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goddard Clausen Strategic Advocacy: $549,470</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meredian Pacific: $217,743</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Petition Management: $1,937,380</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor: $385,321</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Public Opinion Strategies: $96,000</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alice Huffman. Huffman, who is the president of the California chapter of the NAACP, is one of the signers of the ballot argument in favor of Proposition 20 in the state's official Voter Guide. She is also a paid consultant to the campaign through her consulting business, AC Public Affairs, earning about $15,000/month to "contact other minority groups [to boost] support for the redistricting measure."[9]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Opposition</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Opposition to Proposition 20 is primarily driven by the supporters of Proposition 27.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donors against</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three campaign committees registered in opposition to Proposition 20. They were:Main article: Donations to California's 2010 ballot propositions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The "No on 20" campaign committee. This committee raised about $553,000, including $100,000 donations from Fred Eychaner and the "United Here Tip State and Local Fund" and a $20,000 donation from Thomas O'Donnell, a lobbyist who lives in Washington, D.C.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The "California Coalition for Leadership and Accountability in Budget and Redistricting, Yes on 25 & 27, No on 20" campaign committee. This committee raised no funds of any significance.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The "Yes On FAIR, Yes On 27, No On 20" campaign committee, which raised $7.6 million, including a substantial amount of money from 17 members of the California's delegation to the U.S. Congress as well as members of the California State Legislature.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arguments against</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arguments were submitted to the official California Voter Guide urging a "no" vote on Proposition 20, as were rebuttals to the arguments provided by Prop 20 supporters. The signers of these arguments were:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel H. Lowenstein, a professor at UCLA and a former chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission.[10]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Murray, the executive director of "Californians Against Waste"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hank Lacayo, president of the "Congress of California Seniors"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aubry L. Stone, president of the California Black Chamber of Commerce</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carl Pope, chairman of the Sierra Club</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The themes of the main arguments they make against Proposition 20 (and in favor of Proposition 27) are:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Proposition 20 will be "a waste of taxpayer dollars."[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Proposition 20 is said by its opponents to turn back the clock on redistricting law. Proposition 20 mandates that all districts (including Assembly, Senate, and Congress) must be segregated by income level and mandates that all districts be segregated according to 'similar living standards' and that districts include only people 'with similar work opportunities.'"[7]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Editorial opinion</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also: Endorsements of California ballot measures, 2010</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yes on Prop 20</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Newspapers that have editorialized in favor of Proposition 20 include:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contra Costa Times: "If voters adopt Proposition 20, California finally will have a workable, bipartisan system of drawing both legislative and congressional districts in a manner that makes sense for California voters rather than for the protection of incumbents and to give an unfair advantage to candidates in the dominant political party."[11]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lompoc Record: "the commission holds great promise for the future of California’s political landscape."[12]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Long Beach Press-Telegram: "Politicians despise the independent commission because they no longer get to choose their own voters and keep seats safe for their parties. This is particularly true of Democrats because they currently hold more of those seats than Republicans. They fought the redistricting proposal in 2008, and now they're bankrolling Proposition 27 on the November ballot to kill the commission before it has even begun its work. Californians must reject this unconscionable power grab by voting yes on Proposition 20 and no on Proposition 27."[13]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Los Angeles Daily News: "Today nearly every California seat in the Legislature and Congress is safe, and that's one reason lawmakers have little incentive to work together."[14]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Los Angeles Times: "[Prop 20] may gradually break down some of the impediments to efficiency and deal-making that have thwarted Sacramento in recent years and that have wreaked havoc in Washington as well."[15]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">North County Times: "California's delegation to the House of Representatives is as politically polarized as the state Legislature, and for the same reason: Gerrymandered districts that ensure incumbents are rarely challenged, and are answerable to the most ideologically inflexible voters."[16]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Orange County Register: "Proposition 20 is one of the most critical reforms on November's ballot, one of the few that could actually make a difference in reforming politics in California."[17]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Riverside Press Enterprise: "California has no reason to backtrack on governmental reforms. The dismal records of state and federal legislators should spur voters to expand changes that can improve government, not toss the whole effort out. Thus in November voters should pass Proposition 20, and reject Proposition 27."[18]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">San Bernardino Sun: "The process of selecting the first commission has been completely transparent, with all 30,000 applications posted on the Web and 120 finalist interviews streamed live. Once the 14-member panel is chosen, it will work in public, in contrast to the closed-door plotting in Sacramento."[19]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">San Diego Union-Tribune: "Given this troubling picture, voters should embrace a redistricting system likely to yield a California congressional delegation with fewer ideologues. Voters are demanding change – and with good reason. Proposition 20 is about bringing change and undermining the status quo. We urge a yes vote."[20]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Santa Rose Press Democrat: "There is a public price to pay for letting legislators draw their own districts, in effect choosing their voters. Incumbents whose only threats are term limits and primary challengers have little incentive to compromise."[21]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Santa Cruz Sentinel: "Proposition 20 would add congressional districts to the purview of the 14-member citizen panel and take it away from the very politicians who benefit from non-competitive districts."[22]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">San Gabriel Valley Tribune: "Once these earnest citizen watchdogs get rolling, no one in the state - excepting the venal, self-interested pols who used to have the job - will have the kind of expertise they will in California's electoral demographics. They will be perfectly equipped to redraw the congressional districts that, in theory, bring together true communities of interest within a district's boundaries to represent California in our federal government."[23]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ventura County Star: "Proposition 20 would not involve any additional state cost. Best of all, it embodies the values of good government, efficiency and economy in mapping out new districts."[24]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No on Prop 20</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sacramento Bee: "While [supporters of Proposition 20] are right to say that many congressional districts are drawn for purely partisan purposes and unfairly protect incumbents, reform needs to happen on the national level, not just in a single state. California's interests could be harmed if it alone undertook an experiment in reforming how congressional districts are drawn. Imprudently mapped districts could leave the state with far less seniority in Congress than it now enjoys, giving the state less clout over appropriations and legislation."[25]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">San Francisco Bay Guardian: "But the commission is hardly a fair body — it has the same number of Republicans as Democrats in a state where there are far more Democrats than Republicans. And most states still draw lines the old-fashioned way, so Proposition 20 could give the GOP an advantage in a Democratic state. States like Texas and Florida, notorious for pro-Republican gerrymandering, aren't planning to change how they do their districts."[26]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/05/13111/high-tech-gerrymandering-trial-wisconsin</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A case that advocates hope could go up to the U.S. Supreme Court and set a new standard against partisan gerrymandering is being heard in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin this week.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A group of Democratic Wisconsin voters are suing the State of Wisconsin, arguing that the legislative district maps drawn by GOP politicians in 2011 are so skewed and long-lasting that their voting rights were violated.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Chicago Law School Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulous charged that Wisconsin’s Republican party engaged in the "worst gerrymander of modern American history" in opening arguments today. Stephanopoulous asked the three judge federal panel to "intervene to safeguard the democratic process."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The lawsuit challenges 2011 Act 43, which redrew Wisconsin state legislative boundaries after the 2010 Census. The maps were redrawn behind closed doors at the law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich by GOP aides in a process a federal court previously described as a "shameful" attempt to hide from public scrutiny. GOP legislators signed secrecy oaths, thousands of files were destroyed, computers were confiscated and found to have been tampered with.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At today's hearing, Stephanopoulous described how GOP aides relied upon experts and sophisticated statistical analyses to pack districts, so they increasingly skewed Republican. Multiple draft maps were produced and run by Political Science Professor Roland Keith Gaddie of the University of Oklahoma, who carried out "sensitivity testing" for Act 43.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We found 10 separate draft plans analyzed by spreadsheets. The only reason to carry out this testing is to ensure that the gerrymandering is durable," said Stephanopoulous.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unlike gerrymanders of old, which looped in broad geographical areas and presented highly distorted maps, this new, high-tech method helped the GOP create districts that appeared aesthetically pleasing, but skewed redder and redder in draft after draft. Memos on the maps were prepared for individual GOP legislators, but not for Democratic legislators, who were entirely excluded from the process until the day of the vote.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tad Ottman, who worked for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and who played a key role in the redistricting, told Republican legislators at the time that "We have an opportunity and an obligation to draw these maps that Republicans haven't had in decades," and "the maps will determine who is here 10 years from now." Ottman is expected to testify tomorrow.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The state "will not be able to show that this process was in the interest of all the people in the state of Wisconsin," argued Stephanopoulous.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans disregarded traditional county and city boundaries that are normally used to draw districts. "Act 43 splits 58 counties even though county boundaries are supposed to be respected." For the first time, gerrymandered maps were used to draw wards, when previously wards had been used to draw maps. Memos and draft maps were prepared for review by individual Republican legislators, but Democratic legislators were entirely excluded.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whereas the previous case focused on the impact of the redistricting on minority populations and forced the redrawing of two districts in Milwaukee, today’s suit focused on what plaintiffs allege was a "deliberate, severe, durable, unjustified gerrymander."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response, Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Brian Keenan argued that plaintiffs were presenting a "radical redefinition" of gerrymandering and that "traditional gerrymandering" meant strangely drawn districts. "There aren't districts like that in Act 43."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He also argued that partisan scores for each district are "far from crystal balls." "One district has a score of 51.22 percent. Frankly these are educated guesses that don’t predict the future," said Keenan.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Plaintiffs point to data from the 2012 and 2014 elections to demonstrate the problem. In 2012, Republican candidates won 60 of 99 seats, despite the fact that Democratic candidates won a majority of the statewide vote. Plaintiffs characterize these votes as "wasted."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Because of the partisan gerrymander enacted in 2011, Democrats cannot obtain a majority in the state Assembly even if they receive a considerable majority of the statewide vote for Assembly candidates, and this will be true so long as this gerrymander remains in effect. This is not democracy," explains one of the voter plaintiffs, Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Bill Whitford.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The case shows how Governor Walker and the Wisconsin GOP attempted "to transform Wisconsin into a one-party state," said Jay Heck of Wisconsin Common Cause, who was observing the trial.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another set of data is based upon a metric called the "efficiency gap." The efficiency gap is calculated by dividing the number of "wasted votes" by total votes. Stephanopolous previously told public radio that "the average gap in all states over the last 40 years has been zero," meaning redistricting plans didn’t give either political party an advantage. But he says Wisconsin’s gap after its redistricting plan went into effect was 13 percent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the U.S. Supreme Court has shown a willingness to find this type of hyper-partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional, until now there hasn’t been a workable standard to distinguish between legal and unconstitutional line drawing. Plaintiffs hope that the "efficiency gap" calculation might serve as an easy-to-measure, objective new standard.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sachin Chheda, director of the Fair Elections Project, summed up the objective of the lawsuit well when he said, "Under the current maps politicians choose their voters. We want a map where voters choose their politicians instead."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Armiak contributed to this report. The trial began today and is expected to last four days. For complete trial briefs, see www.fairelectionsproject.org.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/05/13111/high-tech-gerrymandering-trial-wisconsin#sthash.Stam9YIk.dpuf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=esmkmv4qcvjj7#3913245312</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">facing so</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">this week a panel of three federal judges refused to delay its order that North Carolina redraw congressional maps before the state's March 15 primary elections on the grounds that North Carolina's 1st and 12th districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered along racial lines.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ruling was not a surprise: North Carolina's congressional and legislative districts have been embroiled in litigation since they were devised by state Republicans after the 2010 Census. In their decision, the judges agreed with voting rights plaintiffs who argued that the unconstitutional way race was used as a "nonnegotiable criterion" in drawing up the maps outweighed the inconvenience the ruling posed to the state, which would could be forced to move its primaries if the ruling stands.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State attorneys immediately appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court; elections experts are split in their predictions about which way the high court will rule.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The North Carolina case highlights the growing role of powerful, well-funded political organizations in the high-stakes world of election map-making. In North Carolina, the Republican State Leadership Committee — a Washington, D.C.-based super PAC created in 2002 to elect state-level GOP candidates — played a uniquely influential role in both creating the state's contested districts and helping to elect state lawmakers and a N.C. Supreme Court Justice who would pass and approve them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WINNING THE LEGISLATURE: As documented by Facing South and others, in 2010 the Republican State Leadership Committee made it a priority to win over state legislatures in time for the biennial redistricting process. The RSLC funneled $1.25 million to Real Jobs NC, a 527 political committee launched by conservative donors including Art Pope, who sat on the group's board.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real Jobs NC was part of a constellation of Pope-connected groups that targeted nearly two-dozen races. Republicans won 80 percent of the contests, helping fuel the GOP's historic capture of the N.C. General Assembly, and putting Republicans in charge of drawing the state's new Congressional and legislative districts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DRAWING THE LINES: After winning the election, the Republican State Leadership Committee turned to its nonprofit arm, the State Government Leadership Foundation, to aid in creating North Carolina's new political districts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As reported by ProPublica, Chris Jankowski — who headed both the RSLC and the Leadership Foundation — wrote a letter to North Carolina lawmakers describing the role his groups could play in the process. The letter, which became public as a result of the redistricting lawsuits, read in part:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our team would be happy to assist in drawing proposed maps, interpreting data, or providing advice … We are engaged in a number of states and believe we are playing a meaningful role in helping draw fair and legal lines that will allow us to run competitive elections in 2012 and in future cycles.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Heading the Leadership Foundation's redistricting team was Tom Hofeller, a GOP mapmaking veteran. On Feb. 1, 2011, Hofeller came to North Carolina for the first of 10 visits he would make to the state. According to depositions gathered in the lawsuit, Hofeller and others — including Art Pope — used Hofeller's software to create a so-called "10-3" map that would pack Democrats (and African Americans) into three districts, allowing 10 others to be dominated by Republicans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SECURING THE COURT: With North Carolina's controversial districts guaranteed to face a robust legal challenge, the RSLC moved aggressively to secure a conservative majority on the N.C. Supreme Court, where the redistricting lawsuit would be heard.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2012, with conservative Justice Paul Newby (in photo) facing a tough election and the court's 5-4 conservative majority on the line, the RSLC funneled nearly $1.2 million into the North Carolina-based group Justice for All N.C., formed in May of that year. Justice for All then used that money and donations from other sources to fund another state-based group, the North Carolina Judicial Coalition, which ultimately spent nearly $2 million on ads supporting Newby. Justice for All also spent $175,000 directly on ads supporting Newby, who beat opponent Sam Ervin by a 52-48 margin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2014, the RSLC sent over another $1.3 million to Justice for All, which spent nearly $900,000 on a widely-panned attack ad against incumbent justice Robin Hudson, and $425,000 more supporting conservative candidate Mike Robinson in a second supreme court race. Both liberal incumbents held onto their seats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The N.C. Supreme Court ruled twice to accept the congressional and state legislative districts, most recently in December 2015 on a 4-3 decision following party lines. Justice Newby refused a request from attorneys involved in the redistricting lawsuit that he recuse himself, given the role the RSLC played in both drawing the maps and electing him to office.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The conservative N.C. Supreme Court majority approved the maps in December even after the U.S. Supreme Court, which remanded the case back to North Carolina, had taken a clear stand against racial gerrymandering in a similar case in Alabama. As legal expert Billy Corriher wrote for the Center for American Progress, "When it upheld the maps [in December], the North Carolina Supreme Court's four-justice conservative majority essentially ignored the rules laid out in the Supreme Court's Alabama decision."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This week, the state Supreme Court refused to rehear a different case that challenges both the legislative and congressional districts, a case that may also end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Money, court conflicts</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The RSLC's role in North Carolina's judicial elections has been especially controversial given the backing the political group receives from key corporate interests in North Carolina, including companies and groups with business before the N.C. Supreme Court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Facing South/Institute for Southern Studies analysis of reports submitted to the Internal Revenue Service finds that eight North Carolina companies have given $100,000 or more to the RSLC since 2011. While the donations slowed slightly in 2015, they continue to come from many of the companies that have been faithful donors over the years. Total contributions from North Carolina businesses to the RSLC totaled nearly $733,000 last year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the largest North Carolina backers of the Republican State Leadership Committee:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">REYNOLDS AMERICAN: Leading the pack by a wide margin is tobacco giant Reynolds American, based in Winston-Salem, which has given the RSLC close to $3.1 million over the past five years. Last year, Reynolds completed a $27.4 billion merger with Greensboro-based tobacco company Lorillard, which is the state's second-biggest donor to the RSLC, having pitched in nearly $335,000 since 2011. The merger unites two already substantial political donors to conservative groups. In addition to funneling money through the RSLC, the two companies — which have had key cases appear in N.C. courts in recent years — have been directly involved in spending on judicial elections: Since 2012, Reynolds American has given Justice for All $130,000 and Lorillard has donated $25,000. Reynolds gave $150,000 to the N.C. Judicial Coalition in 2012.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DUKE ENERGY: The nation's biggest utility company, which has had considerable business before the high court regarding rate hikes and environmental issues such as its 2014 coal ash spill, has given consistently every year since 2011 for a total of $305,000.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other leading corporate donors to the RSLC from North Carolina include Time Warner Cable ($300,000) and Variety Stores, the retail chain owned by Art Pope ($250,000). The following chart outlines North Carolina's top corporate contributors to the RSLC (click on it for a larger version):...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The events of 2003 in Texas were important to the political history of this country. Congressman Tom DeLay led a Republican effort to gerrymander the state's thirty-two congressional districts to defeat all ten of the Anglo Democratic incumbents and to elect more Republicans; Democratic state lawmakers fled the state in an effort to defeat the plan. The Lone Star State uproar attracted attention worldwide. The Republicans won this showdown, gaining six additional seats from Texas and protecting the one endangered Republican incumbent. Some of the methods used by DeLay to achieve this result, however, led to his criminal indictment and ultimately to his downfall.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With its eye-opening research, readable style, and insightful commentary, Lines in the Sand provides a front-line account of what happened in 2003, often through the personal stories of members of both parties and of the minority activist groups caught in a political vortex. Law professor Steve Bickerstaff provides much-needed historical perspective and also probes the aftermath of the 2003 redistricting, including the criminal prosecutions of DeLay and his associates and the events that led to DeLay's eventual resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives. As a result, Bickerstaff graphically shows a dark underside of American politics—the ruthless use of public institutional power for partisan gain.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">- See more at: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/biclin#sthash.GSpaGvxI.dpuf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gerrymandering.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When was the last time you saw a front page headline about gerrymandering?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before the 2010 election, conservatives launched a plan to win control of state legislatures before the census. The idea was to be in power when national congressional districts were redrawn in order to fix them so Republicans would win a majority of districts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Redistricting Majority Project was hugely successful. In 2012, Barack Obama was elected President by nearly 3.5 million votes. In Congressional races, Democrats drew nearly 1.4 million more votes than Republicans yet&nbsp; Republicans won control of the House 234 seats to 201 seats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How is this possible?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By pumping $30 million into state races to win the legislatures, Republicans redrew state maps in states such as Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, Florida and Ohio to place all of the Democrats into just a few districts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In this manner, Democrats win heavily in a couple districts and lose the rest.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In North Carolina, the statewide vote was 51 percent Democrat and 49 percent Republican yet 9 Republicans won and only 4 Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Where is your coverage of this vote stealing, "liberal media"? You're willing to cover voter ID laws, why can't you cover real vote stealing?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Click to enlarge.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Source: Mother Jones.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-republicans-rig-the-game-20131111?page=3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the nation recovers from the Republican shutdown of government, the question Americans should be asking is not "Why did the GOP do that to us?" but "Why were they even relevant in the first place?" So dramatically have the demographic and electoral tides in this country turned against the Republican Party that, in a representative democracy worthy of the designation, the Grand Old Party should be watching from the sidelines and licking its wounds. Not only did Barack Obama win a second term in an electoral landslide in 2012, but he is also just the fourth president in a century to have won two elections with more than 50 percent of the popular vote. What's more, the party controls 55 seats in the Senate, and Democratic candidates for the House received well over a million more votes than their Republican counterparts in the election last year. And yet, John Boehner still wields the gavel in the House and Republican resistance remains a defining force in the Senate, frustrating Obama's ambitious agenda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The GOP's real agenda: How Republicans' politics are harsher than ever</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How is this possible? National Republicans have waged an unrelenting campaign to exploit every weakness and anachronism in our electoral system. Through a combination of hyperpartisan redistricting of the House, unprecedented obstructionism in the Senate and racist voter suppression in the states, today's GOP has locked in political power that it could never have secured on a level playing field.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite the fact that Republican Congressional candidates received nearly 1.4 million fewer votes than Democratic candidates last November, the Republicans lost only eight seats from their historic 2010 romp, allowing them to preserve a fat 33-seat edge in the House. Unscrupulous Republican gerrymandering following the 2010 census made the difference, according to a statistical analysis conducted by the Princeton Election Consortium. Under historically typical redistricting, House Republicans would now likely be clinging to a reedy five-seat majority. "There's the normal tug of war of American politics," says Sam Wang, founder of the consortium. "Trying to protect one congressman here, or unseat another one there." The Princeton model was built, he says, to detect "whether something got pulled off-kilter on top of that."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Did it ever. In Pennsylvania, Democratic candidates took 51 percent of the vote across the state's 18 districts, but only five of the seats. In Wang's model, the odds against Democrats emerging at an eight-seat disadvantage are 1,000-to-1. And Pennsylvania was not alone. According to the Election Consortium analysis, gerrymandering helped Republicans secure 13 seats in just six states – including Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina – that, under normal rules of engagement, Democrats would have won.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This tilting of the electoral playing field was the result of a sophisticated campaign coordinated at the highest levels of Republican politics through a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) – a Super-PAC-like entity chaired by Bush-era RNC chairman Ed Gillespie and backed by Karl Rove. Shortly after President Obama's first election, the RSLC launched the Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP) with an explicit strategy to "keep or win Republican control of state legislatures with the largest impact on congressional redistricting." The logic was simple. Every decade following the census, the task of redrawing federal congressional-district boundaries falls (with some exceptions) to the state legislatures. If Republicans could seize control of statehouses – and, where necessary, have GOP governors in place to rubber-stamp their redistricting maps – the party could lock in new districts that would favor Republican candidates for a decade. As Rove wrote in a Wall Street Journal column in early 2010: "He who controls redistricting can control Congress."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short order, the RSLC raised more than $30 million to fund Rove's vision while its hapless counterpart, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, raised barely one-third of that amount. "The Obama people simply didn't understand what was happening to them in 2010," says a prominent Democrat. "They just sat it out, and Republicans ran up the score."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The RSLC was particularly focused on states that stood to gain or lose seats. Ohio, for example, would lose two to states with faster population growth. Instead of tweaking the boundaries of existing districts, mapmakers would be empowered in these states to draw new boundaries more or less from scratch – providing "maximum opportunity for mischief," in the words of RSLC president and former REDMAP executive director Chris Jankowski. "You certainly don't want your opponent drawing those lines." On election night in 2010, propelled by Tea Party anger and the RSLC's millions, the GOP seized full-party control of 21 state governments – up from nine the previous year and enough to put the party in charge of redistricting 173 House seats. "Democrats," bragged Jankowski, "will not soon recover from what happened to them on a state level last night."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In past elections, a gentleman's agreement prevailed among sitting politicians of both parties that redistricting would keep them safe. But in 2010, Gillespie told reporters, the Republican strategy would be "to maximize gains." Incumbent seats would be made somewhat less safe in service of spreading the GOP's advantage more broadly. "You'd go from these [incumbent] seats that would carve at 60 percent to seats that get carved at 54 percent," he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RSLC's impact was particularly clear in North Carolina. Leading up to the 2010 election, RSLC steered $1.2 million into the state to fund withering attack ads. Democratic incumbents from poor, rural districts simply didn't have the resources to defend themselves against the onslaught of outside spending – and national Democrats didn't call in the cavalry. As a result, Republicans seized control of the North Carolina state assembly for the first time since Reconstruction and began plotting to take control of the state's 13-seat congressional delegation, which still swung Democrat, seven seats to six.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The GOP's War on Voting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a letter to state legislators, Jankowski wrote, "We have taken the initiative to retain a team of seasoned redistricting experts that we will make available to you at no cost to your caucus for assistance." The RSLC brought on GOP operative Tom Hofeller, who has been in the Republican redistricting game since the 1970s.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Employing computer software known as Maptitude, Hofeller and his team used sophisticated data-mining techniques to draw new districts that maximally disadvantaged Democrats. Maptitude advertises the ability to merge precinct-level returns from past elections with federal census data to "identify communities of interest," including "racial or ethnic enclaves that tend to have similar interests and vote as a bloc." Explicit racial gerrymandering is illegal under the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. So Hofeller used a proxy for race, redrawing boundaries by identifying the wards where President Obama received the highest returns in 2008. According to court documents, this approach "allowed black voters to be carved apart from their white neighbors and friends, on a block-by-block basis."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republicans' War on the Poor</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hofeller's final state map featured 10 districts gerrymandered to give Republicans a solid edge – between nine and 12 points – matched against just three districts in which Democrats would have a massive advantage of 17 to 23 points. On Election Day, Democrats outpolled the GOP by 81,000 votes, but Republicans took nine of the 13 seats. The RSLC's map was spoiled only by Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Democratic incumbent, who eked out a 654-vote victory in a district drawn to favor the Republican by 11 points. Following Gillespie's share-the-wealth strategy, only two Republicans won more than 60 percent of the vote. By contrast, three of the four Democrats won in landslides of greater than 70 percent. Mel Watt, a black congressman from the 12th district, won an eighth term with 80 percent of the vote. Even before the election, Watt decried his new district lines as part of a "sinister Republican effort to use African-Americans as pawns in their effort to gain partisan, political gains in Congress."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The triumphant GOP made no effort to conceal these machinations. "REDMAP's effect on the 2012 election is plain," reads a post-election RSLC report. "Pennsylvanians cast 83,000 more votes for Democratic U.S. House candidates?.?.?.?but elected a 13-5 Republican majority to represent them in Washington; Michiganders cast over 240,000 more votes for Democratic congressional candidates than Republicans, but still elected a 9-5 Republican delegation to Congress." In Wisconsin, where $1.1 million in RSLC cash helped flip both chambers of the state legislature, empowering union-busting governor Scott Walker, Republicans prevailed by a five-to-three margin in House seats despite losing the popular vote by more than 43,000. In Ohio, only 52 percent of voters cast ballots for Republicans, but thanks to maps drawn in a Columbus-area Doubletree Hotel, referred to by GOP operatives in court documents as "the bunker," John Boehner's home-state delegation swings 12-4 for the GOP.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican redistricting has made a mockery of the ideal of "one man, one vote." To take back the House next year, 100 Democratic voters would have to turn out for every 94 Republicans. "Given the GOP-tilted nature of the congressional map," writes David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, "Democrats would need to win the national popular vote by between six and seven points in order to win the barest possible House majority."