Gerrymandering (2 Viewers)

[zztop]

I think it is time to have a dedicated topic about it.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I just wish that a totally non partisan committee could do the districts, the maps have to be reviewed and approved by another non partisan committee

and have those districts be some sort of geometric shape that makes sense and not look like an inkblot test

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

I just wish that a totally non partisan committee could do the districts, the maps have to be reviewed and approved by another non partisan committee

and have those districts be some sort of geometric shape that makes sense and not look like an inkblot test

That's basically what we have here in California. That's why we have to have an election to vote on temporarily changing it until we've successfully dealt with the Republican and Trump problem.

 

[zztop]

Newsom says California will draw new electoral maps after Trump ‘missed’ deadline

Governor calls Trump ‘Taco’ online, short for ‘Trump always chickens out’, prompted by president’s flip-flop deadlines

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

From one of my emails from Democracy Docket. You will notice that the Trump DOJ is threatening legal action against blue states who try to redistrict. They are totally shameless and corrupt now. Just like Paxton threatening democrats who left when he fled the state himself at one point to avoid a subpoena. That piece of excrement should be in jail himself right now.

• As Texas continues its redistricting scheme to secure five additional GOP seats ahead of the 2026 midterms, Democratic states have said they’ll fight fire with fire. But as blue states push back, the Trump DOJ is threatening legal action against them.
  
  
• Today a judge in Illinois ruled against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s petition to have the House Democrats who fled to Chicago arrested. The judge said the state circuit court does not have the authority to tell Illinois officials to execute civil warrants from Texas.

Coming up tomorrow​

• Paxton sued former Rep. Beto O'Rourke and his organization Powered by People for funding quorum-breaking Democrats. Last week, the judge temporarily blocked O'Rourke and his group from using political donations to support quorum-breaking Democratic lawmakers.
  
  
• There will be a hearing tomorrow at 11 a.m. CT to address the state's emergency motion to modify the court's block and the request for expedited discovery.

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

From one of my emails from Democracy Docket. You will notice that the Trump DOJ is threatening legal action against blue states who try to redistrict. They are totally shameless and corrupt now. Just like Paxton threatening democrats who left when he fled the state himself at one point to avoid a subpoena. That piece of excrement should be in jail himself right now.

• As Texas continues its redistricting scheme to secure five additional GOP seats ahead of the 2026 midterms, Democratic states have said they’ll fight fire with fire. But as blue states push back, the Trump DOJ is threatening legal action against them.
  
  
• Today a judge in Illinois ruled against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s petition to have the House Democrats who fled to Chicago arrested. The judge said the state circuit court does not have the authority to tell Illinois officials to execute civil warrants from Texas.

Coming up tomorrow​

• Paxton sued former Rep. Beto O'Rourke and his organization Powered by People for funding quorum-breaking Democrats. Last week, the judge temporarily blocked O'Rourke and his group from using political donations to support quorum-breaking Democratic lawmakers.
  
  
• There will be a hearing tomorrow at 11 a.m. CT to address the state's emergency motion to modify the court's block and the request for expedited discovery.

Discovery is a two way street. Just saying.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Newsom says California will draw new electoral maps after Trump ‘missed’ deadline

Governor calls Trump ‘Taco’ online, short for ‘Trump always chickens out’, prompted by president’s flip-flop deadlines

www.theguardian.com

Newsome is trying to break trump.

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

Newsome is trying to break trump.

He definitely seems to trying provoke Trump into a full blown, very public rage meltdown.

 

[Optimus Prime]

With Republicans and Democrats embroiled in a fight over redistricting around the country, GOP operatives are beginning to openly discuss their plan to leverage institutional power — from statehouses to the Supreme Court — to usher in a near-unbreakable House majority.

In Texas, Republicans are pushing forward a plan to create five new GOP House seats, which alone could be enough to prevent Democrats from retaking the House in the 2026 midterms. The new Texas maps are part of a larger redistricting play, in which Republicans think they can squeeze out a dozen new GOP seats from states such as Texas, Florida, Missouri and Indiana.

The redistricting play from Republicans, however, is only part of a larger campaign to totally change the state of play in the House of Representatives. If successful, that effort could see Republicans pick up more than 40 seats without having to win any more support from voters, according to GOP operatives.

GOP strategist Alex deGrasse, an advisor to Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., spoke about the emerging plan on Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” outlining three changes that Republicans are counting on to bail them out of potential democratic accountability: partisan gerrymandering; a Supreme Court ruling that guts the Voting Rights Act; and an unprecedented and unconstitutional mid-decade Census.

“You’ve got these three vectors,” deGrasse said. “Back of the envelope map this morning — when I woke up with a smile — was Democrats could lose 42 seats.”

Potentially the most important part of this plan hangs on the fate of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This section of the landmark civil rights law generally bans race-based discrimination in voting laws, and has been an important part of the legal framework that currently guarantees House districts where the majority of the voters are a minority group. This then allows members of that minority group the ability to elect their chosen representative.

The case before the court directly concerns one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black districts, with the group of voters who brought the case seeking to overturn the current map used in the state. Republicans, however, are hoping the Supreme Court will issue a maximalist ruling that would allow their party to dilute minority voters in the South, effectively eliminating Black representation in Congress in swaths of the country. This would also, in effect, eliminate many Democratic seats across the South..............

The GOP plot to gain 40 seats without winning any more votes - Salon.com

Party operatives think gerrymandering, a new Census and a friendly Supreme Court can help keep Republicans in power

www.salon.com

 

[zztop]

This is what I predict will happen (similar patterns exist to predict the pattern). If Texas succeeds in this bullshirt, then all the other republican controlled states will follow suit. Because they can. This might escalate a 'redistricting war' where (D) controlled states do the exact same thing in retaliation. It won't be an isolated instance of TX and CA just doing this.

