Republicans Have a New Plan to Thwart the Will of the People

[Zorro]

A Missouri initiative would undo voters’ preference for nonpartisan legislative districts — and perhaps shift representation itself.

When Karl Rove laid out the Republican plan to win back power by weaponizing redistricting in a March 2010 op-ed, Democrats failed to pay proper attention.

The vision set forth — called Redmap, short for the Redistricting Majority Project — proved simple yet revolutionary: In most states, legislatures control the decennial redistricting that follows the census. So in November 2010, Republicans invested tens of millions of dollars in these ordinarily sleepy local races and swept elections.

Through gerrymandering, they drew themselves huge advantages in Congress and state capitals, firewalls that have allowed Republicans in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan and elsewhere to survive wave elections in which Democratic state legislative candidates won hundreds of thousands more votes.

It’s a census-year election again, and this time both sides understand the stakes. Democrats know down-ballot elections this fall are the last opportunity to close the redistricting gap before next decade’s maps are drawn.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/opinion/missouri-republicans-gerrymander.html

[lastlib]

1. We'd better pay attention to this, folks!!

We lose this at our peril--it could be as imprtant as any campaign we face this year!

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