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through redistricting, Republicans have succeeded in making the House more like the Senate – which the founders established as an anti-majoritarian institution to safeguard the interests of small states. At the time of the constitutional convention in 1787, the most populous state, Virginia, counted nearly 10 times the free population of Delaware. Yet both would have the same number of senators. In the more than two centuries since, America has expanded, and its population became concentrated, in ways the founders could have scarcely imagined – rendering the original 10:1 standard quaint. Today, the population of California outpaces Wyoming's by a ratio of 65:1. This extreme example underscores a nationwide trend: Half of the U.S. population now resides in just nine states. Which is to say that the other 50 percent of Americans control 82 votes in the U.S. Senate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This state of affairs would be shocking enough if the Senate were governed by majority rule. But since 2007, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has subjected the daily business of the chamber to the filibuster, which means that legislation cannot advance and a presidential nominee can't be confirmed without a supermajority of 60 votes. Republicans have used this parliamentary roadblock to stop greenhouse-gas regulations, stall the DREAM Act and delay judicial confirmations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The filibuster adds an undemocratic overlay to a chamber that is already rankly undemocratic. In today's Senate, 41 small-state Republicans can mount a filibuster on behalf of 28 percent of the country. And the departure from historical practice is shocking: LBJ faced one filibuster as Senate majority leader. Harry Reid, the current majority leader, has faced more than 430. Nearly half the filibusters of executive-branch nominations in the nation's history – 16 of 36 – have occurred under Obama.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The modern filibuster has only been in place since 1917, but McConnell defends the procedure as though it were central to the creation of the republic. "The founders purposefully crafted the Senate to be a deliberate, thoughtful body," McConnell said during a 2010 hearing. "A supermajority requirement," he said, "ensures that wise purpose." In reality, the founders railed against the dangers of supermajority rule. In 1787, Alexander Hamilton warned of the "tedious delays" and "contemptible compromises of the public good" that result when "a minority can control the opinion of the majority."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans aren't finished in their campaign to rig the political system. The party has been seeking to carry over its built-in advantage in the House into a new edge in presidential elections. In a project with the explicit blessing of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, a half-dozen Republican-dominated legislatures in states that swing blue in presidential elections have advanced proposals to abandon the winner-take-all standard in the Electoral College. These states would instead apportion electoral votes by the favored candidate of each congressional district – a method currently practiced by only two, small, homogenous states, Maine and Nebraska. Thanks to the GOP's gerrymandering, such a change would all but guarantee that a Democratic presidential candidate in a big, diverse state like Michigan would lose the split of electoral votes even if he or she won in a popular landslide.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Inside the Republican Suicide Machine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You'd see a massive shift of electoral votes," a senior Republican official who backed the proposal told the National Journal, emphasizing that the change would be much less work than persuading a majority of voters to back the GOP candidate: "There's no kind of?.?.?.?outreach," the official said, "that can grab us those electoral votes that quickly." In September, a Republican lawmaker introduced a bill to implement the scheme in the biggest swing-state prize in the land, Florida. Had it been in place in each of the states that have introduced the plan – including Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – Mitt Romney would be president, despite receiving 5 million fewer votes than Obama.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a true democracy, citizens could depend on the courts to overturn partisan schemes to subvert the will of the governed. But here, too, Republicans are winning. In July, a three-judge panel struck down a challenge to North Carolina's redistricting, and a federal-court challenge of the filibuster was also recently struck down.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Seven Most Extreme State Laws Proposed This Year</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, activist judges at the highest level are abetting the GOP's efforts to disenfranchise millions of Americans of color. Since the 1960s, Southern states with a history of voter suppression have had to submit proposed changes in elections law to a review by the federal government. The 2011 redistricting map drawn by the Republican state legislature in Texas was thrown out by a three-judge federal panel because it had been "enacted with discriminatory purpose." (Texas had gained four House seats because of population growth that was 90 percent minority. In the legislature's map, three of the four new districts were gerrymandered to favor Anglo Republicans.) Federal judges also struck down Texas' voter-ID law, the most restrictive in the nation, for imposing "unforgiving burdens" on "racial minorities?.?.?.?disproportionately likely to live in poverty."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But this summer, the Supreme Court not only vacated these Texas rulings, it gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, ending federal "preclearance" of election law in the old Confederacy. Texas lawmakers continue to wrangle over redistricting. But the state's voter-ID law went into effect this October. Those without state-issued photo ID – gun permits are valid, college IDs are not – can seek out a special voting card, but must first pay a de facto poll tax of $22 to secure a birth certificate and then travel as far as 250 miles to apply at a state motor-vehicle office. As many as 1.4 million Texas voters are currently barred from polls because they lack the required identification. At last count, the state had issued exactly 41 special voter-ID cards.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Such trickery has come to define the GOP's approach to federal elections where Republicans can no longer prevail in a fair fight. Strict voter-ID laws have now been passed in more than a dozen states, most recently North Carolina. There, a county-­level Republican Party Executive Committee member named Don Yelton recently committed a gaffe of truth-telling, admitting on national television that the driving purpose of the state's voter-ID law is to "kick the Democrats in the butt." If the law disenfranchises college students without photo IDs or "hurts a bunch of lazy blacks," Yelton said, "so be it."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Rising Cost of Higher Education</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The bad news is that the Republican death grip on our political process could get even worse. The midterm electorate tends to be older and whiter than in presidential years; no one should be shocked to see the GOP expand its advantage in the House in 2014, or even make a run at the Senate. The good news is that the future is more powerful than Republican dirty tricks. The GOP may have postponed its day of reckoning at the hands of a younger, browner, queerer electorate – "They're holding back the tides," says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics – but sooner or later, they're going to get swamped.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This story is from the November 21st, 2013 issue of Rolling Stone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-republicans-rig-the-game-20131111#ixzz3Vd8TLvvM&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As President Barack Obama was being inaugurated, Virginia House Republicans took advantage of a momentary absence of legislators to ram through a partisan redistricting. One Democratic legislator went along with their disgusting heist–and now she’s got a primary challenger in Evandra Thompson.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Inert and Pathetic Federal Government Incapable of Transitioning to Renewable Economy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steven Cohen | August 5, 2014&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My Columbia University colleagues Bill Eimicke and Alison Miller recently joined me in authoring a new book entitled Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to A Cleaner Economy. If all goes well, Jossey-Bass publishers will release the book in early 2015. Our work focuses on how American government at the federal, state and local levels can work with the private sector to speed up what I see as the inevitable transition to a renewable economy. While there is a lot of action at the state and local level to promote sustainability, the federal government remains inert and pathetic. At the federal level, we see an ossified executive branch that cannot build a website or manage health care for veterans, a legislative branch that has forgotten how to compromise and legislate, and a Supreme Court willing to equate money with political speech.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are several trends in American politics that lead away from democracy, moderate demands for change and inhibit building a federal government capable of working with the private sector to bring about a sustainable economy. These include unlimited money in politics, gerrymandered congressional districts and the replacement of fact-checked media with the fact-challenged media environment we now experience.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We are starting to see the long-term impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to considerpolitical cash donations a protected form of speech. This has magnified the impact of money in politics. In turn, this puts emerging high-tech, but capital-needy, companies at a disadvantage in the competition with old, capital-rich firms attempting to influence rules governing production, finance and taxation. The increased role of money in politics tilts the economy away from creative and sustainability-oriented companies toward old-line and extractive industries such as the fossil fuel business. While the old businesses will eventually give way to the new, the enhanced impact of money in politics will slow down the process.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The need for money also stimulates more moderate politicians on both the left and the right to move away from the political center—where deal making is possible—to the extremes. They need to do this to “activate the base” and win primary challenges. Money is only one of the issues here. National political groups gain media attention and attract money when they articulate extreme positions. And, as now former Rep. Eric Cantor can tell you, turnout in primaries is quite low and unpredictable, and so money is only one part of the equation. The other part is the fact-free media. Political communication has always had a strong dose of propaganda—it goes with the territory—but the weird, endless onslaught of misleading political ads and partisan commentary we see today is relentless and unavoidable. Character assassination, misrepresentation of positions and deception is now the norm as political consultants urge their candidates to “define the opposition before they define you.” Normal, rational people are avoiding electoral politics as never before.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is true that, overall, Democrats win more votes in congressional elections than Republicans, but that Republicans these days are winning more seats. Gerrymandering is part of the problem, but as Sean Trende wrote in his incisive analysis in Real Clear Politics:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the most striking aspects of the 2012 elections is that Republicans won their third-largest House majority since the late 1920s while losing the popular vote. Pundits have largely coalesced around a single explanation for this: GOP control of redistricting. There’s no doubt that the party maximized its advantage by controlling redistricting in a majority of House districts, but that wasn’t really the culprit. The Democrats’ minority status has more to do with their “new coalition,” which might be good for winning presidential elections but is ill-suited for controlling the House....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://ecowatch.com/2014/08/05/fed-government-incapable-transition-to-renewable-economy/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the November election, a million more Americans voted for Democrats seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives than Republicans. But that popular vote advantage did not result in control of the chamber. Instead, despite getting fewer votes, Republicans have maintained a commanding control of the House. Such a disparity has happened only three times in the last century.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Here’s a chart comparing 2010 and 2012.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Analysts and others have identified redistricting as a key to the disparity. Republicans had a years-long strategy of winning state houses in order to control each state's once-a-decade redistricting process. (Confused about redistricting? Check out our song.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican strategist Karl Rove laid out the approach in a Wall Street Journal column in early 2010 headlined "He who controls redistricting can control Congress."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The approach paid off. In 2010 state races, Republicans picked up 675 legislative seats, gaining complete control of 12 state legislatures. As a result, the GOP oversaw redrawing of lines for four times as many congressional districts as Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How did they dominate redistricting? A ProPublica investigation has found that the GOP relied on opaque nonprofits funded by dark money, supposedly nonpartisan campaign outfits, and millions in corporate donations to achieve Republican-friendly maps throughout the country. Two tobacco giants, Altria and Reynolds, each pitched in more than $1 million to the main Republican redistricting group, as did Rove's super PAC, American Crossroads; Walmart and the pharmaceutical industry also contributed. Other donors, who gave to the nonprofits Republicans created, may never have to be disclosed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While many observers have noted that mega-donors like Sheldon Adelson backed losing candidates, a close look at the Republicans' effort on redistricting suggests something else: The hundreds of millions spent this year on presidential TV ads may not have hit the mark, but the relatively modest sums funneled to redistricting paid off handsomely.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Where Democrats were in control, they drew gerrymandered maps just like Republicans. They also had their own secretive redistricting funding. (Last year, we detailed how Democrats in California worked to undermine the state's attempt at non-partisan redistricting.) But Democrats got outspent 3-to-1 and did not prioritize winning state legislatures. They also faced a Republican surge in 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Exactly how the Republican effort worked has been shrouded in mystery until now. But depositions and other documents in a little-noticed lawsuit in North Carolina offer an exceptionally detailed picture of Republicans' tactics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents show that national Republican operatives, funded by dark money groups, drew the crucial lines which packed as many Democrats as possible into three congressional districts. The result: the state's congressional delegation flipped from 7-6 Democratic to 9-4 in favor of Republicans. The combination of party operatives, cash and secrecy also existed in other states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Redistricting is supposed to protect the fundamental principle of one-person-one-vote. As demographics change, lines are shifted to make sure everyone is equally represented and to give communities a voice. In order for Republicans to win in North Carolina, they undermined the votes of Democrats, especially African-Americans. (Party leaders in North Carolina say they were simply complying with federal voting laws.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The strategy began in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Republicans poured money into local races in North Carolina and elsewhere. It was an efficient approach. While congressional races routinely cost millions, a few thousand dollars can swing a campaign for a seat in the state legislature</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican effort to influence redistricting overall was spearheaded by a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has existed since 2002. For most of that time, it was primarily a vehicle for donors like health care and tobacco companies to influence state legislatures, key battlegrounds for regulations that affect corporate America. Its focus changed in 2010 when Ed Gillespie, former counselor to President George W. Bush, was named chairman. His main project: redistricting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soon after Gillespie took over, the RSLC announced an effort to influence state races throughout the country, the Redistricting Majority Project, or REDMAP. Fundraising soared. The group raised $30 million in 2010, by far its best year. (Its Democratic counterpart raised roughly $10 million.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The RSLC is organized as a type of political group that can take in unlimited corporate donations. It must disclose its contributors. But that doesn't mean it's always possible to trace the origins of the money.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Along with Walmart and tobacco companies, the RSLC's largest funders in 2010 were the Chamber of Commerce and American Justice Partnership, which gave a combined $6.5 million. Those two groups raise money from corporations and others but don't have to disclose their donors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the 2010 North Carolina legislative elections heated up, the RSLC jumped into local races. But the way they made contributions kept their involvement away from the attention of state voters. Rather than running campaign ads under its own name, the RSLC distributed money to a newly formed local nonprofit. The RSLC declined to comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The RSLC gave $1.25 million to its vehicle of choice Real Jobs NC. The group calls itself a "non-partisan organization that believes we need to return to a reliance on the free enterprise system that made our country great for real answers." It was started in 2010 and got a hefty $200,000 boost from dollar store magnate and Republican supporter Art Pope, although Pope denies his donation was related to redistricting or REDMAP.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real Jobs NC produced ads and mailers slamming more than 20 state Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Steve Goss … nice guy," intoned the voiceover in one such ad in North Carolina, attacking then-Democratic State Senator Goss. "Too bad he's voting with the Raleigh liberals over hometown conservatives."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goss lost, and Democrats lost control of North Carolina's General Assembly for the first time in a century. The pattern repeated itself across the country.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Twenty legislative bodies which were previously split or under Democratic control are now under Republican control," said a triumphant RSLC REDMAP post-election analysis, highlighting its spending in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, among other states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next step for Republicans was to draw district maps, which can be expensive. The maps require expertise, extensive data and sophisticated software. Skillful map drawers can make even the most partisan gerrymander look reasonable.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To fund the work, the Republican State Leadership Committee used its previously dormant nonprofit arm, the State Government Leadership Foundation. Such dark money groups are increasingly popular because they are allowed to keep secret the identity of their donors. Federal tax law permits them to do this as long as they pledge that politics is not their primary focus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flush with anonymous donors' cash, the Foundation paid $166,000 to hire the GOP's pre-eminent redistricting experts, according to tax documents. The team leader was Tom Hofeller, architect of Republican-friendly maps going back decades.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Our team would be happy to assist in drawing proposed maps, interpreting data, or providing advice," wrote Chris Jankowski, the head of both the RSLC and State Government Leadership Foundation, in a&nbsp; &nbsp;of introduction to North Carolina legislators. The letter was disclosed as part of the North Carolina lawsuit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are engaged in a number of states and believe we are playing a meaningful role in helping draw fair and legal lines that will allow us to run competitive elections in 2012 and in future cycles," Jankowski added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The same letter emphasized that the Republican redistricting push was being funded through its dark money nonprofit: "The entirety of this effort will be paid for using non-federal dollars through our 501c(4) organization."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jankowski, representing both the RSLC and the Foundation, declined to comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because Hofeller's team was paid with dark money and the redistricting process is so secretive, it is hard to know the full extent of its activities. In Wisconsin, the team provided technical assistance to an aide to Rep. Paul Ryan as he drew new districts that favored Republicans. In Missouri, Hofeller was the sole witness called by attorneys representing the Republican legislators who drew the maps there.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the case of North Carolina, Hofeller made his first trip to Raleigh on Feb. 1, 2011, even before final state Census data had been released, the first of 10 trips that year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From then on, two parallel redistricting processes unfolded in the state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through the spring and summer, legislators in charge of redistricting traveled the state holding public meetings at local colleges, soliciting comment and proposed maps from citizens — though the Republicans on the committee would not produce draft maps themselves.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are not here to answer questions. We are not here drawing maps," state Senate redistricting committee chairman Bob Rucho told the crowd at a hearing in Durham. "What we are here for is to basically hear your thoughts and dreams about redistricting."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But that input had little influence on the districts that were eventually drawn.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead, the real maps were being produced behind the scenes by a team that based its operations at Republican Party headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. Armed with advanced mapping software, Hofeller and others crafted districts that would virtually guarantee big gains for the party.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hofeller did not attend or read transcripts of any of the public meetings, according to his deposition. Hofeller did not respond to requests for comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A mysterious state dark money nonprofit that sprung up just in time for the process, called Fair and Legal Redistricting for North Carolina, hired a technician to operate the mapping workstation day-to-day, and another Republican mapping expert. The group did not respond to our requests for comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State-based nonprofits have been a vehicle for Republicans to funnel anonymous money into their map-drawing operations in a number of states, including self-proclaimed nonpartisan groups in Michigan and Minnesota.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican state legislators tasked with redistricting frequently visited and consulted with the mapping team, according to depositions. Even Art Pope, the most influential conservative donor in the state, was appointed "co-counsel" to the legislative leadership and allowed in the room to give direct instructions to the technician.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We worked together at the workstation," said Joel Raupe, the technical expert paid by Fair and Legal Redistricting, in a deposition. "He sat next to me."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pope, who is a lawyer but does not actively practice, was made co-counsel to the state legislature, offering his services pro bono. Now, because he was technically a legal adviser to the state, he says any information about his involvement in the redistricting is privileged.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(The New Yorker had a sweeping profile of Pope last year, detailing how he has used his fortune to dominate North Carolina politics.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">North Carolina's Republican incumbents in Congress pushed for a so-called "10-3 map," the majority they hoped to win in the state's delegation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hofeller, the mapping expert, delivered. His maps kept most of the districts from being competitive — or even remotely winnable — for Democratic candidates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A key part of the redistricting strategy was to push minority voters into three districts. Republicans insisted their maps were "fair and legal," necessary to conform to laws protecting minority voting rights, although according to a well-known voting rights attorney, the opposite is true.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But federal voting rights law "doesn't require a jurisdiction to pack blacks in districts," said Laughlin McDonald, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project. "If you tried to pack minority voters into a district, that would arguably be a violation."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In two of those districts, African-American incumbents been already been winning by large margins for years. Republicans' maps added yet more African-Americans to the districts, what's known in redistricting parlance as "packing." As Hofeller wrote in an email about one of the districts, the plan was to "incorporate all the significant concentrations of minority voters in the northeast into the first district."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A third district was 120-mile long, and sea monkey-shaped, connecting pockets of African-Americans from three different, distant cities. Republicans justified it on the basis of a common media market.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The maps were designed to "segregate African-American voters in three districts and concede those districts to the Democrats," says Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan public interest group that joined the lawsuit against the new maps.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2012, Democrats won the three districts by more than 70 percent of the vote. Another effect: the surrounding districts were much more Republican.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rucho and other Republican legislators had presented the maps as advantageous to Democrats. Indeed, registered Democrats actually outnumbered registered Republicans in seven additional districts beyond those that were clearly slated to be Democratic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emails show Republicans decided to make that fact a major talking point.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the stat was misleading, as the Republicans' own data indicates. An internal analysis of one of Hofeller's later drafts (code name "Blue Horizon 3") obtained by ProPublica shows that those seven allegedly "competitive" districts would have been landslide wins for John McCain in 2008, and for Republican Senator Richard Burr in 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The carefully drawn maps worked. In this year's elections, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina won 50.6 percent of the total vote. But the state's House delegation now has nine Republicans and just four Democrats. One of the Democrats won by just a few hundred voters, despite the fact that his newly drawn district skewed heavily Republican and that his own home had been drawn out of it. North Carolina's delegation before the election had seven Democrats and six Republicans</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to his pay from national Republican groups, invoices show Hofeller billed North Carolina taxpayers $77,000 for his services.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican maps are still under threat by suits filed by Democrats and the NAACP. The lawsuits are headed to the state Supreme Court. But a flood of contributions tied to the RSLC have lowered the risk of the maps' being overturned.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While judicial elections in North Carolina are nominally nonpartisan, it was common knowledge that Republicans held a 4-3 majority on the court. One of those Republican incumbents was facing a tough challenge in 2012, potentially throwing the whole redistricting result in jeopardy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justice Paul Newby was running for re-election against appellate judge Sam Ervin IV, grandson of the famous North Carolina senator who investigated Watergate. With a few weeks left until the November election, Newby was trailing Ervin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But then, in the final stretch, Newby was the beneficiary of a flood of late spending that can be traced back to the Republican State Leadership Committee.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Once again the contributions were funneled through homegrown groups. With only a few weeks to go, the RSLC gave more than $1.1 million to a group called Justice for All NC. Campaign finance filings show Justice for All NC in turn gave nearly $1.5 million to a super PAC running pro-Newby ads, the NC Judicial Coalition.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the money spent by the super PAC went to pay for hundreds of airings of a jingle ad featuring lines like, "Paul Newby / Justice tough but fair / Paul Newby / Criminals best beware" set to infectious banjo music.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The spending didn't end there: and Pope's fingerprints were also on the race. Two dark money groups affiliated with Pope — the state-based Civitas Action and Americans for Prosperity — spent another $300,000 on radio ads and mailers supporting Newby. Pope's company also gave to the RSLC in the run-up to this fall's elections.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pope says he gave money to Americans for Prosperity for years before the judicial race even came up, and that he was not involved in the decision to run pro-Newby ads.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm Republican, I support Republican groups," Pope said. "But just because you support something doesn't mean you're responsible for all they do."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was an unusually large amount of outside spending for a judicial race. The outside pro-Newby groups had spent more on the race than the two campaigns combined.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the end, Newby eked out a 52-48 victory, preserving the court's Republican majority.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the groups contesting the maps called for Newby to recuse himself from redistricting litigation, lawyers for Republican legislators argued that because the campaign ads were paid for by "independent" groups, they did not jeopardize Newby's impartiality.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, the state Supreme Court rejected the motion for Newby to recuse himself.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I've got no control over who contributes to an ad. I have no control over who endorses me," Newby — who did not respond to a request for comment — told a local TV station on the eve of the election. "You've got to put your blinders on like lady justice."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.prwatch.org/node/12070</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Creatures of the Dark: Wisconsin GOP Caught Deleting Records, Again</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Brendan Fischer [1] — April 23, 2013 - 7:13am</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Topics: Democracy [2], Politics [3]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Projects: ALEC Exposed [4], Wisconsin Protests [5]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[6]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New federal court filings allege that hundreds of thousands of Republican redistricting files in Wisconsin were deleted last year, in defiance of court orders to turn over all documents. The deletions fit into a pattern of the Wisconsin GOP covering their tracks and could result in sanctions for the attorneys or individuals involved in deleting the files.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the April 18 court [7] filings [8], a forensic analysis of computers used during redistricting indicates multiple files were deleted just after Republicans were instructed to turn them over to Democrats -- but before they had actually done so.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In January 2012, after the three-judge federal panel hearing a Democratic challenge to the redistricting maps ordered Republicans to produce all redistricting-related records, someone with the user name of an aide to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald logged-on to GOP computers and deleted files and folders. In July, just after Democrats took control of the state senate and asked for the entire redistricting folder, another Fitzgerald aide's login was used to delete hundreds of thousands of records.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though the legal challenge to the redistricting maps was resolved over a year ago, mounting evidence of deleted files and possible misrepresentation by Republicans and their attorneys led the court to order a forensic analysis of the computers to recover deletions and assess the level of wrongdoing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The entire redistricting process has been marked by an unprecedented level of secrecy. And the stakes are high for the Republican legislature's law firm, Michael Best & Friedrich, whose lawyers have been sharply criticized by the court for their handling of the case. Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus is a partner [9] at the Wisconsin-based firm, though he is currently on leave while he leads the RNC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Shameful" and "Needlessly Secret" Redistricting Kept Public in Dark</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With Republicans in charge of the Assembly, Senate, and Governor's mansion after the 2010 election, they had the legislative majority to gerrymander congressional maps [10] to their party's benefit, and did so in the offices of Michael Best & Friedrich, apparently to try and keep the process protected under attorney-client privilege. The maps were promptly challenged by immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, and the federal court hearing the case sharply criticized [10] Republican lawmakers for conducting redistricting under a veil of secrecy and shutting the public out of the process, calling it "shameful," "sharply partisan," and "needlessly secret."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In December 2011, the court demanded that Republicans turn over nearly all documents related to redistricting, but the GOP and their lawyers at Michael Best & Friedrich continued working to keep the material confidential -- leading the court to fine the attorneys $17,500 in fees for filing frivolous motions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the federal court ruled on Wisconsin's maps in February of 2012, the Center for Media and Democracy (publishers of PRwatch.org) revealed [11] that the American Legislative Exchange Council [12] (ALEC) had invited [11] legislators to redistricting conference calls [13], based on emails [11] obtained through earlier open records requests to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The emails CMD obtained were not released to the lawyers challenging the maps. But they should have been. This failure to release all redistricting-related documents opened a new round [14] of legal wrangling, with the court questioning what other documents Republican legislators and their lawyers had kept secret. Additional documents that should have been produced were found when Democrats took control of the state senate after the July 2012 recall elections and obtained access to the Republican redistricting file.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In February of 2013, the Court ordered Republicans [15] to turn over computers used in redistricting for expert forensic analysis, because judges found that "fraud, misrepresentation, or misconduct" likely occurred.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the April 18 court [7] filings [8], the analysis so far indicates files were deleted on at least two separate occasions: on January 6, "just after the Court’s order [to turn over the documents] and just before the legislature’s supplemental production," and on July 25, which was one week "after majority control of the state senate shifted [and] the new majority leader requested Michael Best’s redistricting file," and one week before "Michael Best turned over its redistricting file to the new senate majority leader."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fitzgerald ORR response</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other contexts, CMD has encountered patterns [16] of Republican legislators deleting files, thanks to a loophole in the state open records law exempting legislators from records retention rules that apply to all other government officials. Sen. Fitzgerald -- whose office is at the center of the redistricting litigation -- in the past had released hundreds of documents in response to requests for ALEC-related records, but is now issuing replies like this one [17] to a records request for ALEC communications: "If we did receive materials (from ALEC), either electronically or via mail, those materials were discarded upon receipt."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taxpayer Costs of Defending Secrecy Continue to Rise</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recent court filings show that over $100,000 has been spent on the initial stages of the forensic analysis, largely because of the complexity of reconstructing deleted files. Wiping software that could have been used to remove electronic data and hide deleted files had been installed on some hard drives, further complicating the reconstruction. According to the court filings [7], two-thirds of the costs moving forward will be incurred in locating and reconstructing the deleted files. "Had data not been deleted, the investigation could proceed at a fraction of the cost," the filings state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Plaintiffs are seeking to have the legislature -- or its attorneys -- cover the cost of the examination before continuing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So far, taxpayers have been on the hook for at least $2 million in legal fees to defend the GOP's "shameful" redistricting effort, and costs will likely continue to rise.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phone: 608-260-9713 • Fax: 608-260-9714</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Source URL: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/04/12070/creatures-dark-wisconsin-gop-caught-deleting-records-again</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Links:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35275/brendan-fischer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[2] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/democracy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[3] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[4] http://www.prwatch.org/projects/alec-exposed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[5] http://www.prwatch.org/projects/wisconsin-protests</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[6] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2013%2F04%2F12070%2Fcreatures-dark-wisconsin-gop-caught-deleting-records-again&linkname=Creatures%20of%20the%20Dark%3A%20Wisconsin%20GOP%20Caught%20Deleting%20Records%2C%20Again</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[7] http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/130418Redist.