E-mails show plotting by lawmakers, GOP on Florida redistricting
Source: Tampa Tribune
TALLAHASSEE Florida legislative leaders appear to have authorized staff members to use private email accounts and had "brainstorming meetings" with Republican Party consultants to attempt to draw favorable political districts, despite a constitutional ban on such coordination.
The allegations arise from a lawsuit challenging the Senate and congressional redistricting that include emails showing how top aides to House Speaker Will Weatherford, Senate President Don Gaetz and several Gaetz consultants were in frequent contact with operatives who drafted and analyzed maps.
Redistricting takes place every decade to redraw legislative and congressional district boundaries to ensure equal representation.
The emails show that a month after voters in 2010 approved an amendment banning coordination between the party and lawmakers, GOP consultant and Gaetz adviser Rich Heffley called a redistricting "brainstorming" meeting at the chairman's conference room at party headquarters in Tallahassee.
Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/e-mails-show-plotting-by-lawmakers-gop-on-florida-redistricting/1273743
Pretty clear they broke the law
Coolest Ranger
(2,034 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)This is the new norm for the 21st Century, along with torture, taxpayer subsidized billionaires, and 1984 as a politico manifesto, not a cautionary tale.
progressoid
(50,597 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)but my ability to be optimistic died with Obama's embracing and expansion of Bush war crimes.
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)I'm sure if the she were on the other foot the repukes would have done everything to put the dems responsible in jail. Remember Don sigleman... Dems need to grow some.....
Berlum
(7,044 posts)As usual. Right out of the cesspool.
valerief
(53,235 posts)That's how politics in the U.S. rolls.
tclambert
(11,123 posts)How about "Congressional districts must be drawn to have the minimum possible border length"?
A computer can analyze the density of voter population and calculate the configuration of districts giving the minimum borders. What would we need? A constitutional amendment? Maybe state by state. If a few states made this rule, it might embarrass others into joining up.
Redfairen
(1,276 posts)What this shows is that even when the voters pass firm rules they will get corrupted by crooked politicians. The new Florida state constitutional amendments on gerrymandering have very specific guidelines. But when those guidelines are being carried out by partisans who detest them then they will find ways to compromise the rules. The only real way to solve it is take the process out of the hands of politicians and give it to a non-partisan commission.
formercia
(18,479 posts)Like all species that are unable to adapt to a changing environment. The GOP is doomed to marginalization and eventual extinction. These little games they play are just playing for time, but the facts are that the Demographics are steadily and irreversibly changing, and not in their favor.
Sure, we have to keep fighting them, otherwise, they would impose a Minority-led regime, tantamount to them enslaving the majority of the population.
It's only a matter of Time. Perhaps I will not see it in my lifetime, but I hope my children will enjoy a just Society. This is why I fight.