Report: Leaked emails show behind the scenes GOP consultant influence over Fla. redistricting

local10.com ^ | November 23, 2014

[ilovesarah2012]

Hundreds of pages of emails show a handful of Republican political consultants' efforts to influence Florida's redistricting process, according to report published Sunday from the Scripps-Tribune Capital Bureau.

The news organization obtained emails showing the consultants looked for ways to put more minority voters in specific districts. The emails were released as part of a lawsuit by several organizations alleging the 2012 redistricting process sought to pack Democrat-leaning minority voters into a few districts to make other seats more reliably Republican.

The Gainesville consulting firm Data Targeting fought to block the emails' release, but the Florida Supreme Court ruled against Data Targeting and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Friday. The documents were released as part of the lawsuit brought by groups including the League of Women Voters, alleging lawmakers drew congressional maps to favor Republicans. Such efforts counter anti-gerrymandering requirements in the Florida Constitution. Although the lawsuit focused on congressional districts, many of the emails referenced statehouse districts.

[ilovesarah2012]

Democratic consultants crafted maps, funding redistricting lawsuit

http://www.politicalfixflorida.com/2014/04/18/democratic-consultants-drew-maps-funding-redistricting-lawsuit/

[FlingWingFlyer]

I wish they’d leak some email about how Barack the Kenyan sent his commie pig operators to Arizona to gerrymander the districts in our state to get more Mexicans elected. Somebody should be in jail including the so called judges who let this atrocity stand.

[jsanders2001]

The attack on the GOP begins before they shutdown the government and defund his majesty’s amnesty. Expect something new every day now.

[a fool in paradise]

I thought that minorities were packed into the same district to create a minority victory “set aside” seat.

When Chris Bell (D-TX) lost his House seat in the first election after redistricting, he lost it to a black Democrat.

Chris Bell’s resulting action as a lame duck Rep. was to file a spurious ‘ethics’ charge against Tom DeLay (resulting in Rep. DeLay stepping down while tainted by a long delayed trial).

I believe Chris Bell is a racist liberal because he was so angry about losing his seat to a black man. He can’t be angry about losing it to a Republican because THAT DID NOT HAPPEN.

[InterceptPoint]

Gerrymandering

[sphinx]

This is news? Political parties doing what political parties do? Looking at the partisan implications of different redistricting scenarios? And the democrats don't do this as well? Heck, the democrats invented the game, in its modern form, back about 1980, when that newfangled computer thingee made it easy. I personally sat through a briefing from John Burton, who was beside himself with glee about the creative computer-aided lines the democrats were drawing to flummox the Republicans.

But this story is based on leaked emails. Oooooh.

[ilovesarah2012]

January 30, 2012

Congressman Allen West is facing gerrymandering problems in Florida. Is your state trying to redistrict voter outcomes too?

If you think Congress Allen West is having redistricting problems you should take at look at your own Congressional District.

I live in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District…soon to be District 2 or it might remain as District 8 depending which way the flatulence blows.

Redistricting looks to balance a district to make it competitive for the Republican or Democratic candidates. In addition to the balanced approach districts are also realigned for a desired political party outcome.

But wait! The Democratic, Republican and all other partys are NOT part of the government…they just run it. So why are State Governments redistricting in favor of any political party?

There are nine congressional districts in Arizona and currently 3,138,327 register voters.

The number of registered voter and population for each of the nine districts varies from a high of 518,240 in Congressional 6 to a low of 203,359 in District 2. At a ratio of 1:2.55, District 2 clearly has the best Congressperson to voter and Congressperson to citizen ratios than any other county.

By using Arizona Congressional District 2 as the baseline, all of the voters outside of AZCD2 have been granted diminished political power and representation.

http://fishygov.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/congressman-allen-west-is-facing-gerrymandering-problems-in-florida-is-your-state-trying-to-redistrict-voter-outcomes-too/

[Din Maker]

Uh...... I think this is S.O.P. for Re-Distritcting in in every single state. The Party in power, in the State Legislatures, carves out the Congressional Districts. So, m I missing something here?

[centurion316]

California decided to do away with this evil, partisan gerrymandering and go with an independent, nonpartisan redistricting commission who would act in the best interests of all the people to provide compact districts that would incorporate a region of similar interests, shared concerns, and a common sense of purpose. It was going to be wonderful and the naive Republicans went along. The Democrats packed the commission with party hacks and they controlled the redistricting process. Guess how that turned out.

[cotton1706]

Yeah, to get rid of Allen West.

[ilovesarah2012]

Yep.

[Figment]

So what? Same thing would have happened in reverse if dims were redistricting

[Ocoeeman]

This is much to do about nothing and is simply misinformation for the aggrievance industry.

The real problem is how to mathematically craft a majority-minority district in Central and North Florida.

Simply put, the target minority’s are geographically dispersed in this part of the state into small islands so the map makers had to cobble together districts like Corrine Browns 5th District that links every black minority area from Jacksonville to West Orlando to just barely get a majority minority.

As for Corrine, what is up with these democratic candidates? Upon meeting her you would quickly come to the conclusion she has either a) a room temperature IQ or b) has suffered a series of strokes.

My suspicion is she has to be a front for the real power broker.

[goodnesswins]

What you are missing is that most Americans are too stupid to know this

[Prospero]

Ridiculous. Anyone who follows the changing state of federal oversight of voting rights and the Supreme Court's latest precedent knows this is part of the process. The Democrats are, in fact, far worse about defining "coalition districts," which is another way of carving up Black census blocks to insure the election of white Democrats.

The Court says a "minority majority" district is 50 percent plus one. That means you have to go looking for them, you have to find them contiguously, as well. Either way the process requires the exchange of knowledge inherently racist, in my opinion, but that's the law.

And the right of the legislature to decide it's district lines after a census is pretty well established.

This is all just poisoning the jury pool, in hope the court will change its mind, again, by the time the case makes its way to the Supremes, or the that the Court changes.

The Democrats can count on the ignorance of the press. I've yet to read a single article about redistricting that was not, in some way, incorrect in some way. You can always count on the press to be ignorant or lazy.

[ilovesarah2012]

One side will always be unhappy.

[Vaduz]

No word from Cook county.

[Georgia Girl 2]

“alleging lawmakers drew congressional maps to favor Republicans”

Works for me. :-)

[aimhigh]

This is how redistricting works. Nothing new. Just look at Oregon, where conservatives have been redistricted to oblivion.