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[8] http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/130418Redist2.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[9] http://www.michaelbest.com/rrpriebus/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[10] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/02/11968/wisconsins-shameful-gerrymander-2012</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[11] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11321/shameful-wi-redistricting-awaits-final-ruling</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[12] http://www.ALECexposed.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[13] http://www.prwatch.org/files/redistricting.jpg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[14] http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/documents-in-redistricting-case-withheld-plaintiff-says-4p4lo26-143543706.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[15] http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/federal-panel-opens-gop-computers-in-wisconsin-redistricting-case-mv8u03q-193105171.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[16] http://wisfoic.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=241:september-lawmakers-exploit-loophole-to-hide-alec-ties-&catid=57:2012-columns&Itemid=95</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[17] http://www.prwatch.org/files/Fitzgerald_response.pdf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the November election, a million more Americans voted for Democrats seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives than Republicans. But that popular vote advantage did not result in control of the chamber. Instead, despite getting fewer votes, Republicans have maintained a commanding control of the House. Such a disparity has happened only three times in the last century.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Here’s a chart comparing 2010 and 2012.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Analysts and others have identified redistricting as a key to the disparity. Republicans had a years-long strategy of winning state houses in order to control each state's once-a-decade redistricting process. (Confused about redistricting? Check out our song.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican strategist Karl Rove laid out the approach in a Wall Street Journal column in early 2010 headlined "He who controls redistricting can control Congress."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The approach paid off. In 2010 state races, Republicans picked up 675 legislative seats, gaining complete control of 12 state legislatures. As a result, the GOP oversaw redrawing of lines for four times as many congressional districts as Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How did they dominate redistricting? A ProPublica investigation has found that the GOP relied on opaque nonprofits funded by dark money, supposedly nonpartisan campaign outfits, and millions in corporate donations to achieve Republican-friendly maps throughout the country. Two tobacco giants, Altria and Reynolds, each pitched in more than $1 million to the main Republican redistricting group, as did Rove's super PAC, American Crossroads; Walmart and the pharmaceutical industry also contributed. Other donors, who gave to the nonprofits Republicans created, may never have to be disclosed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While many observers have noted that mega-donors like Sheldon Adelson backed losing candidates, a close look at the Republicans' effort on redistricting suggests something else: The hundreds of millions spent this year on presidential TV ads may not have hit the mark, but the relatively modest sums funneled to redistricting paid off handsomely.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Where Democrats were in control, they drew gerrymandered maps just like Republicans. They also had their own secretive redistricting funding. (Last year, we detailed how Democrats in California worked to undermine the state's attempt at non-partisan redistricting.) But Democrats got outspent 3-to-1 and did not prioritize winning state legislatures. They also faced a Republican surge in 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Exactly how the Republican effort worked has been shrouded in mystery until now. But depositions and other documents in a little-noticed lawsuit in North Carolina offer an exceptionally detailed picture of Republicans' tactics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents show that national Republican operatives, funded by dark money groups, drew the crucial lines which packed as many Democrats as possible into three congressional districts. The result: the state's congressional delegation flipped from 7-6 Democratic to 9-4 in favor of Republicans. The combination of party operatives, cash and secrecy also existed in other states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Redistricting is supposed to protect the fundamental principle of one-person-one-vote. As demographics change, lines are shifted to make sure everyone is equally represented and to give communities a voice. In order for Republicans to win in North Carolina, they undermined the votes of Democrats, especially African-Americans. (Party leaders in North Carolina say they were simply complying with federal voting laws.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The strategy began in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Republicans poured money into local races in North Carolina and elsewhere. It was an efficient approach. While congressional races routinely cost millions, a few thousand dollars can swing a campaign for a seat in the state legislature</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican effort to influence redistricting overall was spearheaded by a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has existed since 2002. For most of that time, it was primarily a vehicle for donors like health care and tobacco companies to influence state legislatures, key battlegrounds for regulations that affect corporate America. Its focus changed in 2010 when Ed Gillespie, former counselor to President George W. Bush, was named chairman. His main project: redistricting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soon after Gillespie took over, the RSLC announced an effort to influence state races throughout the country, the Redistricting Majority Project, or REDMAP. Fundraising soared. The group raised $30 million in 2010, by far its best year. (Its Democratic counterpart raised roughly $10 million.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The RSLC is organized as a type of political group that can take in unlimited corporate donations. It must disclose its contributors. But that doesn't mean it's always possible to trace the origins of the money.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Along with Walmart and tobacco companies, the RSLC's largest funders in 2010 were the Chamber of Commerce and American Justice Partnership, which gave a combined $6.5 million. Those two groups raise money from corporations and others but don't have to disclose their donors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the 2010 North Carolina legislative elections heated up, the RSLC jumped into local races. But the way they made contributions kept their involvement away from the attention of state voters. Rather than running campaign ads under its own name, the RSLC distributed money to a newly formed local nonprofit. The RSLC declined to comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The RSLC gave $1.25 million to its vehicle of choice Real Jobs NC. The group calls itself a "non-partisan organization that believes we need to return to a reliance on the free enterprise system that made our country great for real answers." It was started in 2010 and got a hefty $200,000 boost from dollar store magnate and Republican supporter Art Pope, although Pope denies his donation was related to redistricting or REDMAP.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Real Jobs NC produced ads and mailers slamming more than 20 state Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Steve Goss … nice guy," intoned the voiceover in one such ad in North Carolina, attacking then-Democratic State Senator Goss. "Too bad he's voting with the Raleigh liberals over hometown conservatives."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goss lost, and Democrats lost control of North Carolina's General Assembly for the first time in a century. The pattern repeated itself across the country.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Twenty legislative bodies which were previously split or under Democratic control are now under Republican control," said a triumphant RSLC REDMAP post-election analysis, highlighting its spending in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, among other states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next step for Republicans was to draw district maps, which can be expensive. The maps require expertise, extensive data and sophisticated software. Skillful map drawers can make even the most partisan gerrymander look reasonable.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To fund the work, the Republican State Leadership Committee used its previously dormant nonprofit arm, the State Government Leadership Foundation. Such dark money groups are increasingly popular because they are allowed to keep secret the identity of their donors. Federal tax law permits them to do this as long as they pledge that politics is not their primary focus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flush with anonymous donors' cash, the Foundation paid $166,000 to hire the GOP's pre-eminent redistricting experts, according to tax documents. The team leader was Tom Hofeller, architect of Republican-friendly maps going back decades.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Our team would be happy to assist in drawing proposed maps, interpreting data, or providing advice," wrote Chris Jankowski, the head of both the RSLC and State Government Leadership Foundation, in a&nbsp; &nbsp;of introduction to North Carolina legislators. The letter was disclosed as part of the North Carolina lawsuit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are engaged in a number of states and believe we are playing a meaningful role in helping draw fair and legal lines that will allow us to run competitive elections in 2012 and in future cycles," Jankowski added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The same letter emphasized that the Republican redistricting push was being funded through its dark money nonprofit: "The entirety of this effort will be paid for using non-federal dollars through our 501c(4) organization."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jankowski, representing both the RSLC and the Foundation, declined to comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because Hofeller's team was paid with dark money and the redistricting process is so secretive, it is hard to know the full extent of its activities. In Wisconsin, the team provided technical assistance to an aide to Rep. Paul Ryan as he drew new districts that favored Republicans. In Missouri, Hofeller was the sole witness called by attorneys representing the Republican legislators who drew the maps there.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the case of North Carolina, Hofeller made his first trip to Raleigh on Feb. 1, 2011, even before final state Census data had been released, the first of 10 trips that year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From then on, two parallel redistricting processes unfolded in the state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through the spring and summer, legislators in charge of redistricting traveled the state holding public meetings at local colleges, soliciting comment and proposed maps from citizens — though the Republicans on the committee would not produce draft maps themselves.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are not here to answer questions. We are not here drawing maps," state Senate redistricting committee chairman Bob Rucho told the crowd at a hearing in Durham. "What we are here for is to basically hear your thoughts and dreams about redistricting."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But that input had little influence on the districts that were eventually drawn.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead, the real maps were being produced behind the scenes by a team that based its operations at Republican Party headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. Armed with advanced mapping software, Hofeller and others crafted districts that would virtually guarantee big gains for the party.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hofeller did not attend or read transcripts of any of the public meetings, according to his deposition. Hofeller did not respond to requests for comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A mysterious state dark money nonprofit that sprung up just in time for the process, called Fair and Legal Redistricting for North Carolina, hired a technician to operate the mapping workstation day-to-day, and another Republican mapping expert. The group did not respond to our requests for comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State-based nonprofits have been a vehicle for Republicans to funnel anonymous money into their map-drawing operations in a number of states, including self-proclaimed nonpartisan groups in Michigan and Minnesota.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican state legislators tasked with redistricting frequently visited and consulted with the mapping team, according to depositions. Even Art Pope, the most influential conservative donor in the state, was appointed "co-counsel" to the legislative leadership and allowed in the room to give direct instructions to the technician.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We worked together at the workstation," said Joel Raupe, the technical expert paid by Fair and Legal Redistricting, in a deposition. "He sat next to me."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pope, who is a lawyer but does not actively practice, was made co-counsel to the state legislature, offering his services pro bono. Now, because he was technically a legal adviser to the state, he says any information about his involvement in the redistricting is privileged.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(The New Yorker had a sweeping profile of Pope last year, detailing how he has used his fortune to dominate North Carolina politics.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">North Carolina's Republican incumbents in Congress pushed for a so-called "10-3 map," the majority they hoped to win in the state's delegation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hofeller, the mapping expert, delivered. His maps kept most of the districts from being competitive — or even remotely winnable — for Democratic candidates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A key part of the redistricting strategy was to push minority voters into three districts. Republicans insisted their maps were "fair and legal," necessary to conform to laws protecting minority voting rights, although according to a well-known voting rights attorney, the opposite is true.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But federal voting rights law "doesn't require a jurisdiction to pack blacks in districts," said Laughlin McDonald, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project. "If you tried to pack minority voters into a district, that would arguably be a violation."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In two of those districts, African-American incumbents been already been winning by large margins for years. Republicans' maps added yet more African-Americans to the districts, what's known in redistricting parlance as "packing." As Hofeller wrote in an email about one of the districts, the plan was to "incorporate all the significant concentrations of minority voters in the northeast into the first district."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A third district was 120-mile long, and sea monkey-shaped, connecting pockets of African-Americans from three different, distant cities. Republicans justified it on the basis of a common media market.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The maps were designed to "segregate African-American voters in three districts and concede those districts to the Democrats," says Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan public interest group that joined the lawsuit against the new maps.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2012, Democrats won the three districts by more than 70 percent of the vote. Another effect: the surrounding districts were much more Republican.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rucho and other Republican legislators had presented the maps as advantageous to Democrats. Indeed, registered Democrats actually outnumbered registered Republicans in seven additional districts beyond those that were clearly slated to be Democratic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emails show Republicans decided to make that fact a major talking point.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the stat was misleading, as the Republicans' own data indicates. An internal analysis of one of Hofeller's later drafts (code name "Blue Horizon 3") obtained by ProPublica shows that those seven allegedly "competitive" districts would have been landslide wins for John McCain in 2008, and for Republican Senator Richard Burr in 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The carefully drawn maps worked. In this year's elections, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina won 50.6 percent of the total vote. But the state's House delegation now has nine Republicans and just four Democrats. One of the Democrats won by just a few hundred voters, despite the fact that his newly drawn district skewed heavily Republican and that his own home had been drawn out of it. North Carolina's delegation before the election had seven Democrats and six Republicans</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to his pay from national Republican groups, invoices show Hofeller billed North Carolina taxpayers $77,000 for his services.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican maps are still under threat by suits filed by Democrats and the NAACP. The lawsuits are headed to the state Supreme Court. But a flood of contributions tied to the RSLC have lowered the risk of the maps' being overturned.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While judicial elections in North Carolina are nominally nonpartisan, it was common knowledge that Republicans held a 4-3 majority on the court. One of those Republican incumbents was facing a tough challenge in 2012, potentially throwing the whole redistricting result in jeopardy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justice Paul Newby was running for re-election against appellate judge Sam Ervin IV, grandson of the famous North Carolina senator who investigated Watergate. With a few weeks left until the November election, Newby was trailing Ervin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But then, in the final stretch, Newby was the beneficiary of a flood of late spending that can be traced back to the Republican State Leadership Committee.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Once again the contributions were funneled through homegrown groups. With only a few weeks to go, the RSLC gave more than $1.1 million to a group called Justice for All NC. Campaign finance filings show Justice for All NC in turn gave nearly $1.5 million to a super PAC running pro-Newby ads, the NC Judicial Coalition.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the money spent by the super PAC went to pay for hundreds of airings of a jingle ad featuring lines like, "Paul Newby / Justice tough but fair / Paul Newby / Criminals best beware" set to infectious banjo music.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The spending didn't end there: and Pope's fingerprints were also on the race. Two dark money groups affiliated with Pope — the state-based Civitas Action and Americans for Prosperity — spent another $300,000 on radio ads and mailers supporting Newby. Pope's company also gave to the RSLC in the run-up to this fall's elections.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pope says he gave money to Americans for Prosperity for years before the judicial race even came up, and that he was not involved in the decision to run pro-Newby ads.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm Republican, I support Republican groups," Pope said. "But just because you support something doesn't mean you're responsible for all they do."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was an unusually large amount of outside spending for a judicial race. The outside pro-Newby groups had spent more on the race than the two campaigns combined.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the end, Newby eked out a 52-48 victory, preserving the court's Republican majority.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the groups contesting the maps called for Newby to recuse himself from redistricting litigation, lawyers for Republican legislators argued that because the campaign ads were paid for by "independent" groups, they did not jeopardize Newby's impartiality.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, the state Supreme Court rejected the motion for Newby to recuse himself.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I've got no control over who contributes to an ad. I have no control over who endorses me," Newby — who did not respond to a request for comment — told a local TV station on the eve of the election. "You've got to put your blinders on like lady justice."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">REDMAP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">promoted to primary ~ Moderation</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">capt 619</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see gerrymandering</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">obama will take on ?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trms did several shows trying to raise red flag</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><h2 linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Controversy</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On July 3, 2018,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingham_County,Michigan" title="Ingham County, Michigan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ingham County</a>&nbsp;prosecutor Carol Siemon requested a grand jury investigation (which was never conducted) to probe the sale of multimillion-dollar property inherited by Schuette in the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Islands" title="Virgin Islands" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Virgin Islands</a>, to determine if any laws were violated. Schuette's spokesperson stated that the accusation was a "baseless attack on an attorney general with a strong ethical record".<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Schuette#cite_note-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Schuette was working to strike down a ballot initiative to eliminate partisan gerrymandering, which has gained enough signatures to be on the Michigan ballot in the November 2018 election.<sup id="cite_ref-nytimes.com_42-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Schuette#cite_note-nytimes.com-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[42]</a></sup>&nbsp;The issue went on to the state supreme court, where "Five of the seven justices were nominated or appointed by Republicans, and two of those have received financial backing from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which also happens to be one of the main funders of the opposition campaign. Both justices have refused to recuse themselves from the case."<sup id="cite_ref-nytimes.com_42-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Schuette#cite_note-nytimes.com-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[42]</a></sup>&nbsp;The court upheld the inclusion of the initiative on the ballot which was approved by voters.<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Schuette#cite_note-43" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">[43]</a></sup></font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">off bs omg</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Gov. Scott Waker Named National Finance Chairman for the National Republican Redistricting Trust</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">March 21, 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Alexandria, VA – The National Republican Redistricting Trust (NRRT) announced today that former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will serve as the group’s National Finance Chairman. In this position, Governor Walker will help lead the effort to raise the resources needed as the NRRT prepares for the next round of redistricting in 2021.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The NRRT was formed in 2017 and serves as the central resource to coordinate and collaborate with Republicans on a 50-state redistricting effort, focusing on the party’s legal and data needs ahead of the 2020 redistricting process.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Adam Kincaid, Executive Director of the NRRT, said, “Governor Walker will be a tremendous asset to the NRRT as we prepare for the next round of redistricting. There is no legal strategy the Democrats won’t try in order to litigate their way into power.&nbsp; To fight back we need Republicans like Governor Walker who believe in the future of our country and our party. When Democrats don’t win at the ballot box they are determined to sue until it’s blue.&nbsp; Governor Walker’s support and work on behalf of the NRRT will help us fight back against the Democrats’ nationwide judicial power grab.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Governor Walker said, “Republican reforms work.&nbsp; We need to make sure Republican candidates have a chance to make that case to voters across the country. To do that, we need fair legislative districts. I am honored to help lead the NRRT as we fight for fair maps in the next round of redistricting. The far left is highly organized and well-funded.&nbsp; Barack Obama and Eric Holder want to gerrymander Democrats into permanent control, so we are working to ensure that our side has the organization and resources to combat their efforts. Our reforms work, and if we have a fair chance to make our case, we win.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The purpose of the NRRT is to fight for fair, constitutional redistricting for all Americans. For more information about the NRRT, click here.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Share this:</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Related</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Scott Walker joins GOP redistricting group as finance chair</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">March 21, 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In "Eric Holder"</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">National Republican Redistricting Trust Names Mary Ellis Finnerty as Finance Director</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">February 5, 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In "Mary Ellis Finnerty"</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">NRRT On Ohio Redistricting Lawsuit: Democrats' Strategy is to Sue Until It's Blue</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">March 4, 2019</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In "Ohio"</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/gillespie-took-partisan-map-making-to-a-new-level-try-turning-that-into-a-bumper-sticker/2017/10/31/03dd5b32-ba93-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/gillespie-took-partisan-map-making-to-a-new-level-try-turning-that-into-a-bumper-sticker/2017/10/31/03dd5b32-ba93-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html</a>?utm_term=.cd0d2086a6a0</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RICHMOND — Republican Ed Gillespie has had to fend off some zingers — "Establishment Ed," "Enron Ed" — while running for governor of Virginia.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But "architect of gerrymandering"?</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That one fell flat when Democrat Ralph Northam lobbed it at Gillespie this month during their final debate. The insult seemed obscure. And Gillespie brushed it off with an attempt at humor: "In my history books, it's Elbridge Gerry who came up with gerrymandering."</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gillespie did, in fact, take partisan mapmaking to a new level, but just try turning that into a bumper sticker.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While he is better known as the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, a Washington lobbyist and a counselor to President George W. Bush, Gillespie helped pull off a stunning political coup — one that gave Republicans unprecedented muscle to reshape the nation's congressional maps to their advantage.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Right after President Barack Obama's 2008 win, Gillespie helped dispirited Republicans claw back into power one statehouse at a time.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Instead of asking donors for the big bucks needed to swing congressional races, they focused on legislative contests in certain states — those where Republicans needed to flip only a few seats to win control of the legislatures and the mapmaking that would occur after the 2010?Census.</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Named "REDMAP," the project helped the GOP win control of 22 state legislatures in 2010, paving the way for GOP gains in Congress in 2012, even as Obama won reelection.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To some, it was a triumph, a bold and perfectly legal tactic deployed in plain sight of Democrats. To others, it was an affront to democracy, the root of the no-compromise politics that's left Washington gridlocked. Or some combination of both.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow gushed over the "political genius" of the scheme</b>, even as she lamented the fate of "blindsided Democrats" all across the country.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Do you mind if I lock you in an airless vault before we leave here tonight and never let you out?" she joked in a 2015 interview with Chris Jankowski, the GOP strategist who led REDMAP with Gillespie.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;VIEW GRAPHIC&nbsp;</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Virginia general election guide</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Jankowski, now chief consultant to the Republicans running for Virginia attorney general and lieutenant governor alongside Gillespie, laughed with Maddow and said it was a "team effort." Then he tipped his hat to one person by name: Gillespie.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Republicans split over gerrymandering case headed to Supreme Court]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Their REDMAP project was efficient and effective.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"In early 2010, Gillespie and Jankowski took a PowerPoint presentation on the road," wrote David Daley, author of a book on REDMAP focused on the efforts of Gillespie, Jankowski and GOP strategist Karl Rove. "They met with Wall Street donors, oil magnates, hedge-funders, Washington lobbyists and trade associations — anyone open to an audacious, long-term play."</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"Gillespie is the rainmaker, really," Daley said in an interview with The Post. "Goes off on a year-long fundraising tour and shakes the trees and<b>&nbsp;comes up with $30?million at least.?.?.?. 'You will save hundreds of millions if you fund this instead of everything else.'?"</b></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The plan was no secret.</span>&nbsp;Rove laid it out in a 2010 Wall Street Journal commentary sub-headlined: "He who controls redistricting can control Congress."</b></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gerrymandering is gaining new attention now, as the Supreme Court considers whether extreme partisan mapmaking is constitutional. Two lawsuits over Virginia's legislative maps are pending, one before a federal three-judge panel, the other before the state Supreme Court.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former president Obama and his first attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., are leading Democrats' call for fairer maps. At an Oct.?19 rally for Northam in Richmond, Obama lamented how districts are drawn in a way that forces politicians to cater to extremes.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Ralph wants to end the practice of gerrymandering so our districts are drawn in a nonpartisan way,"&nbsp;<b>Obama said. "We shouldn't have politicians choosing their voters;</b>we should have voters choosing those who would serve them. That's one more difference between him and his opponent."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Holder, chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee,</b>&nbsp;stumped in Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Richmond on Saturday and Sunday for the Democratic ticket.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Obama’s post-presidency political focus: Redistricting]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"During the last round of national redistricting, Ed Gillespie was the chief architect of a plan to lock in political power for Republicans and lock out the voice of the voters in Virginia and states around the country," Holder wrote in a statement to The Washington Post. "Gerrymandering is a threat to our democracy. It creates districts in which the electoral outcome is predetermined for one party, effectively diminishing the voting power of citizens and providing incentives for politicians to cater to the fringes of their parties."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The winner of the Nov.?7 governor's race will control, along with Virginia's currently GOP-led General Assembly, how the state's maps are drawn after the 2020?Census.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Holder's group has donated $950,000 to the Democratic Party of Virginia this year.</b>&nbsp;Republicans say the giving shows that the Democrats are merely trying to play catch-up, not pushing for nonpartisan maps.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even with renewed focus on gerrymandering, the issue still seems arcane to many voters.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We, as voters, often don't understand the importance of redistricting and gerrymandering," Daley said. The book gets its title from a profane term for political sabotage. Its subtitle: "The true story behind the secret plan to steal America's democracy."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's a concept that put us all to sleep in civics class in high school," said Daley, former editor in chief at Salon. "But that's why the politicians have been able to exploit it — because it seems to us it's simply politics as usual, or it's boring, or it's inside baseball. It's none of those things. These district lines are the building blocks of our democracy. And when they get twisted in this way, it twists the very notion of republican democracy into something that is unrecognizable."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to questions about Gillespie's role in REDMAP, campaign spokesman David Abrams issued a statement: "Ed will closely assess proposals for reforms to Virginia's existing redistricting process. In his ten years in office, Lt.?Gov.?Northam has done nothing to eliminate partisan redistricting maps. In fact, he's voted to gerrymander his own district."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Va. redistricting deal protects incumbents and punishes challengers, critics say]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abrams is referring to Northam's vote in 2011 for a state Senate map that made his swing district more blue. It was drawn under a deal struck between leaders of the GOP-dominated House of Delegates and the state Senate, then under Democratic control. Republicans got to draw maps for the House, Democrats for the Senate.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Ralph Northam has supported nonpartisan redistricting since his first campaign in 2007, and 2011 was an attempt at bipartisan compromise," said Christina Freundlich, a Northam spokeswoman. "Ed Gillespie literally called his project REDMAP. You can't get much more blunt about gerrymandering than that."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a May interview with The Washington Post, Gillespie pushed back against the notion that REDMAP undermined democracy.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We were very successful," Gillespie said. "And there was no doubt in 2010 we put a focus on state legislatures that would have a significant impact in the redistricting process. I think it was a smart plan. No secret about it.?.?.?. I'm proud of the work that we did there, and I'm proud of the work that state legislatures are doing. You know, we have, I think, now 69 of the 99 state legislative chambers are in Republican hands, including the state House and the state Senate in Virginia."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jankowski declined to be interviewed.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both parties have long histories of gerrymandering — an ignominious tradition that goes back to Virginia's first governor.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Patrick Henry drew the boundaries of Virginia's 5th Congressional District in an unsuccessful bid to keep James Madison out of the House, said Brian Cannon, executive director of the redistricting reform group OneVirginia2021.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Modern gerrymanderers have tools that could not have been imagined by Henry in 1788 or Gerry, the Massachusetts governor Gillespie invoked in the debate, who gave partisan mapmaking its name with the salamander-shaped district he ordered up in 1812. And certain advances arrived just in time for REDMAP, which mashed up data on voting, education, income, magazine subscriptions and even consumer purchases to guide mapmaking, Cannon said.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Technology got really good, so they were able, with their gains, to exploit it better than anybody ever had before," Cannon said. "They know you vote in Republican primaries but also know you subscribe to Guns and Ammo and buy Crest."</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans first put the maps to the test in 2012. And they worked, despite Obama's reelection and Democratic victories in 69?percent of U.S. Senate elections that November. Despite the fact that Democrats won more than 1?million more votes than Republicans in House races around the country, the GOP scored a 33-seat majority in the 113th Congress.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The REDMAP group gave some of the credit to the quality of their candidates and other factors, but at the heart of it all were the maps tilted in their favor, strategists said.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"All components of a successful congressional race?.?.?. rest on the congressional district lines," the REDMAP website declared, "and this was an area where Republicans had an unquestioned advantage."</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>propubl:</b></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><div class="article" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the November election, a million more Americans&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/us/politics/redistricting-helped-republicans-hold-onto-congress.html?pagewanted=all&r=0" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">voted</a>&nbsp;for Democrats seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives than Republicans. But that popular vote advantage did not result in control of the chamber. Instead, despite getting fewer votes, Republicans have maintained a commanding control of the House. Such a disparity has happened only three times in the last century.