GOP Serious About Redistricting

[babylonsister]

Republicans' allies eye state legislatures as redistricting nears

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 25, 2010


Seeking to capitalize on the excitement among Republican potential donors after Scott Brown's stunning capture of a Senate seat in Massachusetts last week, two independent groups focused on helping the party regain state legislative majorities before next year's nationwide redistricting are significantly ramping up their efforts.

The American Majority Project (AMP) is the new kid on the block, a 527 group -- meaning it is allowed by law to accept unlimited contributions -- formed in recent days with the backing of Republican heavyweights such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush and an advisory board that includes former congressman Robin Hayes (N.C.), former Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan and GOP superlawyer Ben Ginsberg.

The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), which has been around since 2002 to help aid GOP candidates running for state legislatures and other state offices, is getting something of a makeover -- bringing on former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie as its chairman and former National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) as its vice chairman.

"Targeting 35 to 40 state legislative races this cycle could translate into 25 to 32 U.S. House seats over the next five cycles," Gillespie said. "It makes a lot of sense to get this right."

Sources familiar with the two groups insist that while their missions are the same, there will be enough room for both in what has been a drastically underserved area with the Republican Party. And, with Republican donors more excited about the party's prospects than they have been in the past several elections, there should be enough cash to go around.

The RSLC, which spent $22 million on state legislative and down-ballot races in 2008, will have a $40 million budget in 2010, Gillespie said. The AMP's budget is also in the tens of millions, according to sources familiar with the planning, although no hard number has been set.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012402888.html

[hobbit709]

1. At least we don't have Tom DeLay messing with it here in TX this time.

But it will still be a major hassle.

[Craftsman]

2. Unless I miss my guess 2010 will be a real bad year for Dems

all down the ballot, and the 2011 legislatures get to redistrict so expect them to draw the lines their way.

[fasttense]

3. If President Obama had prosecuted the bushes, we would NOT be

seeing them do this. If Obama had merely danced out the bushes crimes, we would probably NOT be seeing this now. But instead, Obama played nicey-nice with criminals and didn't look back. So now the criminals are tripping him up from behind.

The only solution for the American middle class is mass protests. Nothing else has worked.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

8. REPUBLICANS DON'T WANT FEDERAL GOVT TO SUCCEED

THEY MUST BE ELIMINATED

[spinbaby]

4. If I were an evil person

I'd tell everyone to fill the teabagger boards with conspiracy theories about the census so red areas are under-represented in the final count. But I would never suggest such a thing.

[GoCubsGo]

6. No need to do that.

I'm sure they are doing that all by themselves. Michelle Bachmann has already filled their heads with conspiracy nonsense.

[uponit7771]

9. Yeap...that would be byad....mmmmkkkkayyyy

[blondeatlast]

5. State elections are becoming nothing more than strategy for rhe RNC.

Sham GOTV with scare-tactic propositions and now this. Shameful.

[hughee99]

7. Now this?

Pouring money into state races to have more control during redistricting? This isn't new, both parties have been doing this for years, only the front group they've created for this purpose is new.

[starroute]

10. The people who stole the 2000 and 2004 elections are back

Tom DeLay may be out of the picture for the moment, but the rest of the gang is all here.

Ed Gillespie was deeply involved with the original Permanent Republican Majority project in the 90's, when he was tight with then-RNC chair Haley Barbour. He became a Bush campaign advisor in 2000 and was in Miami for the Florida recount. After working on the Bush transition, he left to form the 21st Century Energy Project, which arranged for Enron to funnel $50,000 through Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform to promote Bush's energy plan. He then served as RNC chairman in 2003-04.

Tom Reyolds became chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee around the same time, in 2003, and two now-disgraced members of the NRCC executive committee, Bob Ney and John Doolittle, had close ties to both Reynolds and Jack Abramoff. Reynolds, Ney, and Doolittle were all members of the House Administration Committee, which was engaged at the time in everything from blocking measures designed to ensure touchscreen voting integrity to holding hearings into Democratic soft money groups.

These guys aren't anything as relatively innocuous as teabaggers -- this is the heart of the old Republican dirty tricks machine, saddling up again for one more go-round. (And Haley Barbour, last I checked, was running the Republican Governors' Association, which targets the statehouses, so he's still active as well.)