"He who controls redistricting can control Congress." ~ Karl Rove

[Emit]

While Dems are bitchin' and griping and eating their own, threatening to sit out the 2010 and 2012 elections 'cause Obama didn't deliver, the sinister powers that be on the right are strategically moving on.

If this article and its long term implications does not scare the heck out of folks and motivate them to focus on 2010 elections ~ or at least vote~ I honestly do not know what can.

**sigh**

I posted on the topic a while back. It sank like a rock with only two responses: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4523438

Perhaps it was too close following the elections for folks to be concerned. But now, November is just around the corner.

Uncharacteristic post for me. Maybe I just got up on the wrong side of bed and opened my email to this (from DGA):

Friend-

"He who controls redistricting can control Congress." -Karl Rove

I just got this article from a colleague and had to send it to you. It's the GOP's comeback plan, from none other than Karl Rove himself.

Backroom power-players like Rove know every loophole and trick in the book when it comes to bypassing voters to seize power.

Remember 1994? The GOP manipulated the congressional redistricting process, snatched up 34 seats, and used their new majority to obstruct progress and smash their disastrous agenda through Congress.

Twisting the political process -- all in the name of taking back power -- is what Republicans do best.

But their plan hinges on one thing: electing GOP governors. In almost every state, the governor has influence over this critical process and the Republicans know they MUST win enough statehouses in November for their underhanded plan to succeed...

Here's Rove's latest hit piece. Is it a fair warning or a veiled threat?

The GOP Targets State Legislatures

He who controls redistricting can control Congress.

The political world is fixated on whether this year's elections will deliver an epic rebuke of President Barack Obama and his party. If that happens, it could end up costing Democrats congressional seats for a decade to come.

Some of the most important contests this fall will be way down the ballot in communities like Portsmouth, Ohio and West Lafayette, Ind., and neighborhoods like Brushy Creek in Round Rock, Texas, and Murrysville Township in Westmoreland County, Pa. These are state legislative races that will determine who redraws congressional district lines after this year's census, a process that could determine which party controls upwards of 20 seats and whether many other seats will be competitive.

Next year, legislatures in the 44 states with more than one congressional seat will adjust their districts' boundaries to account for changes in population.

Some 18 state legislatures could have an additional task. As many as 10 states will have to combine districts as they lose House seats. Eight states are expected to gain at least one seat each.

~snip~

Control of the state legislature matters whether a state loses or gains seats. Take fast-growing Texas, which is expected to pick up as many as four seats next year. Democrats had a 17-13 edge in the state's congressional delegation after the 2000 elections. Republicans won control of the Texas House in 2002 and redrew the state's congressional map. As a result, the GOP now controls 20 congressional seats in Texas while Democrats control 12. Similarly in Georgia, following the 2000 census Democrats redrew district lines to give themselves control of the state's two new congressional seats.

~snip~

Republican strategists are focused on 107 seats in 16 states. Winning these seats would give them control of drawing district lines for nearly 190 congressional seats. Six of these states are projected to pick up a total of nine seats, and five are expected to lose a combined six seats.

Nationally, the GOP's effort will be spearheaded by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). Funded by 80,000 donors, it spent more than $20 million in the last election cycle on legislative races and for attorney general, lieutenant governor and secretary of state campaigns.

~snip~

http://www.rove.com/articles/219

[Emit]

1. Here's Rove's Redistricting map, for those who are interested

http://www.rove.com/polling_notes/0000/0066/Polling_News___Notes_10_15_09.pdf

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Is there any way to make that pdf into a html page?

Something I click on, copy, paste into an email?

[Emit]

6. I honestly do not know, dixiegrrrrl, but I did find this link

Online conversion tools for Adobe PDF documents
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html

And here is the link for the pdf:

Polling News & Notes: October 15, 2009
Looking Ahead to Post-2010 Redistricting
Download PDF »
http://www.rove.com/polling_notes/0000/0066/Polling_News___Notes_10_15_09.pdf

top of this page
http://www.rove.com/polling_notes?page=3

Hope this helps!

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Thanks.....I figured out a way.

good ole print screen + word function.Duh on me.

[tabbycat31]

2. thanks and cross posted

this is a scary thought and it needs to be repeated

[cry baby]

3. He who controls the Spice, controls the universe!

sry, just had to say it. I feel better now...

That Rove is a schemer and we should be wary so we aren't caught asleep.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Any seriuos oppostion party would be smart to watch Rove very closely.

The man is 100% focused on elections and politics, one of the most intense players to come along in a long long time. Just because he is a Repug does not mean we should be ignoring him.

[Emit]

8. Here's an article from 2003 which gives and overview of The Redistricting Wars

involving DeLay, Texas and, of course, Rove. Thought you might be interested, dixiegrrrrl, although I am sure you are likely aware. Just all the more reason for us to keep apprised and be working with equal efforts toward 2010 and beyond:

The Redistricting Wars
By Sasha Abramsky
December 11, 2003

Traditionally, state legislatures and courts spend the year after the national Census redrawing Congressional maps to fit the new demographic realities. The party in control of the most state legislatures and governorships at that moment in time is able to muscle through federal Congressional redistricting maps tailored to benefit itself. And then, having spent a year maneuvering for advantage, the parties back off the issue and accept that the new maps will stay in place until the next Census. That, at least, is how things have worked in the past.

~snip~

This aggressive Republican drive represents a Congressional power grab unprecedented in scale and timing. It is being executed with the encouragement of White House operatives from Karl Rove on down, with the full-throttle support of GOP House majority leader Tom DeLay. And its aim is to shore up the party's Congressional majorities for the next decade.

~snip~

To recap the Texas saga in brief: State Republicans, goaded by Tom DeLay and supported by DeLay-sponsored political action committees (Americans for a Republican Majority and Texans for a Republican Majority), as well as the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, successfully broke the Democratic resistance to mid-decade redistricting. On October 13, they managed to pass a redistricting plan that all concerned agreed would likely give the Republicans an additional seven seats in the House of Representatives.

On many levels, it was a sleazy political power play. Supporters of redistricting were buoyed by having one of the country's top redistricting attorneys serving both the State of Texas and Republican lobbying groups most active in pushing for the state to implement a new Congressional map. Since May of this year, according to the Texas Attorney General's office, the State of Texas has paid three attorneys more than $200,000 to do legal work on the redistricting issue. One of them, Andy Taylor, is also being paid for his redistricting expertise by the avowedly partisan Texans for a Republican Majority. (Taylor, along with DeLay, Rove and a number of state Republican politicians, did not return my calls requesting interviews.) TRM, largely bankrolled by a Republican front organization named the Texas Association of Business, has spent the past several years working to achieve Republican control of Texas's political machine, at least in part with the intent of parlaying this power into a redistricting advantage for federal Congressional elections.

~snip~

http://archive.fairvote.org/articles/redistrictingwars.htm