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(<a href="http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/seats-vs-votes" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Here’s a chart comparing 2010 and 2012</a>.)</font></p></div><div class="sidebar-inject" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="callout-ad ad" id="google-callout"><div class="article"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Analysts and others have identified redistricting as a key to the disparity. Republicans had a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/us/politics/redistricting-helped-republicans-hold-onto-congress.html?ref=reapportionment&pagewanted=all" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">years-long strategy of winning state houses</a>&nbsp;in order to control each state's once-a-decade redistricting process. (Confused about redistricting? Check out our&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/video-the-redistricting-song" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">song</a>.)</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Republican strategist Karl Rove laid out the approach in a Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703862704575099670689398044.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">column</a>&nbsp;in early 2010 headlined "He who controls redistricting can control Congress."</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The approach paid off. In 2010 state races, Republicans picked up 675 legislative seats, gaining complete control of 12 state legislatures. As a result, the GOP oversaw redrawing of lines for four times as many congressional districts as Democrats.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">How did they dominate redistricting? A ProPublica investigation has found that the GOP relied on&nbsp;<b>opaque nonprofits funded by dark money,&nbsp;</b>supposedly nonpartisan campaign outfits, and millions in corporate donations to achieve Republican-friendly maps throughout the country. Two tobacco giants, Altria and Reynolds, each&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_contribs.php?cycle=2010&ein=050532524" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">pitched in</a>more than $1 million to the main Republican redistricting group, as did Rove's super PAC, American Crossroads; Walmart and the pharmaceutical industry also contributed. Other donors, who gave to the nonprofits Republicans created, may&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">never have to be disclosed</a>.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While many observers have&nbsp;<a href="http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/news/2012/11/08/15001252-money-cant-buy-happiness-or-an-election?lite" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">noted</a>&nbsp;that mega-donors like Sheldon Adelson backed losing candidates, a close look at the Republicans' effort on redistricting suggests something else: The hundreds of millions spent this year on presidential TV ads may not have hit the mark, but the relatively modest sums funneled to redistricting paid off handsomely.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Where Democrats were in control, they&nbsp;<a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/redistricting_and_congressional_control_following_the_2012_election/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">drew gerrymandered maps</a>&nbsp;just like Republicans. They also had their own secretive redistricting&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/us/politics/08elect.html?r=0" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">funding</a>. (Last year, we&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-democrats-fooled-californias-redistricting-commission" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">detailed</a>how Democrats in California worked to undermine the state's attempt at non-partisan redistricting.) But Democrats got outspent 3-to-1 and did not prioritize winning state legislatures. They also faced a Republican surge in 2010.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Exactly how the Republican effort worked has been shrouded in mystery until now. But depositions and other documents in a little-noticed lawsuit in&nbsp;<b>North Carolina&nbsp;</b>offer an exceptionally detailed picture of Republicans' tactics.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Documents show that national Republican operatives, funded by dark money groups, drew the crucial lines which packed as many Democrats as possible into three congressional districts. The result: the state's congressional delegation flipped from 7-6 Democratic to 9-4 in favor of Republicans. The combination of party operatives, cash and secrecy also existed in other states, including&nbsp;<b>Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Redistricting is supposed to protect the fundamental principle of one-person-one-vote. As demographics change, lines are shifted to make sure everyone is equally represented and to give communities a voice. In order for Republicans to win in North Carolina, they undermined the votes of Democrats, especially African-Americans. (Party leaders in North Carolina say they were simply complying with federal voting laws.)</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The strategy began in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Republicans poured money into local races in North Carolina and elsewhere. It was an efficient approach. While congressional races routinely cost millions<b>, a few thousand dollars can swing a campaign for a seat in the state legislature</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Republican effort to influence redistricting overall was&nbsp;<b>spearheaded by a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has existed since 2002</b>. For most of that time, it was primarily a vehicle for donors like health care and tobacco companies to influence state legislatures, key battlegrounds for regulations that affect corporate America<b>. Its focus changed in 2010 when Ed Gillespie, former counselor to President George W. Bush, was named chairman. His main project: redistricting.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Soon after Gillespie took over, the RSLC announced an effort to influence state races throughout the country, the Redistricting Majority Project, or&nbsp;<a href="http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/?page_id=2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">REDMAP</a>. Fundraising soared.&nbsp;<b>The group raised $30 million in 2010, by far its best year.</b>&nbsp;(Its Democratic counterpart raised roughly $10 million.)</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The RSLC is organized as a type of political group that can take in&nbsp;<b>unlimited corporate donations. It must disclose its contributors. But that doesn't mean it's always possible to trace the origins of the money.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Along with Walmart and tobacco companies, the RSLC's largest funders in 2010 were the Chamber of Commerce and&nbsp;<a href="http://americanjusticepartnership.com/about.php" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">American Justice Partnership</a>,</b>&nbsp;which gave a combined $6.5 million. Those two groups raise money from corporations and others but don't have to disclose their donors.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the 2010 North Carolina legislative elections heated up, the RSLC jumped into local races. But the way they made contributions kept their involvement away from the attention of state voters. Rather than running campaign ads under its own name, the RSLC distributed money to a newly formed local nonprofit. The RSLC declined to comment.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The RSLC gave $1.25 million to its vehicle of choice&nbsp;<a href="http://realjobsnc.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Real Jobs NC</a>. The group&nbsp;<a href="http://realjobsnc.com/about/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">calls itself</a>&nbsp;a "non-partisan organization that believes we need to return to a reliance on the free enterprise system that made our country great for real answers." It was started in 2010 and got a hefty $200,000 boost from dollar store magnate and Republican supporter Art Pope, although Pope denies his donation was related to redistricting or REDMAP.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Real Jobs NC produced ads and mailers slamming more than 20 state Democrats.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Steve Goss … nice guy," intoned the voiceover in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8t03K9nleo" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">one such ad</a>&nbsp;in North Carolina, attacking then-Democratic State Senator Goss. "Too bad he's voting with the Raleigh liberals over hometown conservatives."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Goss lost, and Democrats lost control of North Carolina's General Assembly for the first time in a century. The pattern repeated itself across the country.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Twenty legislative bodies which were previously split or under Democratic control are now under Republican control," said a triumphant RSLC REDMAP post-election<a href="http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/?p=638" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">analysis</a>, highlighting its spending in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, among other states</span>.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The next step for Republicans was to draw district maps, which can be expensive. The maps require expertise, extensive data and sophisticated software. Skillful map drawers can make even the most partisan gerrymander look reasonable.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To fund the work, the Republican State Leadership Committee used its previously dormant nonprofit arm, the State Government Leadership Foundation. Such dark money groups are&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">increasingly popular</a>&nbsp;because they are allowed to&nbsp;<b>keep secret the identity of their donors. Federal tax law permits them to do this as long as they pledge that politics is not their primary focus.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537961-state-leadership-government-foundation-2011-990#document/p1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Flush</a>&nbsp;with anonymous donors' cash, the Foundation&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537961-state-leadership-government-foundation-2011-990#document/p8" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">paid</a>&nbsp;$166,000 to&nbsp;<a href="http://rslc.com/blog/RedMap/post/Presidents_Welcome/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">hire</a>&nbsp;the GOP's pre-eminent redistricting experts, according to tax documents. The team leader was<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-league-of/309084/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Tom Hofeller</a>, architect of Republican-friendly maps going back decades.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Our team would be happy to assist in drawing proposed maps, interpreting data, or providing advice," wrote Chris Jankowski, the head of both the RSLC and State Government Leadership Foundation, in a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537408-hofeller-sglf-rslc-letter" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;of introduction to North Carolina legislators. The letter was disclosed as part of the North Carolina lawsuit.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are engaged in a number of states and believe we are playing a meaningful role in helping draw fair and legal lines that will allow us to run competitive elections in 2012 and in future cycles," Jankowski added.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The same letter emphasized that the Republican redistricting push was being funded through its dark money nonprofit: "The entirety of this effort will be paid for using non-federal dollars through our 501c(4) organization."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jankowski, representing both the RSLC and the Foundation, declined to comment.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Because Hofeller's team was paid with dark money and the redistricting process is so secretive, it is hard to know the full extent of its activities. In Wisconsin, the team provided&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/539678-dep-of-andrew-speth-dkt-143-11cv562" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">technical assistance</a>&nbsp;to an aide to Rep. Paul Ryan as he drew new districts that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=38333" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">favored Republicans</a>. In Missouri, Hofeller was the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2012/Feb/01/gop_redistricting_expert_says_mo__map_is_compact.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">sole witness</a>&nbsp;called by attorneys representing the Republican legislators who drew the maps there.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the case of North Carolina, Hofeller made his&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537517-naacp-431#document/p1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">first trip</a>&nbsp;to Raleigh on Feb. 1, 2011, even&nbsp;<a href="http://2010.census.gov/news/releases/operations/cb11-cn61.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">before</a>&nbsp;final state Census data had been released, the first of 10 trips that year.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From then on, two parallel redistricting processes unfolded in the state.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through the spring and summer, legislators in charge of redistricting traveled the state holding public meetings at local colleges, soliciting comment and proposed maps from citizens — though the Republicans on the committee would not produce draft maps themselves.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are not here to answer questions. We are not here drawing maps," state Senate redistricting committee chairman Bob Rucho&nbsp;<a href="http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/redistricting-without-a-map/Content?oid=2426024" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">told the crowd</a>&nbsp;at a hearing in Durham. "What we are here for is to basically hear your thoughts and dreams about redistricting."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But that input had little influence on the districts that were eventually drawn.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Instead, the real maps were being produced behind the scenes by a team that based its operations at Republican Party&nbsp;<a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1506+Hillsborough+St.,+Raleigh,&ll=35.784112,-78.657432&spn=0.0094,0.013819&sll=35.784636,-78.658077&layer=c&cbp=13,24.8,,0,3.79&cbll=35.784338,-78.658211&gl=us&hnear=1506+Hillsborough+St,+Raleigh,+Wake,+North+Carolina+27605" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">headquarters</a>&nbsp;on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. Armed with advanced&nbsp;<a href="http://www.caliper.com/maptovu.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">mapping software</a>, Hofeller and others crafted districts that would virtually guarantee big gains for the party.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hofeller did not attend or read transcripts of any of the public meetings, according to his deposition. Hofeller did not respond to requests for comment.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A mysterious state dark money nonprofit that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537894-fair-and-legal-redistricting-incorporation-doc" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">sprung up</a>&nbsp;just in time for the process,</b>&nbsp;called&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fair and Legal Redistricting for North Carolina</span>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537152-exhibit-8-raupe-transcript-6-18-12#document/p28" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">hired</a>&nbsp;a technician to operate the mapping workstation day-to-day, and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537148-exhibit-4-deposition-rucho-transcript-5-4-12#document/p29" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">another Republican mapping expert</a>. The group did not respond to our requests for comment.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">State-based nonprofits have been a vehicle for Republicans to funnel anonymous money into their map-drawing operations in a number of states, including self-proclaimed nonpartisan groups in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.michiganredistrictingresourceinstitute.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Michigan</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/88645/undisclosed-money-flows-into-minnesotas-redistricting-process" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Minnesota</a>.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republican state legislators tasked with redistricting frequently visited and consulted with the mapping team, according to depositions.<b>&nbsp;Even Art Pope, the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">most influential</a>conservative donor in the state, was appointed "<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537149-exhibit-5-deposition-oldham-transcript-6-27-12#document/p126" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">co-counsel</a>" to the legislative leadership and allowed in the room to give direct instructions to the technician.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We worked together at the workstation,"&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537152-exhibit-8-raupe-transcript-6-18-12#document/p42" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">said</a>&nbsp;Joel Raupe, the technical expert paid by Fair and Legal Redistricting, in a deposition. "He sat next to me."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Pope, who is a lawyer but does not actively practice, was made co-counsel to the state legislature, offering his services&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/540997-farr-response-to-newby-recusal-motion#document/p12" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">pro bono</a>. Now, because he was technically a legal adviser to the state, he says any information about his involvement in the redistricting is privileged.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">(The New Yorker had a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">sweeping profile</a>&nbsp;of Pope last year, detailing how he has used his fortune to dominate North Carolina politics.)</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">North Carolina's Republican incumbents in Congress pushed for a so-called "<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537525-naacp-447#document/p1/a84871" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">10-3 map</a>," the majority they hoped to win in the state's delegation.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hofeller, the mapping expert, delivered. His maps kept most of the districts from being competitive — or even remotely winnable — for Democratic candidates.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A key part of the redistricting strategy was to push minority voters into three districts. Republicans&nbsp;<a href="http://propublica.org/documents/item/539914-joint-statement-by-senator-bob-rucho-and" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">insisted</a>&nbsp;their maps were "fair and legal," necessary to conform to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_b.php" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">laws</a>protecting minority voting rights, although according to a well-known voting rights attorney, the opposite is true.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But federal voting rights law "doesn't require a jurisdiction to pack blacks in districts," said Laughlin McDonald, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project. "If you tried to pack minority voters into a district, that would arguably be a violation."</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In two of those districts, African-American incumbents been already been winning by large margins for years. Republicans' maps added yet more African-Americans to the districts, what's known in redistricting parlance as "<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/redistricting-a-devils-dictionary" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">packing</a>." As Hofeller wrote in an email about one of the districts, the plan was to "incorporate all the significant concentrations of minority voters in the northeast into the first district."</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A third district was 120-mile long, and&nbsp;<b>sea monkey-shaped,</b>&nbsp;connecting pockets of African-Americans from three different, distant cities. Republicans justified it on the basis of a common media market.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The maps were designed to "segregate African-American voters in three districts and concede those districts to the Democrats," says Bob Hall of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.democracy-nc.org/about-us/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Democracy North Carolina</a>, a nonpartisan public interest group that joined the lawsuit against the new maps.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2012, Democrats won the three districts by more than 70 percent of the vote. Another effect: the surrounding districts were much more Republican.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rucho and other Republican legislators had presented the maps as&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/539914-joint-statement-by-senator-bob-rucho-and#document/p8" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">advantageous</a>&nbsp;to Democrats. Indeed, registered Democrats actually outnumbered registered Republicans in seven additional districts beyond those that were clearly slated to be Democratic.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537529-naacp-460" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Emails</a>&nbsp;show Republicans decided to make that fact a major talking point.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the stat was misleading, as the Republicans' own data indicates. An internal analysis of one of Hofeller's later drafts (code name "Blue Horizon 3") obtained by ProPublica shows that those seven allegedly "competitive" districts would have been landslide wins for John McCain in 2008, and for Republican Senator Richard Burr in 2010.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The carefully drawn maps&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/House/2012/NC" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">worked</a>. In this year's elections, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina won 50.6 percent of the total vote. But the state's House delegation now has nine Republicans and just four Democrats</b>. One of the Democrats won by just a few hundred voters, despite the fact that his newly drawn district skewed heavily Republican and that his own home had been drawn out of it. North Carolina's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_21/Race-Ratings-GOP-Looks-for-Major-Gains-North-Carolina-208044-1.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">delegation</a>&nbsp;before the election had seven Democrats and six Republicans</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In addition to his pay from national Republican groups, invoices show Hofeller&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/537518-naacp-432" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">billed</a>&nbsp;North Carolina taxpayers $77,000 for his services.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Republican maps are still under threat by suits filed by Democrats and the NAACP. The lawsuits are headed to the state Supreme Court. But a flood of contributions tied to the RSLC have lowered the risk of the maps' being overturned.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While judicial elections in North Carolina are nominally nonpartisan,</b>&nbsp;it was&nbsp;<a href="http://www2.nbc17.com/news/2012/jul/29/political-balance-stake-nc-supreme-court-race-ar-2473469/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">common knowledge</a>&nbsp;that Republicans held a 4-3 majority on the court. One of those Republican incumbents was facing a tough challenge in 2012, potentially throwing the whole redistricting result in jeopardy.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Justice Paul Newby was running for re-election against appellate judge Sam Ervin IV, grandson of the famous North Carolina senator who investigated Watergate. With a few weeks left until the November election, Newby was trailing Ervin.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But then, in the final stretch, Newby was the beneficiary of a flood of late spending that can be traced back to the Republican State Leadership Committee.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Once again the contributions were funneled through homegrown groups. With only a few weeks to go, the RSLC gave more than $1.1 million to a group called Justice for All NC. Campaign finance filings show Justice for All NC in turn gave nearly $1.5 million to a super PAC running pro-Newby ads, the NC Judicial Coalition.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the money spent by the super PAC went to pay for&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wcnc.com/decision2012/TV-ad-in-NC-Supreme-Court-Race-brought-to-you-by-murky-super-PAC-175488831.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">hundreds</a>&nbsp;of airings of a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sumn4Hc9OvM" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">jingle ad</a>&nbsp;featuring lines like, "Paul Newby / Justice tough but fair / Paul Newby / Criminals best beware" set to infectious banjo music.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;" /><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The spending didn't end there: and Pope's fingerprints were also on the race. Two dark money groups affiliated with Pope — the state-based<b>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.civitasaction.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Civitas Action</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://americansforprosperity.org/about/directors/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a>&nbsp;</b>— spent another $300,000 on radio ads and mailers supporting Newby. Pope's company also gave to the RSLC in the run-up to this fall's elections.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pope says he gave money to Americans for Prosperity for years before the judicial race even came up, and that he was not involved in the decision to run pro-Newby ads.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm Republican, I support Republican groups," Pope said. "But just because you support something doesn't mean you're responsible for all they do."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was an unusually large amount of outside spending for a judicial race. The outside pro-Newby groups had&nbsp;<a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20121101/APN/311019774" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">spent more</a>&nbsp;on the race than the two campaigns combined.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In the end, Newby eked out a 52-48 victory, preserving the court's Republican majority.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When the groups contesting the maps called for Newby to recuse himself from redistricting litigation, lawyers for Republican legislators&nbsp;<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/540997-farr-response-to-newby-recusal-motion#document/p6" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">argued</a>&nbsp;that because the campaign ads were paid for by "independent" groups, they did not jeopardize Newby's impartiality.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, the state Supreme Court rejected the motion for Newby to recuse himself.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I've got no control over who contributes to an ad. I have no control over who endorses me," Newby — who did not respond to a request for comment —&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wcnc.com/decision2012/SuperPACs-spend-millions-for-Republican-in-NC-Supreme-Court-176496161.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">told</a>&nbsp;a local TV station on the eve of the election. "You've got to put your blinders on like lady justice."</font></p></div></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-gop-gerrymandering-made-your-democratic-vote-useless">https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-gop-gerrymandering-made-your-democratic-vote-useless</a></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pAINT IT RED</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How the GOP Made Your Vote Useless</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans have adroitly exploited redistricting, taking control not just of Washington but crucial governorships as well. Can the Democrats find a way to take back some turf?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DAVID DALEY</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10.07.17 12:01 AM ET</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Ed Gillespie masterminded the devastating 2010 GOP strategy to retake Washington by winning crucial state and local elections that brought the power to redistrict the U.S. House.</b></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His plan, aptly dubbed REDMAP, worked so well that Republicans captured almost 700 state legislature seats in an epic rebuke of Barack Obama and Democrats nationwide. The true spoils of that victory came the following year. New GOP majorities in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania reinvented the gerrymander as a blunt-force partisan weapon.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It took Democrats many years to realize how long-lasting the consequences of 2010 would be. Now—just as the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in Gill v Whitford, a landmark case that could create the first-ever constitutional standard to define when a partisan gerrymander goes too far—Democrats have realized that the future of their party will be determined down-ballot. Gillespie, the godfather of the GOP gerrymander and the Republican nominee for governor of Virginia, is their most crucial target.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Gillespie win, combined with well-cemented Republican majorities in the state assembly and senate, would lock in GOP control when new legislative districts for statewide and congressional races are drawn in 2021.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A victory by Democratic lieutenant governor Ralph Northam, meanwhile, would give Democrats a seat at the table when the new lines are drawn—something the party lacked in those blue and purple states nationwide in 2011, thanks to REDMAP.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a result, in 2012, the first election held under these new maps, Democratic House candidates won 1.4 million more votes, but Republicans retained a 234-201 majority. Republicans commanded huge edges in states where Democrats won a majority of votes, like North Carolina (9-4), Pennsylvania (13-5) and Michigan (9-5), and drew lines that handed themselves 75 percent of Ohio’s 16 seats with just over 50 percent of the vote. Not a single congressional seat has swung blue in any of those swing states this decade.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier this month<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee—the brainchild of Obama, who has named redistricting as his top post-presidential priority, and led by former attorney general Eric Holder—announced its first major contribution. They poured $500,000 into Northam’s campaign, boosting him to a $3 million cash-on-hand advantage over Gillespie, a well-connected operative, as this crucial race enters its final week</span>s.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s a big deal—but also a testament to how many pages Democrats have stolen from Gillespie’s playbook. The NDRC exists because Democrats needed to play catch-up after Gillespie’s Republican State Leadership Committee invested $30 million downballot in 2010, catching snoozing Democrats by surprise and capturing key state legislative chambers on the eve of redistricting. Republicans won the right to unilaterally draw 193 of 435 U.S. House seats; Democrats controlled just 44.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now the arms race has been engaged. Democrats will spend mega-millions in Virginia before Election Day. The billionaire Democratic investor Tom Steyer has already committed millions to an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at delivering immigrants, college students, and supporters of abortion rights to the polls. Unions, environmental groups, and the Democratic Governors Association are also in for well over seven figures each. On the GOP side, the Republican Governors Association has announced that it is all-in for Gillespie, as are various spending committees aligned with the Koch brothers and the National Rifle Association.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats, awakened from their slumber, appear attuned to the importance of winning locally— rather than just focusing resources on the White House every four years. They’ve flipped eight state legislative seats blue already, even in surprising places like Oklahoma and Florida, sometimes reversing double-digit GOP advantages last fall. It was not clear that Democrats understood this as recently as June, when $30 million flowed into one special congressional race in Georgia’s sixth. Jon Ossoff lost, and every squandered dollar went up in flames.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What’s not clear is whether Democrats realize just how uphill the party’s struggle will be in 2018. Many Democrats remain focused on taking back the U.S. House, despite the fact that the surgically crafted REDMAP lines have drastically reduced the number of swing seats and given the Republicans a baked-in structural advantage likely to withstand even a blue wave. Democrats, according to the most knowledgeable estimates, will likely need to win the total U.S. House vote by double digits in order to have even a 50/50 chance of taking a majority of seats. That’s a steep path in these polarized times.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Democrats need a long-term strategy to win back state legislatures, and a short-term strategy aimed at electing governors who can veto tilted maps</b>. Any comeback must begin in Virginia, then pivot to governor’s races in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida. This will not be easy. Republicans have a deeper bench (another gerrymandered advantage) and may begin as the favorites everywhere.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Democrats lose? They won’t have say over most state legislative or congressional maps until 2031. Republicans have done such a masterful job at drawing local legislative lines in these states, for example, that the GOP commands a 66-33 state house majority in Ohio, a 121-81 advantage in Pennsylvania, and has kept control of the Michigan house in 2012, 2014 and 2016—all years when Democrats won more votes. Given enduring, computer-driven majorities in these all-important states, Democrats need to win these key governor’s races or face GOP majorities in Congress for another decade. After all, the technology that made these unbeatable lines possible in 2011 has only gotten more precise and powerful.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the NDRC’s Virginia investment suggests Democrats have learned their lesson, Republicans have hardly lost focus. The Republican Governors Association has outraised the Democratic Governors Association this year, $36 million to $21 million. Just this week, Republicans also announced they’d budget $35 million toward the National Republican Redistricting Trust, to counter the Obama/Holder group. That’s three times what the NDRC has announced raising in 2017.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats find themselves adrift because they focused on the sexy race for the White House and neglected essential, but duller, down-ballot battles. If they compound this error by prioritizing the U.S. House, and don’t focus on winning those six governors’ races, they will face a generation in the wilderness. The time is now: There will be no hope for Democrats to reshape the battle lines for the 2020s after Election Night 2018.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Daley is the author of Ratfked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count and the former editor in chief of Salon.</font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">franki lappe adam e</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/activism/democracy-reform-tour-democracy-pennsylvania">https://www.alternet.org/activism/democracy-reform-tour-democracy-pennsylvania</a></font></font></font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/supreme-court-just-blocked-order-north-carolina-redraw-gerrymandered-congressional"><font size="4" color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/supreme-court-just-blocked-order-north-carolina-redraw-gerrymandered-congressional</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">N<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">orth Carolinians may vote in the 2018 midterm elections under a congressional map that has been gerrymandered by Republicans. The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a lower court ruling ordering the U.S. House of Representatives district lines be redrawn by January 24.</span></font></font></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor both objected to the order.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reuters&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-election/supreme-court-blocks-redrawing-of-north-carolina-congressional-maps-idUSKBN1F73C1" style="text-decoration-line: none;">explains the initial ruling</a>&nbsp;that ordered the district lines be redrawn:</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The three-judge panel ruled that the Republican-drawn districts violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law by intentionally hobbling the electoral strength of non-Republican voters. Two of the three judges also said the plan ran afoul of the Constitution’s First Amendment by discriminating based on political belief and association."</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court is reviewing cases of alleged gerrymandering in Wisconsin and Maryland. The implications of these cases on other states, including North Carolina, remain to be seen.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/study-finds-democrats-wont-take-back-house-2018-giant-wave">https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/study-finds-democrats-wont-take-back-house-2018-giant-wave</a></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">paste fail</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fairvote</font></p><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/republican-plan-one-party-state">http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/republican-plan-one-party-state</a></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">n September 2015, two months after Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, I asked in these pages if he could accurately be described as a fascist. I decided against the designation. The true fascist states, I concluded—Germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Chile—“suffered weakness in their institutions that are just about unimaginable in the United States. For instance, it is hard to imagine a President Trump turning America into a one-party state.”</span></font></font></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
I was looking in the wrong place. Donald Trump’s insults to democracy compound daily. But he’s far too incompetent to accomplish the big prize—a single-party state, I mean. The Republican Party that elevated and abetted him, however: They’re on that path with a vengeance.

