GOP Admits Election Success Due To Gerry mandering

huffpostBy Nick Wing, Huffington Post Latino Voices

The 2012 elections didn’t turn out so well as a whole for the GOP, but the Republican State Leadership Committee issued a memo this month proudly explaining that it could have been a lot worse if not for the successful redistricting push spurred by its efforts.

The report — drafted as a summary of the importance of the RSLC’s Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP) — serves as a breakdown of the broader GOP plan to take control of state legislatures, giving Republicans free rein to mount an aggressive gerrymandering campaign that allowed the party to keep a House majority, despite getting fewer votes in those races overall.

capitol hill congress“The rationale was straightforward,” reads the memo. “Controlling the redistricting process in these states would have the greatest impact on determining how both state legislative and congressional district boundaries would be drawn. Drawing new district lines in states with the most redistricting activity presented the opportunity to solidify conservative policymaking at the state level and maintain a Republican stronghold in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next decade.”

Republicans injected $30 million — much of it from dark money contributions — into state races in 2010, often targeting vulnerable blue state Democrats in races that wouldn’t otherwise draw a lot of national funding. ProPublica reported last monththat the Democratic counterpart only raised $10 million. When the midterm elections were done, Republicans had gained unilateral control of 11 state legislatures, upping their total to 25. Between then and the 2012 elections, GOP lawmakers in these states had largely undisputed power over redrawing congressional districts. As the memo notes, their resulting actions helped allow Republicans to maintain control of the House, even though Democratic…

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This article was first published in Hufington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo by Francisco Diez]

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