Democrats have finally learned their lesson, one hopes, after the debacle of the 2010 election in which GOP majorities were elected in statehouses and Congress that then gerrymandered their way into safe districts that are mostly safe until 2020, when the next decennial census occurs and is followed by the next redistricting battles.
Huffington Post reports, Democrats Are Already Planning For The Next Round Of Redistricting Battles:
Democrats launched a super PAC Thursday with the purpose of flipping state legislatures before the next round of redistricting, which will follow the 2020 elections.
The PAC, called Advantage 2020, will be led by Mark Schauer, a former Democratic congressman and Michigan state Senate leader who lost the state’s gubernatorial race to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder last year. Advantage 2020 plans to spend about $70 million over the next three elections in an attempt to chip away at GOP majorities in key battleground states where Republicans established legislative districts after the 2010 elections.
“The coming round of congressional redistricting will shape the political landscape for the next decade, and Mark’s leadership of Advantage 2020 is crucial to empowering us to win the state legislative seats critical to that process,” said Michael Sargeant, the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which is funding the PAC, in a statement.
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Democrats have argued that Republicans have more successfully capitalized on their redistricting power. After the GOP flipped 22 state legislatures and gained six governorships in their 2010 wave, some idiosyncratic results were seen in the 2012 election. Republicans won nine of Michigan’s 14 congressional races, for instance, but President Barack Obama won the state by 9.5 percentage points.
“When state legislative and congressional district lines are redrawn after the next Census, state lawmakers will play a direct role in that process in 36 states, encompassing 336 congressional districts,” Schauer said in the statement. “Democrats must have a role in this redistricting, or the nation could face another decade of the GOP’s extreme, out-of-touch agenda as Republicans gerrymander themselves into power.”
Republicans dominated down-ballot races in 2014, emerging with control of a historic 68 of the of 98 partisan state legislative chambers. Given that disparity, the Advantage 2020 PAC — along with the State Innovation Exchange, a new organization dedicated to helping push through progressive legislation — are part and parcel of a Democratic effort to pay as much attention to the states as their Republican counterparts.
It will take more than a PAC raising money. It will take strategic planning, solid candidate recruitment, and winning elections — solving the Democratic voter midterm election drop-off in 2018 would be huge. There are only three more election cycles — two of them presidential years — in which to narrow the gap that currently exists in statehouses before the next round of redistricting. Democrats need to chip away at the GOP advantage in each of these elections.
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Meanie;
It’s a distortion to say, “Democrats have finally learned their lesson…”. Some Democrats here in AZ and certainly in Colorado have known for years, at least 17 that I know of, that redistricting is a very important political process. Nevertheless I’m glad to hear it’s getting renewed emphasis.