David Daley, the former editor of Salon, nails part of the case with excruciating clarity in a book released last year,&nbsp;<em>Ratfked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy</em>, now out in paperback with an epilogue for the era of Trump. In 2008, a Republican operative named Chris Jankowski had an idea. Others, including Republicans, in the wake of Barack Obama’s presidential victory, concluded demography might soon afford Democrats a realignment to rival Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s. Jankowski instead saw an Icarus flying too close to the sun. The important election, he realized, would come&nbsp;two years later, for seats in state legislatures across the United States. He began making a presentation to corporate and conservative donors: Fund my new “Republican State Leadership Committee” (a title he had intentionally chosen to be nondescript, as befitted a stealth guerilla campaign), and I will give you the world.

He called his plan “Project REDMAP.” It would work like this. Through assiduous research, his group would pinpoint a handful of vulnerable Democratic seats in states where control of state legislatures was close—Pennsylvania, for example, where Democrats controlled the lower chamber by a single vote—identifying the tipping points that could flip those bodies for the Republicans. They would then control the drawing of U.S. Congressional maps after the 2010 census. At the time there were an estimated 25 true “swing” Congressional districts. By deploying state-of-the-art software to devise maps to capture the greatest number of U.S. House seats with the fewest number of votes, the party could move every one of them safely into Republican hands for at least the next 10 years. All, he promised, for the low, low price of $30 million—about a tenth of what people are estimating the candidates will spend in the upcoming 2018 Illinois governor’s race alone. Karl Rove ducked in on one of the pitch meetings: “People call us a vast right-wing conspiracy, but we’re really a half-assed right-wing conspiracy. Now it’s time to get serious.”