I really dislike gerrymandering, even if it helps 'my side'. I think it should be abolished and neutral lines be drawn. This is, of course, a pipe dream

 

[coldseat]

With Republicans and Democrats embroiled in a fight over redistricting around the country, GOP operatives are beginning to openly discuss their plan to leverage institutional power — from statehouses to the Supreme Court — to usher in a near-unbreakable House majority.

In Texas, Republicans are pushing forward a plan to create five new GOP House seats, which alone could be enough to prevent Democrats from retaking the House in the 2026 midterms. The new Texas maps are part of a larger redistricting play, in which Republicans think they can squeeze out a dozen new GOP seats from states such as Texas, Florida, Missouri and Indiana.

The redistricting play from Republicans, however, is only part of a larger campaign to totally change the state of play in the House of Representatives. If successful, that effort could see Republicans pick up more than 40 seats without having to win any more support from voters, according to GOP operatives.

GOP strategist Alex deGrasse, an advisor to Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., spoke about the emerging plan on Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” outlining three changes that Republicans are counting on to bail them out of potential democratic accountability: partisan gerrymandering; a Supreme Court ruling that guts the Voting Rights Act; and an unprecedented and unconstitutional mid-decade Census.

“You’ve got these three vectors,” deGrasse said. “Back of the envelope map this morning — when I woke up with a smile — was Democrats could lose 42 seats.”

Potentially the most important part of this plan hangs on the fate of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This section of the landmark civil rights law generally bans race-based discrimination in voting laws, and has been an important part of the legal framework that currently guarantees House districts where the majority of the voters are a minority group. This then allows members of that minority group the ability to elect their chosen representative.

The case before the court directly concerns one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black districts, with the group of voters who brought the case seeking to overturn the current map used in the state. Republicans, however, are hoping the Supreme Court will issue a maximalist ruling that would allow their party to dilute minority voters in the South, effectively eliminating Black representation in Congress in swaths of the country. This would also, in effect, eliminate many Democratic seats across the South..............

The GOP plot to gain 40 seats without winning any more votes - Salon.com

Party operatives think gerrymandering, a new Census and a friendly Supreme Court can help keep Republicans in power

www.salon.com

Democrats better mount up and come with all they got. Gerrymander the fork out of every blue state. Wipeout every blue state Republican MAGA sycophant seat starting with Stefanik. Blue states will have a lot more room to maneuver once they get rid of the independent commissions.

 

[Rysilk]

In researching all this, it's quite absurd. Plenty of Blue and Red states already do this, and no one cares, but Texas is doing it at a time when it's usually not done, thus the uproar.

So the silly message being sent is, both sides are fine with gerrymandering as long as they all do it at the same time....

 

[MT15]

So the silly message being sent is, both sides are fine with gerrymandering as long as they all do it at the same time....

Not really. The message from Dems has historically been that partisan gerrymandering should be illegal. Some states have followed through and outlawed it.

Trump and the GOP are threatening to “re-do” the census, redistrict every red state, and repeal a section of the Voting Rights Act (this is before SCOTUS right now and they are fast tracking it so it would be in effect before the midterms). It’s a three-pronged blitz to make sure they can never lose the House again.

Democrats simply cannot allow the GOP to keep grabbing power from a minority position, which is what gerrymandering accomplishes.

 

[zztop]

I was wondering how long it would be before a BOTH SIDES comment got inserted

 

[Rysilk]

Not really. The message from Dems has historically been that partisan gerrymandering should be illegal. Some states have followed through and outlawed it.

Trump and the GOP are threatening to “re-do” the census, redistrict every red state, and repeal a section of the Voting Rights Act (this is before SCOTUS right now and they are fast tracking it so it would be in effect before the midterms). It’s a three-pronged blitz to make sure they can never lose the House again.

Democrats simply cannot allow the GOP to keep grabbing power from a minority position, which is what gerrymandering accomplishes.

I get that, and I am fully aware that Democrats at one point tried to pass a bill as such and the REpublicans blocked it, but they aren't fully absolved. I mean, just look at Illinois and Massachusetts. Yes, Republicans are FAR and away more flagrant about it, much more aggressive about it to be sure. And while unfortunate, I totally get Democrats throwing it back at the Republicans because, at this point you have to.

I'm just saying glass houses and rocks and all that.

 

[RobF]

I get that, and I am fully aware that Democrats at one point tried to pass a bill as such and the REpublicans blocked it, but they aren't fully absolved. I mean, just look at Illinois and Massachusetts. Yes, Republicans are FAR and away more flagrant about it, much more aggressive about it to be sure. And while unfortunate, I totally get Democrats throwing it back at the Republicans because, at this point you have to.

I'm just saying glass houses and rocks and all that.

I mean, if you get that they have to, then it's not a rocks and glass houses thing.

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

This is what I predict will happen (similar patterns exist to predict the pattern). If Texas succeeds in this bullshirt, then all the other republican controlled states will follow suit. Because they can. This might escalate a 'redistricting war' where (D) controlled states do the exact same thing in retaliation. It won't be an isolated instance of TX and CA just doing this.

I really dislike gerrymandering, even if it helps 'my side'. I think it should be abolished and neutral lines be drawn. This is, of course, a pipe dream

In total, Republicans have done more gerrymandering across the country and have gained more seats from it. If every state gerrymanders heavily in favor of the ruling party, the Republicans will have a net loss of seats.

 

[MT15]