Welcome to this week’s edition of “REDMAP Rundown,” a synopsis of redistricting news brought to you by the RSLC’s REDistricting MAjority Project (REDMAP). This weekly email gives you the latest on what those in the beltway, and across the country, are saying about the impending reapportionment and redistricting process.
In this week’s “REDMAP Rundown,” primaries matter, Arizona is looking at more clout, a California initiative survives, in Illinois … not so much. Louisiana examines the committee process, and in New York the big shots weigh in. Back in DC, the FEC is deadlocked and the RSLC rolls.
“Three Republicans with strong party financial backing, including Mike Obergfell of Fort Wayne, won their Indiana House primary races Tuesday, setting up November matchups with Democrats that could tilt the narrowly divided chamber into GOP hands and decide which party controls redistricting,” reports The News-Sentinel. “Republicans have a comfortable 33-17 edge in the state Senate, where only seven districts had contested primaries. With the upper hand in redistricting at stake, the House Republican Campaign Committee poured $165,000 into Klein’s primary run against Frances Katz in a district that includes southeastern Lake County and parts of Porter and Newton counties in northwest Indiana. Klein captured 66 percent of the vote with 95 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday.”
The Arizona Republic’s Dan Nowicki writes, “Arizona’s political clout will continue to swell nationally as a result of this year’s census, which likely will deliver the state one or possibly two new congressional seats because of the significant population growth over the past decade. … A new congressional district also would give the state another vote in the Electoral College, which decides presidential elections. As a result, Arizona would likely attract even more attention from White House candidates. Few contenders will risk ignoring a rising, increasingly centrist state such as Arizona, as President Barack Obama’s three visits here since taking office amply illustrate. And psychologically, adding a seat in Congress is much better than the alternative of losing one, a pinch certain economically beleaguered states feel every 10 years as House demographics shift to reflect the up-to-date U.S. population numbers.”
“An initiative to add redrawing congressional districts to the duties of the Citizens Redistricting Commission has qualified for the November ballot” in California. The Sacramento Bee reports, “The Voters First Act for Congress would give the job of redrawing congressional district lines every 10 years to the 14-member citizen panel created under Proposition 11, approved in 2008. The first-of-its-kind commission is currently tasked with drafting state legislative and Board of Equalization districts.”
Illinois is a different story, however. “Even without a constitutional amendment, [Democrat Pat Quinn] is promising fair legislative re-districting next year – if he’s still the governor,” according to The Associated Press.
In Louisiana, “Members of the Legislature’s Black Caucus on Wednesday began questioning the makeup of committees that will redraw legislative and other election district lines next year,” reports The Advocate. “House and Senate Governmental Affairs Committees are the first stop in the once every decade remap process in which election districts are redrawn to reflect population shifts since the last census.”
“City Hall News captured this great line from Malcolm Smith saying Democrats ‘are going to draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.’ Not the kind of cynical political strategery that one really wants to get caught saying,” so says the New York Observer.
So, NBC New York asks, “Can legislative districts be re-drawn so that the bad guys don’t necessarily win? … Former Governor George Pataki [says] legislators would never consent to changing their districts to give a challenger a better chance to win. But former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, leader of a new group called New York Uprising, retorted: ‘He’s dead wrong.’”
“After three hours of discussion on Thursday, a deadlocked Federal Election Commission postponed until next week an important decision about whether Members of Congress can raise soft money for some redistricting activities until next week. … On Monday, the FEC released two opposing draft advisory opinions — one that would allow and one that would forbid the trust from using federal lawmakers and candidates to raise unlimited funds for the organization. The FEC’s decision will not affect the Republican State Leadership Committee’s Redistricting Majority Project or the Democrats’ Foundation for the Future, which are deeply involved in the redistricting process but are organized as 527s.”
Speaking of the good guys (us) “On another political front, Gillespie says he’s using his nationwide fundraising contacts to try to double the budget of the Republican State Leadership Committee from $20 million to $40 million for the two-year election cycle. … [He] notes that the group’s electoral mission could yield big dividends down the road, given that redistricting will follow the November elections. ‘These elections have an added benefit in that they can affect redistricting for the Congress for a decade.’”