The United States Chamber of Commerce was convinced; they chipped in $4 million. A group aligned with the American Legislative Exchange Council gave $2.5 million. Rounding out the list of top donors: Walmart, Anthem Health Insurance, two tobacco companies, AT&T, and an Indian tribe that an internal Republican memo suggests served as a money-laundering conduit for gambling interests in the state of Alabama.

REDMAP’s targets were politicians such as David Levdansky, the dedicated and principled chairman of the Pennsylvania House’s Finance Committee. Via focus groups, they’d divined a made-up issue by which to smear him: a $10 million appropriation out of the state’s $600 million capital budget to build a new wing at a college library to house Arlen Specter’s papers. Like the troops pounding Omaha Beach after D-Day, new, breathtakingly deceptive full-color flyers flooded the mailboxes of the Keystone State’s 39th district in the last three weeks of the campaign. One depicted Levdansky as the mastermind of a “$600 million” Arlen Specter “Taj Mahal”; another as a maniac gun-grabber because, back when he had been a township supervisor, he had supported a police chief’s recommendation to ban the carrying of concealed weapons in the police station.

Levdansky lost by 151 votes. As a result, the Republicans now control both chambers of the legislature, and the governorship. And along with states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina, they followed a plan laid out by Republican redistricting guru Tom Hofeller to steal Americans’ democratic birthright via gerrymander—and to do it in secret. Advice included: Never communicate by email, the better to cover your tracks. (“Emails are the tool of the devil.” “Make sure your computer is in a PRIVATE location.” Thus the Ohio Republican Party’s command post, in a hotel across from the statehouse, was labeled “the Bunker.”) In Wisconsin, Republican legislators were only allowed to look at maps for their own districts, and then only after signing nondisclosure agreements, and they were advised, “Public comments on this map may be different from what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments.” Democrats were only allowed to look at them when it was time to approve the maps in the legislature. The corporate law firm that ran the show claimed the deliberations that produced them were protected from public scrutiny by attorney-client privilege.

