CA: Redistricting law firm favored Democrats in campaign giving

Sac Bee - Capitol Alert ^ | 4/6/11 | Dan Walters

[NormsRevenge]

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the law firm tentatively chosen by the state's new redistricting commission to provide legal advice on the federal Voting Rights Act, has given most of its campaign contributions to Democrats, a new compilation by Maplight.com found.

Maplight, a Berkeley-based database on campaign contributions at state and federal levels, released its study of the law firm's donations Wednesday, just one day before the California Citizens Redistricting Commission is to decide whether to finalize its $150,000 contract.

Gibson, Dunn was tentatively chosen last months after a Sacramento law and lobbying firm with strong Republican ties lost in a preliminary round of voting and then dropped out of the competition.

However, the contract was held up after it was revealed that Gibson, Dunn had made substantial campaign contributions and also was registered as a federal lobbying firm. Republican Party leaders then attacked its selection and that of Q2 Data and Research, a demographic consulting firm, as evidence of a pro-Democrat bias on the commission.

On Wednesday, Maplight provided more fuel for the debate by revealing that since 2003, Gibson, Dunn employees had given $29,700 to legislative candidates since 2003 -- a relatively modest amount -- and that nearly three-quarters went to Democrats. ..

Gibson, Dunn sought to allay fears of partisan bias by assigning two attorneys to the redistricting project, one Democrat and one Republican. Any election law changes affecting four California counties fall under the Voting Rights Act and are subject to Justice Department review and comply with the law is considered to be one of the commission's toughest hurdles.

Two ballot measures created the commission, giving it the decennial task that has been performed in the past by the Legislature, with the state Supreme Court stepping in when political deadlocks stopped action in the Capitol.

[Crim]

Organizational incest...

[newzjunkey]

Democrat law firm? Democrat demographers? In CA, that’s the very definition of non-partisan. /s

[scrabblehack]

OK, let’s see if we can save the state of CA 150 grand.
There don’t appear to be enough blacks anywhere in CA to produce a black majority district. The closest one is Maxine Waters at 29%, and she’s about 40K short of a full district.

Otherwise it would appear that Hispanic majorities in districts 20, 34, 43, 38, 51, 39, 47, 31, 32, and 28 need to be preserved. (This is easily done - each one is at least 57% Hispanic) I am assuming that the current incumbents are the Hispanic constituency’s candidate of choice.

The next group - districts 17, 18, 21, and Waters’ 35th have tenuous Hispanic majorities, especially the 17th, at 50.4% Hispanic, and it has to add about 40K constituents.

The next group - Ken Calvert’s 44th and Mary Bono-Mack’s 45th. Bono-Mack’s is the most populous CD in the state at 914K constituents and 413K Hispanics. A CD needs to be rebalanced to about 703K constituents. I haven’t figured out if the 413K are concentrated in one part of the district or not.

Calvert’s district is similar, at 844K constituents and 367K Hispanics.

Next on the list is the Ribbon of Shame, the 23rd, at 49% Hispanic. Its only hope of maintaining its odd shape is to become majority Hispanic.

Next we have the 37th, which Star Parker so valiantly tried to win in ‘10. It is 49% Hispanic, but has to add 50k+ constituents.

Finally we have the 25th, with 844K constituents and 330K Hispanics. It stretches from the outer reaches of Los Angeles County north through the Mojave Desert and into the Sierra Nevadas. My guess is that most of the 330K live near the LA County end but it would be hard to make this a majority Hispanic district.