Page 22 - Redistricting Process News Today

2008, republican political operatives started a project they called the redistricting majority project, red map for short. the idea behind red map was to flip as many state legislators from blue to red. and the timing was important because every ten years when they do the census, state legislators get to redraw election districts. in the lead-up to the 2010 midterm election, red map starting raising money to flip districts, to flip legislative seats, to approach that whole problem systematically...

Republican donors that only had big national ambitions, they took that money and they spent it in the most unimaginably obscure races all over the country in very specific strategic ways. the operational genius of the plan was they identified the states that gave their legislatures the most control over the redistricting process. they found the place they would get the most bang for their buck if they were going to be successful. in those specific states they identified the races they could win ...

Well, its a busy week at the u.s. supreme court today. today the court heard oral arguments about redistricting and whether its constitutional for a state in this case arizona to take its legislature out of the redistricting process and give it to an independent commission. id do that. on wednesday, its the big one, oral arguments in the case of king vs. burwell. the question there is whether the irs can expand tax credit subsidies, subsidies to cover insurance purchased through federal exchange...

Well its a busy week at the u.s. supreme court today. today the court heard oral arguments about redistricting and whether its constitutional for a state in this case arizona to take its legislature out of the redistricting process and give it to an independent commission. id do that. on wednesday, its the big one, ora lrgs arguments in the case of king versus borrell. the question there is whether the irs can expand tax credit subsidies, subsidies to cover insurance purchased through federal ex...

Pockets and typical republican donors. they got $30 million for the quiet project. but instead of applying that money to the senate races and congressional rations and governors races around the country, that get all of the attention, instead of those, what they did at red map was political genius. as a pure political move, it was a visionary thing they put that big money from big ticket republican donors that only had big national ambitions, they took that money and they spent it in the most un...

Assertions. and i was sitting in the audience when they said this over and over again. this was going to be the most open and transparent redistricting process the state had ever seen. so he very kindly made note of the fact that the plaintiffs and league of women voters and other organizations worked so hard to draw the curtain back and make sure that the people of florida could see that there was a shadow process going on despite all this talk of openness and transparency and public input. >> ...

Operatives to conduct an elaborate astroturf campaign trying to make it look like ordinary citizens just happened to back those suspicious district maps that favored the gop and how operatives wrote scripts for people to attend public hearings and said, yeah, they wanted the gop-friendly maps and then later legislators destroyed e-mails and other evidence of communication regarding the redistricting process. judge lewis ruled that because of all this, those two politically gerrymandered district...

Audience when they said this over and over again. this was going to be the most open and transparent redistricting process the state had ever seen. so he very kindly made note of the fact that the plaintiffs and league of women voters and other organizations worked so hard to draw the curtain back and make sure that the people of florida could see that there was a shadow process going on despite all this talk of openness and transparency and public input. >> yeah, and i think in that respect, th...

If the decision is upheld by the state supreme court, the districts will have to be redrawn from scratch. judge terry lewis wrote the case goes to the very foundation of our representative democracy, quoting george washingtons warning against cunning, ambitious, unprincipled men. he found that political consultants or operatives conspired to influence the redistricting process. the push back against a practice as old as our democracy, gerrymandering, didnt materialize overnight. they voted for a...

Like this one, the width of a highway bridge. a move opponents claim was designed to make surrounding districts friendlier to republicans. once they were done and dismissed republican consultants that helped them, they destroyed most documents related to the redistricting process. as judge lewis wrote yesterday, you have to wonder, indeed, you do. joining me now, editor at large of salon, joan walsh, host joy reed. joy, florida export, electoral expert, political expert you are, this goes back t...