The basics of Hofeller’s advice, in short, was to follow the law to the letter and pulverize its spirit. “NEVER travel without counsel,” he advised. A judge might call this “mens rea”: a guilty mind, proof of an intent to deceive. We know how it worked in practice because some conspirators honored Hofeller’s advice about email in the breach. In one of&nbsp;<em>Ratfked’s</em>&nbsp;most astonishing revelations, after Florida voters overwhelmingly approved two “Fair District” constitutional amendments banning partisan attempts to gerrymander, Republican consultants still drew maps to disenfranchise Democrats—only they introduced them through fake email accounts to make it look as if they were submitted by disinterested members of the general public. Unwitting young party activists, the sort who might wish to court favor with their elders, were then instructed to recite, verbatim, testimony written for them in support of the maps. (One such script: “Senate District 20 is an excellently drawn State Senate district. . . . Very smart work from the committee on this district. I approve!”) In Wisconsin, the hard drives belonging to two key operatives “failed”; even more suspiciously, both operatives produced identical 24-word explanations for their computers’ convenient memory lapse in court depositions.

The upshot of the national campaign? In Pennsylvania, after the 2012 election, Republicans ended up controlling 13 of 18 U.S. House seats. In a democracy, a party should occupy 72 percent of a given state’s House seats if it wins something like 72 percent of votes in an election. But in Pennsylvania, it only won about 49 percent. The diabolical computers, however, were programmed to pack the Democrats’ 51 percent of the votes into the smallest number of districts statistically possible. (What’s that old computer programmers’ saying? Garbage in, garbage out.) And Ohio, American electoral history’s most famous swing state, swings no more: “The mapmaker did such a good job that it’s hard to imagine anyone in Ohio politics who thinks it can be reversed for perhaps two decades to come.” All told, Daley concludes, Democrats might not take back Congress in 2018 even if they receive a vote bonanza that, in an actual democracy, would constitute a landslide.

Then there were the consequences in the 2016 cycle. In states like North Carolina and Wisconsin, legislatures that REDMAP turned Republican immediately responded with radical voter suppression bills. In the Badger State, the one signed by Governor Scott Walker helped ensure the lowest voter turnout in two decades. In Milwaukee, home to more than two-thirds of the state’s African Americans, some 52,000 fewer blacks cast a ballot than in 2012. Hillary Clinton received 43,000 fewer votes in Milwaukee than Barack Obama did in 2012. Donald Trump won the state by 27,000 votes.

Right-wing political organizing often centers upon strategizing around an awkward fact: A majority of Americans don’t want what they’re selling. That goes back as far as the antebellum period, when Southern slaveholders knew they could not control enough votes in Congress to preserve the peculiar institution without creating new slave states in the West. (Some also wanted to expand farther south, annexing Cuba and parts of Mexico and Central America.) Or, in the next century, consider the insurgents who conspired to defeat the moderates who made up the vast majority of the Republican base in order to nominate Barry Goldwater. A decade earlier, calling themselves “the Syndicate,” they had conspired to take over the Young Republican National Federation via a “rotten borough” strategy, setting up dummy conventions in places where there were few Republicans, to elect delegates to take over national conventions.

A cadre of 28 Syndicate veterans, including a lobbyist for Standard Oil of Indiana, met secretly in a Chicago hotel room to parcel out the tasks to pack the precinct and county meetings that began two years before the presidential year. It was “nothing less than a long-term political guerrilla operation,” their leader, Clifton White, wrote in a memoir; but one as easy, he also noted, as “pushing on an open door.”

Much easier, that is to say, than actually winning the loyalty of voters. This was how Goldwater was able to win the Republican nomination with 67.5 percent of the delegates despite a Harris Poll that showed the public disagreed with him on eight out of 10 issues. And the general election? To win that, a memo advised Republicans to “shake off the fiction of the idea that they are engaged in a national plebiscite.” It was the theory, in other words, that George W. Bush and Donald Trump later carried out in practice: no shame in claiming a mandate for radical-right governance, even if you don’t win the most votes.

Among libertarians, meanwhile, Milton Friedman infamously observed that since “only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change,” the intellectual’s task is to keep policies “alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.” Edmund Meese, then of the Heritage Foundation, made a secret 2005 presentation to the House Republican Study Committee to bring what then-Rep. Mike Pence called “conservative free-market ideas to the Gulf Coast” to exploit the panic in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. (The proposals included cutting funding for the Public Broadcasting Service, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.) PayPal founder and Donald Trump campaign surrogate Peter Thiel argued in 2009 that developments like “the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women . . . have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron.”

Operation REDMAP midwifed diabolical plans to end the Democratic Party on the national level once and for all. On the level of the presidency, post–Operation REDMAP, there came state legislative proposals such as the one introduced in Pennsylvania in 2011 to apportion the state’s electoral college votes by Congressional district. (It failed, and, via the traditional means, Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes went to Barack Obama, because he beat Mitt Romney by 51.95 to 46.57 percent. If it had succeeded, Obama would have only won six of Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, despite his decisive margin of victory.)

Then there is the lively movement to gerrymander the Senate. Republicans never put the idea of repealing the 17th Amendment quite in those terms. Before the amendment was added to the Constitution in 1913, members of the U.S. Senate were elected by state legislatures, not by citizens’ votes. You first began hearing calls to return the election of senators to the backrooms of state capitols during the Tea Party election of 2010. In 2013, prominent conservatives including Justice Antonin Scalia, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, and Ted Cruz joined the call. So did the very important right-wing radio host Mark Levin, who pours out his anti-democracy preachments to some 7.75 million listeners a week. His 2003 book The Liberty Amendments argued that the 17th “serves not the public’s interest but the interests of governing masterminds and their disciples.”

Then this July, after the Republicans’ crusade to toss tens of millions of their fellow Americans off health insurance failed the Senate, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, evangelical hero, and father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new White House press secretary, took to Twitter: “Time to repeal the 17th Amendment. Founders had it right—Senators chosen by state legislatures. . . . Direct election of Senate is major cause of #swamp.”

“Draining the swamp,” apparently, now means turning America into a single-party state. Thanks to Project REDMAP, Republicans control both chambers of 32 state legislatures. If they came to control six more, they could indeed repeal the 17th Amendment—and would automatically control 72 senate seats, adding automatic control of the Senate to REDMAP’s automatic control of the House of Representatives.

