Democrats are daring to dream. But as strong as Hillary Clinton looks against Donald Trump four months before Election Day – earlier this month, data whiz Nate Silver gave Trump only a 19 percent shot at beating the former secretary of state – 2016 is not looking like a Democratic wave year. Continue reading
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These three maps show just how effectively gerrymandering can swing election outcomes
North Carolina is perhaps the ultimate swing state in 2016: It’s the only one with truly competitive races for president, Senate, and governor. Remarkably, though, not a single seat is expected to change hands in the state’s House delegation, where Republicans hold a lopsided 10-to-3 advantage over Democrats.
Big Republican Advantages Are Eroding in the Race for House Control
The Democratic advantage on the generic congressional ballot has slipped over the last few weeks.But Republicans have gradually lost advantages of their own. Slowly but surely, the considerable structural advantages — like incumbency, geography and gerrymandering — that give the Republicans a chance to survive a so-called wave election are fading, giving Democrats a clearer path to a House majority in November.
Are Wisconsin GOPers Blocking Elections To Protect Their Gerrymander?
Wisconsin Republicans are going to remarkable lengths to avoid holding a pair of special elections for two vacant seats in the state legislature. After a district court ruled last week that Gov. Scott Walker (R) needed to schedule these races as soon as possible, state leadership called lawmakers back to the Capitol for an extraordinary session April 4 to change the law on how and when Wisconsin’s special elections are held. And Walker said he’d sign the legislation.
Republicans Make Moves To Crush Gerrymandering Reform
With anti-gerrymandering efforts heading to the ballot box, Republicans in some states are mobilizing to protect their ability to continue rigging election maps.In late April, a Republican group backed by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce sued to keep a popular redistricting reform measure off the state’s November ballot.
Democrats’ First Order of Business: Making It Easier to Vote and Harder to Buy Elections
House Democrats introduced a sweeping bill
on Friday as their first order of legislative business that would
expand voting rights and curb the influence of money in politics,
signaling their commitment to push back on Republican efforts to undermine the democratic process. The legislation, known as HR 1: The For the People Act, would make it
easier to vote, crack down on gerrymandering, and reduce the influence
of big money in congressional races.
New documents on the census confirm: Trump’s raison d’etre is white power
The Trump administration has devised a fundamentally racist policy:
adding a question to the 2020 Census that will suppress participation
by nonwhite people and, therefore, artificially increase white (and
Republican) power in a new round of gerrymandering. To do this, administration officials falsely told the public, the lower
courts and the Supreme Court that the disadvantage to nonwhite Americans
was statistically questionable and that the Justice Department needed
the change to enforce the Voting Rights Act.
Supreme Court Says Constitution Does Not Bar Partisan Gerrymandering
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against the challengers
opposed to partisan gerrymandering, the practice in which the party
that controls the state legislature draws voting maps to help elect its
candidates. The vote in two cases was 5
to 4, with the court’s more conservative members in the majority. The
court appeared to close the door on such claims.
GOP Racial Gerrymandering Mastermind Participated in Redistricting in More States Than Previously Known, Files Reveal
The reach of late Republican gerrymandering mastermind Thomas
Hofeller may be longer than previously known, according to a review of
thousands of documents and emails culled from his hard drives, obtained
by The Intercept. While Hofeller was known for drawing maps to give
Republicans an advantage and to limit the impact of voters of color in
North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, and Virginia, the new documents reveal
he also participated in the 2010 redistricting cycle in Alabama,
Florida, and West Virginia.