Can it happen? At its annual convention in Denver in July, ALEC’s Federalism and International Relations Task Force held a debate on whether to recommend a model bill to state legislatures to repeal the 17th, thereby starting the process of single-party rule. It would be interesting to know how that debate went. But we’ll never know. ALEC meetings are secret. Sinclair Lewis supposedly said when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. But maybe we won’t know how it came. It will happen in secret debates at conferences closed to the press, and in “bunkers” across the street from state capitols, guarded by two-factor encryption and attorney-client privilege, abetted by computer programs with the power to turn citizens into subjects.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rick Perlstein</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://kpfa.org/episode/the-ralph-nader-radio-hour-december-19-2016/">https://kpfa.org/episode/the-ralph-nader-radio-hour-december-19-2016/</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">ratfucked interview</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/four-key-tips-understanding-election-2016"><font face="Times New Roman">http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/four-key-tips-understanding-election-2016</font></a></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">challenge WI:</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">gerrymander red map:</font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/wisconsin-redistricting-lawsuit-could-reverberate-nationally"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/wisconsin-redistricting-lawsuit-could-reverberate-nationally</font></a></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A<span style="line-height: 32px;">fter a century as a trailblazer for progressive democracy reforms, Wisconsin has become what one local union leader ruefully calls “a kind of&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/magazine/scott-walker-and-the-fate-of-the-union.html" style="line-height: 32px; text-decoration-line: none;">laboratory for oligarchs</a><span style="line-height: 32px;">&nbsp;to implement their political and economic agenda.”</span></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman">This assessment, delivered by David Poklinkoski, president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2304, captures Wisconsin Democrats’ dim view of the&nbsp;<b>brazenly partisan redistricting plan masterminded by GOP Governor Scott Walker.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>But the redistricting plan, so central in empowering Walker and his legislative allies to roll back social reforms in Wisconsin, is now the target of a federal lawsuit.</b>&nbsp;First heard by federal judges in May, the suit is now before an appeals court that is expected to rule this summer. That ruling could reverberate in other states around the country with heavily GOP-tilted electoral maps. While a few Democratic-controlled state governments have district maps that favor their party, the 2010 Republican electoral sweep set off a nationally-coordinated and harshly partisan round of redistricting in states where both the governor and legislative majorities were Republican.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now, Republican-imposed plans in a number of other states—including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas—</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">stand to be affected by Wisconsin’s redistricting ruling, which will be handed down by the U.S. Seventh Court of Appeals. Such redistricting experts as Michael Li, chief counsel on the issue for the Brennan Center for Justice, predict the case could eventually land before the Supreme Court.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;The death of conservative Justice Antonin has altered the ideological balance on the now evenly divided court, and Li says Justice Anthony Kennedy has shown a strong interest in the case.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The Wisconsin lawsuit is the most significant gerrymandering challenge in 30 years,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” says Li. “This lawsuit could be a rare opportunity to contest unfair redistricting. It comes at a time when both the Supreme Court and the public are aware of the dysfunctionality of our legislative bodies.”</span></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In Wisconsin, the redistricting plan imposed in 2011 was conceived in tight secrecy behind a private law firm’s closed doors as part of a large-scale national Republican strategy to block Democrats from power through the careful manipulation of state legislative district lines. The plan exaggerates actual GOP electoral strength and marginalizes Democratic voters, critics say. Indeed, it takes partisan gerrymandering to new heights, transforming what would otherwise be majority votes for Democrats into overwhelming Republican victories</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman">The Republican-rigged electoral map has been crucial in enabling Walker and the state’s GOP-controlled legislature to gut labor laws, weaken environmental protections, bestow new tax breaks on corporations, attack women’s reproductive rights, and reduce funding for the University of Wisconsin and public education in general.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong>Known as</strong><a href="http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/sites/default/files/Whitford%20Complaint.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><strong><em>Whitford v. Nichol</em></strong></a><strong>, the suit was brought by 12 Democratic plaintiffs</strong>&nbsp;who argue that the plan unfairly discounts the values of votes cast by Democrats. The Wisconsin&nbsp;<b>Attorney General’</b>s office&nbsp;<a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/05/24/federal-redistricting-trial-begins-in-wisconsin.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;">has defended the map</a>&nbsp;on the grounds that it is not a “gerrymander,” typically defined as a set of district lines with illogical and strangely-shaped borders, and drawn for ideological advantage.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>But the state’s district map exemplifies the extremes to which Republicans have taken the political practice of gerrymandering districts for maximum political advantage.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>The result has been an indirect form of voter disenfranchisement<strong>.</strong>The plaintiffs charged that the redistricting violated their right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Further, as they asserted in their brief: “Extreme partisan gerrymandering is also contrary to core democratic values because it enables a political party to win more legislative districts—and thus more legislative power—than is warranted by that party’s popular support.”</font></p></div><p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div class="a-section a-spacing-none" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 22px; line-height: 19px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 id="title" class="a-size-large a-spacing-none" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin-bottom: 0px !important; line-height: 1.3 !important;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span id="productTitle" class="a-size-large" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.3 !important;">Ratfked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy</span><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><span class="a-size-medium a-color-secondary a-text-normal" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.255 !important; font-weight: 400 !important;">Hardcover</span><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><span class="a-size-medium a-color-secondary a-text-normal" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.255 !important; font-weight: 400 !important;">– June 14, 2016</span></font></h1></div><div id="byline" class="a-section a-spacing-micro bylineHidden feature" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 19px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">by<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><span class="author notFaded" data-width="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a class="a-link-normal" href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=David+Daley&search-alias=books&field-author=David+Daley&sort=relevancerank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">David Daley</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span></font></div><p><font face="Times New Roman">
&nbsp;</font></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ratf-ked-Behind-Americas-Democracy/dp/1631491628"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.amazon.com/Ratf-ked-Behind-Americas-Democracy/dp/1631491628</font></a></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With Barack Obama’s historic election in 2008, pundits proclaimed the Republicans as dead as the Whigs of yesteryear. Yet even as Democrats swooned, a small cadre of Republican operatives, including Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, and Chris Jankowski began plotting their comeback with a simple yet ingenious plan. These men had devised a way to take a tradition of dirty tricks―known to political insiders as “ratfking”―to a whole new, unprecedented level. Flooding state races with a gold rush of dark money made possible by<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></span><em style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Citizens United</em><span style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, the Republicans reshaped state legislatures, where the power to redistrict is held. Reconstructing this never- told-before story,</span><span style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>David Daley&nbsp;</b></span><span style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">examines the far-reaching effects of this so-called REDMAP program, which has radically altered America’s electoral map and created a firewall in the House, insulating the party and its wealthy donors from popular democracy.</span><b><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><em style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ratfked</em></b><span style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><b>&nbsp;</b></span></span><span style="line-height: 22.4px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">pulls back the curtain on one of the greatest heists in American political history. 5 maps</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">http://www.alternet.org/books/ratfcked-how-chris-jankowski-turned-electoral-map-bright-red-until-2020</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Wearing a resplendent red tie, the color of the Republican Party, Barack Obama delivered his victory speech on November 4, 2008. The nation’s first African American first family joined him, celebrating together the historic evening. Watch Obama’s Grant Park speech eight years later, and it’s not only his youth and the jubilant throngs that make the moment so electrifying. It’s that sense of post-partisan possibilities that matched Obama’s carefully chosen metaphor. “If there is anyone out there,” Obama told the nation, “who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">As it turned out, Obama captured Republican stronghold after stronghold that early November evening. Down South, he picked off North Carolina and Virginia. In the Midwest, he grabbed Indiana. He won the two states where Democratic dreams had died hard in 2000 and 2004—Florida and Ohio—then added Colorado and Nevada for good measure, conjuring liberals’ visions of a future western majority. As polls closed late in Oregon, Alaska and Minnesota, and Republican incumbents went down, pundits, professors and politicians marveled at the new Democratic supermajority in the Senate and spoke of emerging—even unbreakable—coalitions. On television and on the front pages of newspapers, they openly questioned how the GOP would survive to the next election.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">“The question now becomes what is the future of the Republican party nationally,” wondered one political science professor in the New York Times. The mood turned grim on Fox News, where Bill O’Reilly bemoaned, “Barack Obama is a star. . . . The Republicans have, who? Sarah Palin?” Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham bluntly called the Republican beatdown well deserved. “We’ve seen a lack of competence at every level of government, frankly, under Republican rule,” she opined.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">“It’s a party adrift. It’s a party lost,” added longtime Republican communications adviser Torie Clarke on ABC News. Over on CNN, Wolf Blitzer and John King peered deeper into the blue map and found suburban Pennsylvania counties, like Bucks, Montgomery and Chester—previously reliable for George W. Bush—now tipping toward Obama by double digits. “If you are the Republicans looking at this map this morning,” observed King, “you are very troubled.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">One of those concerned conservatives, Rich Lowry, the editor of William F. Buckley’s National Review, didn’t like what he saw either in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Virginia. “It’s a bad thing for the Republicans when you drill down into these states,” he said. “It’s like, where did all the Republicans go? Did they all move to Utah?”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">The 2008 election looked like a transformative moment, a wave election that announced an ascendant new movement. Even the brightest conservative thinkers thought it signaled danger for the GOP. And it might have. What no one knew—not even despairing Republicans eyeing Fox News through a fuzzy third-cocktail haze—was that the truly transformative election was two years away. It would not be celebrated live around the world from a Grant Park awash in klieg lights, but in VFW halls and Holiday Inn ballrooms and strip-mall party headquarters as hundreds of new Republican state legislators claimed victories—in those very states Lowry feared were lost forever.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">This is the story of the audacious Republican plan which not only penned in the Obama presidency but managed, in spite of jubilant 2008 Democratic expectations, to create supermajorities for conservative policies in otherwise blue and purple states. This is the story of the actual redrawing of the American political map and of our democracy itself. It’s the story of how Republicans turned a looming demographic disaster into legislative majorities so unbreakable, so impregnable, that none of the outcomes are in doubt until after the 2020 census. It is the story of new mapping technologies so exact that they’ve re-sorted and resegregated Americans, while creating congressional districts where the only competition comes from someone more extreme.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">It’s legal, it’s breathtaking, and much of it happened in plain sight. The Democratic majority was ratfucked.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">In politics, a “ratfuck” is a dirty deed done dirt cheap. You can trace the term back as far as Edmund Wilson’s The Twenties. It was used decades later in All the President’s Men, the story of how Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered the Watergate scandal and brought about the resignation of Richard Nixon. They quoted Donald Segretti, an operative tied to Nixon’s reelection campaign, as using the colorful term to describe political sabotage and the early shenanigans of seamy strategists linked to the burglars who bungled the Watergate break-in. The operatives who quite legally changed the complexion of Congress worked in a far more sophisticated fashion.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>This twenty-first-century version begins in 2009, when Chris Jankowski&nbsp;</b>awoke on July 22 at his Richmond home still feeling kicked in the gut by the election results. He sat down with the morning New York Times, and buried inside a story about state legislatures and census projections he read something that snapped him back to action. After reading past a downcast first sentence whose truth he knew far too well—“Republicans in search of good news these days have had to rely on bad news for the White House”—Jankowski found this, by Times correspondent Adam Nagourney:</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">"2010 is not just any election year: it is crucial given that this class of governors will be in charge as their states draw Congressional and state legislative districts as part of the reapportionment process after the next census. And given historical trends in midterm elections and the lopsided majority Democrats enjoy in Congress, the possibility that Republicans could make gains in House races next year could give the party a psychological boost at the halfway point of Mr. Obama’s term."</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Jankowski immediately recognized the opportunity. As provided in the Constitution, every state redraws all of its district lines every ten years, that is, after the census. That means elections in “zero years” matter more than others. Jankowski realized it would be possible to target states where the legislature is in charge of redistricting, flip as many chambers as possible, take control of the process, and redraw the lines. Boom. Just like that—if Republicans could pull it off—the GOP would go from demographically challenged to the catbird seat for a decade. At least.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>As one of the leading tacticians behind the Republican State Leadership Committee, Jankowski has few peers as a strategist</b>, even if Karl Rove and Frank Luntz then vacuumed up all the TV airtime. State government has always been his passion. He had spent years trying to arm-twist GOP strategists and donors to spend more time and money on down-ballot races: state houses, state attorneys general, local judges. Those might not be the sexy elections to invest in—no wealthy player feels like a kingmaker or a Koch brother by writing a check to the Republican running for state representative in Pennsylvania’s 130th—but he proved time and again that they often provided the best value. Donations that would be a mere drop in the bucket to a presidential or Senate candidate might make all the difference at the local level. And policy outcomes, he would readily discern, could actually be influenced in state capitals—unlike in gridlocked Washington, DC.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">It’s hard to believe, but the lightbulb moment that would reshape American politics came almost immediately over a breakfast with the supposedly liberal New York Times: Republicans should mount an aggressive campaign to flip state legislatures ahead of post-census redistricting, then press the advantage to both redraw congressional and state legislative lines in their favor and aggressively advance the conservative agenda. Presidents almost always lose seats in a midterm election. Democratic turnout always falls in non-presidential years. Smart money spent on the right races had the potential to make more of a difference than ever.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Republican operatives would use the oldest trick in the book—the gerrymander—but in a brilliant and totally modern way.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">“I read it and I thought we could do this,” Jankowski told me. “I know those state legislators. I know who’s going to be the speaker in Pennsylvania if we get the majority. We should do this. This will make our guys happy. I can go to these guys in the legislature and say, hey, we’ve been struggling for years to try and help you guys compete. I think we can get millions—and you don’t have to do anything other than what you were going to do anyway.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Jankowski was right, and the race was on. In short order, the RSLC would call the plan REDMAP—for Redistricting Majority Project—a name which also described its very elegant goal. These strategists would turn the electoral map bright red. Jankowski took the lead as executive director.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">By the time election 2010 heated up, two big things had already changed since the swooning that marked Obama’s victorious evening in Grant Park. First, that January, the Supreme Court issued its&nbsp;<b>Citizens United verdict</b>, tossing out the ban on independent political expenditures by corporations as an unconstitutional breach of free speech. In a 5-to-4 decision, rendered on January 21, 2010, the court’s five conservatives ruled that corporations and unions had a permanent green light to spend essentially as much money as they wished.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Super PACs and other tax-exempt nonprofit political groups could now raise and spend unlimited amounts, much of it “dark money” impossible to trace back to the donor.</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">President Obama found the ruling so antithetical to democracy that he took the rare step of criticizing it, harshly, during his State of the Union speech six days later, which was attended, awkwardly, by six of the nine justices. But Citizens United was just the continuation of Obama’s political nightmare. A Republican, Scott Brown, improbably captured the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, erasing the Democratic supermajority in the Senate. Obama’s push for universal health care descended into a debate over “death panels,” creating a summer of ugly town hall meetings for Democrats nationwide, and thereby speeding the rise of the Tea Party.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Jankowski didn’t see all of this coming that July morning, however. He just saw a way to get his side back into the game. Instantly, his post-election malaise began to fade.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">“We were depressed as hell but we weren’t going to quit,” he confides.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">In All the President’s Men, Woodward and Bernstein investigated several longtime Nixon aides and kept hearing the term “ratfucking” used to describe sabotage by operatives in Nixon’s inner circle, going all the way back to their days as students and young Republicans at the University of Southern California. As Woodward and Bernstein wrote: “‘Ratfucking?’ The word struck a raw nerve with a Justice Department attorney. ‘You can go right to the top on that one.’”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Twenty years later, in the early 1990s, the phrase would reemerge, when the new Republican National Committee legal counsel was tasked with fixing the Republicans’ redistricting problem. The solution&nbsp;<b>Ben Ginsberg</b>&nbsp;hit upon was to use the Voting Rights Act’s provisions governing majority-minority districts to create African American seats in Southern states. Work closely with minority groups to encourage candidates to run. Then pack as many Democratic voters as possible inside the lines, bleaching the surrounding districts whiter and more Republican, thus resegregating congressional representation while increasing the number of African Americans in Congress. The strategy became known as the unholy alliance, because it benefited black leaders and Republicans at the expense of the Democratic Party. Ginsberg had another name for it when a reporter asked him to describe it: Project Ratfuck.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">The REDMAP ratfuck was done in such plain sight that Karl Rove himself announced it on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. “Some of the most important contests this fall will be way down the ballot in communities like Portsmouth, Ohio, and West Lafayette, Ind., and neighborhoods like Brushy Creek in Round Rock, Texas, and Murrysville Township in Westmoreland County, Pa.,” Rove wrote in early March 2010, naming some of the specific towns where Republicans would come gunning for Democratic incumbents. “These are state legislative races that will determine who redraws congressional district lines after this year’s census, a process that could determine which party controls upwards of 20 seats and whether many other seats will be competitive.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Control redistricting, Rove understood, and you could control Congress. A midterm rebuke of President Obama, coming in a census year like 2010, would have far-reaching implications stretching across the next decade, if not longer. Win big in 2010 and Republicans could redraw the maps and lock in electoral and financial advantages for the next ten years. Push just 20 districts from competitive to safely Republican, and the GOP could save $100 million or more over the next decade.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“There are 18 state legislative chambers that have four or fewer seats separating the two parties that are important for redistricting. Seven of these are controlled by Republicans and the other 11 are controlled by Democrats, including the lower houses in Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and Pennsylvania,” Rove continued. “Republican strategists are focused on 107 seats in 16 states. Winning these seats would give them control of drawing district lines for nearly 190 congressional seats.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">The assertion is so bold, yet so sensical, that one does not know whether to stand back and admire the audaciousness, indict the Democrats for gross negligence and lack of imagination, or simply howl over the undemocraticness of it all.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">
&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Excerpted from Ratfked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy &nbsp;by David Daley.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">
&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">In the spring of 2010, the conservative political strategist Ed Gillespie flew from Washington, D.C., to Raleigh, North Carolina, to spend a day laying the groundwork for&nbsp;<small>REDMAP</small>, a new project aimed at engineering a Republican takeover of state legislatures. Gillespie hoped to help his party get control of statehouses where congressional redistricting was pending, thereby leveraging victories in cheap local races into a means of shifting the balance of power in Washington. It was an ingenious plan, and Gillespie is a skilled tactician—he once ran the Republican National Committee—but&nbsp;<small>REDMAP</small>&nbsp;seemed like a long shot in North Carolina. Barack Obama carried the state in 2008 and remained popular. The Republicans hadn’t controlled both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly for more than a century. (“Not since General Sherman,” a state politico joked to me.) That day in Raleigh, though, Gillespie had lunch with an ideal ally: James Arthur (Art) Pope, the chairman and C.E.O. of Variety Wholesalers, a discount-store conglomerate. The Raleigh&nbsp;<i>News and Observer</i>&nbsp;had called Pope, a conservative multimillionaire, the Knight of the Right. The&nbsp;<small>REDMAP</small>project offered Pope a new way to spend his money.</font></p><div style="overflow: hidden; border: medium none;"><font face="Times New Roman">
Read more&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer#ixzz1aDUp5Ati">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer#ixzz1aDUp5Ati</a>
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</font></div><div style="overflow: hidden; border: medium none;"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="overflow: hidden; border: medium none;"><font face="Times New Roman">3/18</font></div><div style="overflow: hidden; border: medium none;"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="38" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQgmKAAwAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFggnMAA" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">REDMAP: The RSLC Redistricting Majority Project</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&oq=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&aqs=chrome..69i57.7383j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b0" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ7B0IKDAA" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none 0s ease 0s; user-select: none; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration-line: none; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman">As the 2010 Census approached, the RSLC began planning for the subsequent election cycle, formulating a strategy to keep or win&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>&nbsp;control of state legislatures with the largest impact on congressional&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">redistricting</span>&nbsp;as a result of reapportionment. That effort, the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDistricting</span>&nbsp;MAjority<span style="font-weight: bold;">Project</span>&nbsp;(<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>), focused&nbsp;...</font></span></a><div class="osl" style="margin-top: 0px;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/+redmap+project+gop+redistricting&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQHwgrMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">‎</font></a><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/?page_id=2" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/%3Fpage_id%3D2&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ0gIILSgAMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">About</a>&nbsp;·&nbsp;‎<a class="fl" href="http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/?m=201007" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/%3Fm%3D201007&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ0gIILigBMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">July 2010</a>&nbsp;·&nbsp;‎<a class="fl" href="http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/?m=201009" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/%3Fm%3D201009&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ0gIILygCMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">September 2010</a>&nbsp;·&nbsp;‎<a class="fl" href="http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/?m=201010" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.redistrictingmajorityproject.com/%3Fm%3D201010&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ0gIIMCgDMAA" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">October 2010</a></font></div></div><div jsl="$t t--ddbPTeIsNI$t-nEjf2CObCkc;$x 0;" class="r-iDr41xdxuq0I" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ2Z0BCDEwAA"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="57" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQg5KAEwAQ"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jul 19, 2016 -&nbsp;</span>The plan, which its architects dubbed&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>&nbsp;for&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Redistricting</span>&nbsp;Majority&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Project</span>, hinged on the fact that states redraw their electoral maps every 10 years according to new Census data.<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>&nbsp;targeted states where just a few statehouse seats could shift the balance to&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>control in the crucial&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div><div jsl="$t t--ddbPTeIsNI$t-nEjf2CObCkc;$x 0;" class="r-incY9yPy5H14" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ2Z0BCEAwAQ"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="72" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQhIKAIwAg"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/27/ratfcked-the-influence-of-redistricting" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/27/ratfcked-the-influence-of-redistricting&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFghJMAI" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">“Ratfcked”: The Influence of Redistricting | The New Yorker</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/.../ratfcked-the-influence-of-redistricting</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&oq=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&aqs=chrome..69i57.7383j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b2" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ7B0ISjAC" style="border-radius: 0px; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jun 27, 2016 -&nbsp;</span>Much of “Ratfked” is devoted to a&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>&nbsp;scheme optimistically called&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>, for&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Redistricting</span>&nbsp;Majority&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Project</span>.&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>&nbsp;was created in early 2010, at a point when the country's electoral map was largely blue. In twenty-seven states, Democrats held the majority of seats in both houses of the&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div><div jsl="$t t--ddbPTeIsNI$t-nEjf2CObCkc;$x 0;" class="r-izhe9sn1Z3CA" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ2Z0BCE4wAg"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="86" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQhWKAMwAw"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/06/13/this_is_how_the_gop_rigged_congress_the_secret_plan_that_handcuffed_obamas_presidency_but_backfired_in_donald_trump/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.salon.com/2016/06/13/this_is_how_the_gop_rigged_congress_the_secret_plan_that_handcuffed_obamas_presidency_but_backfired_in_donald_trump/&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFghXMAM" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">This is how the GOP rigged Congress: The secret plan that handcuffed ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.salon.com/.../this_is_how_the_gop_rigged_congress_the_secret_plan_tha...</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&oq=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&aqs=chrome..69i57.7383j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b3" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ7B0IWDAD" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none 0s ease 0s; user-select: none; 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padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jun 13, 2016 -&nbsp;</span>The two key tacticians behind&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>&nbsp;(for&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Redistricting</span>&nbsp;Majority&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Project</span>), Chris Jankowski and Ed Gillespie, recognized that if they crafted a plan to flip state legislative chambers in enough key states--especially purplish states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida and Wisconsin--that&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div><div jsl="$t t--ddbPTeIsNI$t-nEjf2CObCkc;$x 0;" class="r-iwwpKnn5lrjc" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ2Z0BCFwwAw"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="100" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQhkKAQwBA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFghlMAQ" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">REDMAP - Wikipedia</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&oq=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&aqs=chrome..69i57.7383j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b4" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ7B0IZjAE" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none 0s ease 0s; user-select: none; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a></font><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQqR8IZzAE" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dbfnRv9qAGIJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dbfnRv9qAGIJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP%2B%26cd%3D5%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQIAhoMAQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dbfnRv9qAGIJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:dbfnRv9qAGIJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP%2B%26cd%3D5%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQIAhoMAQ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>&nbsp;is a&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">project</span>&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>&nbsp;State Leadership Committee of the United States to increase<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>&nbsp;control of Congressional seats as well as state legislators, largely through determination of electoral district boundaries. The&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">project</span>&nbsp;has reportedly made effective use of partisan&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">gerrymandering</span>, by relying on&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="105" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQhpKAUwBQ"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFghqMAU" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">We're a Lot Better at Gerrymandering Than We Used to Be - The Atlantic</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/.../gerrymandering...redmap.../5438...</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&oq=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&aqs=chrome..69i57.7383j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b5" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ7B0IazAF" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none 0s ease 0s; user-select: none; 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padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1gbaG0R1WuQJ:https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:1gbaG0R1WuQJ:https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/%2B%26cd%3D6%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQIAhtMAU" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1gbaG0R1WuQJ:https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:1gbaG0R1WuQJ:https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/gerrymandering-technology-redmap-2020/543888/%2B%26cd%3D6%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQIAhtMAU" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Oct 28, 2017 -&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Republicans</span>&nbsp;certainly maintain the advantage in that game right now. They began the escalation over seven years ago, with the creation of the groundbreaking&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>&nbsp;initiative. As David Daley's Ratfked illustrates, the first goal of the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>&nbsp;State Leadership Committee's&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP project</span>&nbsp;was to&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="111" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQhvKAYwBg"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-gop-gerrymandering-made-your-democratic-vote-useless" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-gop-gerrymandering-made-your-democratic-vote-useless&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFghwMAY" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">How the GOP Made Your Vote Useless - The Daily Beast</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-gop-gerrymandering-made-your-democratic-vote...</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&oq=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&aqs=chrome..69i57.7383j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b6" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ7B0IcTAG" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none 0s ease 0s; user-select: none; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Oct 7, 2017 -&nbsp;</span>Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast. Ed Gillespie masterminded the devastating 2010&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">GOP</span>&nbsp;strategy to retake Washington by winning crucial state and local elections that brought the power to&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">redistrict</span>&nbsp;the U.S. House. His plan, aptly dubbed&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>, worked so well that<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republicans</span>&nbsp;captured&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div><div jsl="$t t--ddbPTeIsNI$t-nEjf2CObCkc;$x 0;" class="r-ivvCMcCWsz6g" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ2Z0BCHUwBg"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="122" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQh6KAcwBw"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/gop-redmap-memo-gerrymandering_n_2498913.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/gop-redmap-memo-gerrymandering_n_2498913.html&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFgh7MAc" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">GOP REDMAP Memo Admits Gerrymandering To Thank For ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jan 17, 2013 -&nbsp;</span>The report — drafted as a summary of the importance of the RSLC's&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Redistricting</span>Majority&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Project</span>&nbsp;(<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>) — serves as a breakdown of the broader&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">GOP</span>&nbsp;plan to take control of state legislatures, giving&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republicans</span>&nbsp;free rein to mount an aggressive&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">gerrymandering</span>&nbsp;campaign that allowed the party to keep&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div><div jsl="$t t--ddbPTeIsNI$t-nEjf2CObCkc;$x 0;" class="r-ilqGbm_Jt_FA" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ2Z0BCIABMAc"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="136" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQiIASgIMAg"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/10/5/13097066/gerrymandering-redistricting-republican-party-david-daley-karl-rove-barack-obama" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/10/5/13097066/gerrymandering-redistricting-republican-party-david-daley-karl-rove-barack-obama&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFgiJATAI" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">Author explains why Democrats will struggle to win the House until ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.vox.com/.../gerrymandering-redistricting-republican-party-david-daley-k...</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Oct 5, 2016 -&nbsp;</span>The&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>&nbsp;Party, on the heels of a sweeping loss to Barack Obama in 2008, hatched a scheme it called&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>, short for&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Redistricting</span>&nbsp;Majority&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Project</span>. It was “the most audacious political heist of modern times,” writes David Daley, author of Ratfked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div><div jsl="$t t--ddbPTeIsNI$t-nEjf2CObCkc;$x 0;" class="r-ipIwTbM4pBCI" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ2Z0BCI4BMAg"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px;"><div data-hveid="148" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFQiUASgJMAk"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><h3 class="r" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-power-that-gerrymandering-has-brought-to-republicans/2016/06/17/045264ae-2903-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-power-that-gerrymandering-has-brought-to-republicans/2016/06/17/045264ae-2903-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQFgiVATAJ" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">The power that gerrymandering has brought to Republicans - The ...</font></a></h3><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 18px;"><div class="f hJND5c TbwUpd" style="height: 18px; line-height: 16px; white-space: nowrap;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.washingtonpost.com/...gerrymandering...republicans/.../045264ae-2903-...</font><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&oq=redmap+project+gop+redistricting&aqs=chrome..69i57.7383j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#" id="am-b9" aria-label="Result details" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQ7B0IlgEwCQ" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; margin: 1px 0px 2px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; transition: none 0s ease 0s; user-select: none; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px; filter: none; width: 13px; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><span class="mn-dwn-arw" style="border-color: rgb(0, 102, 33) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px 4px 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px; margin-left: 3px; top: 7.5px; margin-top: -4px; position: absolute; left: 0px;" /></a></font><div class="action-menu-panel ab_dropdown" role="menu" tabindex="-1" jsaction="keydown:m.hdke;mouseover:m.hdhne;mouseout:m.hdhue" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQqR8IlwEwCQ" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-power-that-gerrymandering-has-brought-to-republicans/2016/06/17/045264ae-2903-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html+redmap+project+gop+redistricting&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQHwiYATAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li></ol></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-power-that-gerrymandering-has-brought-to-republicans/2016/06/17/045264ae-2903-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html+redmap+project+gop+redistricting&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQHwiYATAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="f">Jun 17, 2016 -&nbsp;</span>Chris Jankowski, a tactician for the&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Republican</span>&nbsp;State Leadership Committee, and his allies came up with an audacious plan to target campaign money toward gaining control of state governments, where reapportionment would take place. The operation, called&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">REDMAP</span>&nbsp;(<span style="font-weight: bold;">Redistricting</span>Majority&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Project</span>), was&nbsp;...</font></span></a></div></div></div></div></div><div style="overflow: hidden; background-color: transparent; border: medium none;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-power-that-gerrymandering-has-brought-to-republicans/2016/06/17/045264ae-2903-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html+redmap+project+gop+redistricting&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQHwiYATAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">==</font></a></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-power-that-gerrymandering-has-brought-to-republicans/2016/06/17/045264ae-2903-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html+redmap+project+gop+redistricting&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNqNbxyZraAhXK5YMKHZqICyYQHwiYATAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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