Supreme Court approves use of independent panels for congressional redistricting

Supreme Court approves use of independent panels for congressional redistricting: http://t.co/HzwUcwOAwV pic.twitter.com/kcMzk9ytiP

— The Hill (@thehill) June 29, 2015

Justices uphold Arizona’s system for redistricting http://t.co/5x9jmPn4OD via @AP

— Red Alert Politics (@RedAlert) June 29, 2015

How Maps Helped Republicans Keep an Edge in the House

◼ Redistricting may sound esoteric, but it can have an impact on governing at the state and federal levels. - Griff Palmer and Michael Cooper/NYT

In the nation as a whole, Democratic candidates for Congress won 1.1 million more votes than Republicans... But Republicans maintained their control of the House - making this one of a handful of elections in the last century where the party that won the popular vote for Congress did not win control of the House.

Deadline to File for Republican Central Committees is next Friday, March 9th.

The deadline to file for Republican Central Committees is next Friday, March 9th. CFRW President Hadley is encouraging all of our Republican Women Federated to get involved with the Republican Party and volunteer for their Central Committees. Republican Women do a lot for the Party and it’s time we are recognized for it! By sitting on your Central Committees you have a much greater chance to become a delegate to the California Republican Party and have a voice in how our party is run. Go down to your county elections office and find out what is needed to gather signatures! Find out when your next Central Committee meeting is and attend! Get involved today!

◼ Humboldt County's Central Committee ◼ meets first Thursdays. Stay in touch at ◼ humboldtgop.org (HRWF's "sister" site)

With redistricting, four of the five districts have changes to the number of seats available:

1st --6 (from 9)
2nd--5 (from 4)
3rd--3 (no change)
4th--3 (from 4)
5th--5 (from 3)

It is possible that with changes in supervisorial district lines some members have been moved into a
different district. If you have any doubt your own status, call the Elections Office, 445-7481.

You'll need the signatures of 20 Republicans from your own district (and they recommend 30, in case any are disallowed.)

Qualified Statewide Ballot Measures

◼ The following is a list of measures that have qualified for the ballot. - sos.ca.gov/elections

June 2012 Statewide Ballot Measures:
Proposition 28 - Limits on Legislators' Terms in Office.
Proposition 29 - Imposes Additional Tax on Cigarettes for Cancer Research.

November 2012 Statewide Ballot Measure:
SBx7 2. - Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2012
1487 - Prohibits Political Contributions by Payroll Deduction. Prohibitions on Contributions to Candidates
1495 - Changes Law to Allow Auto Insurance Companies to Set Prices Based on a Driver's History of Insurance Coverage
1499 - Redistricting. State Senate Districts

November 2014 Statewide Ballot Measure:
ACA 4 was moved from the June 2012 Presidential Primary Election to the November 2014 General Election by SB 202 (Chapter 558, 2011) Hancock. Elections: ballot measures.
ACA 4. (Chapter 174, 2010), Gatto. State finance.
*State Budget. Changes California Budget Process. Limits State Spending. Increases "Rainy Day" Budget Stabilization Fund.

Local: Time is short. Absentee ballots for the Primary Election will come out in May.

◼ There will be a Candidates' Night in Fortuna Union High School gymnasium on Thursday, March 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. - Richard Leamon/Letter to the Editor/Times-Standard

As I have been putting up posters in stores and businesses for this, I have become very concerned that many voters do not understand what it is all about. Speaking to people in these businesses, I have learned that many people do not realize that “redistricting” in California has eliminated Congressman Mike Thompson as our representative here on the North Coast. They are unaware that a slate of completely new people wish to take his place in Washington, D.C.

New political maps force North Coast politicians to adjust plans

◼ Most of the 2nd District’s new area was carved out of Rep. Mike Thompson’s 1st District, which is renamed the 5th District. - Jeremy Hay/Press Democrat via WatchSonomaCounty.com (image source)

This is the redistricting the Humboldt RCC campaigned against. We didn't win. h/t: cece

California Supreme Court Chooses Citizen Redistricting Commission Senate Maps

◼ This is the fourth legal decision which has upheld the work of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. - Huffington Post

...not only do the Commission-certified Senate districts appear to comply with all of the constitutionally mandated criteria set forth in California Constitution, article XXI, the Commission-certified Senate districts also are a product of what generally appears to have been an open, transparent and nonpartisan redistricting process as called for by the current provisions of article XXI.

◼ Back to the campaign drawing board for California Republicans. - CalWatchDog

The immediate fallout: State Sen. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, told his hometown paper that he wouldn’t seek reelection, due to the unfavorable maps approved by the court. In another swing seat, Republicans have yet even to field a candidate. State Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection in order to run for a new seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

If Republicans lose both state Senate seats, their Senate caucus will be reduced to fewer than 14 members, the all-important two-thirds threshold that gives Republicans the ability to block tax increases. At 13 Republican and 27 Democratic state senators, Democrats in the Senate could vote to impose infinite tax increases.

“It’s going to be seriously difficult for Republicans to stay above one-third in the Senate because of this,” California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro complained to the Mercury News. “It puts the two-party system in the Senate in jeopardy.”

Republicans can now put a cost on their defeat: $2.1 million.

Allen West to run for reelection in different Florida district

◼ Tea party firebrand Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) announced Tuesday that he will switch districts and run for reelection in Florida’s new 18th district… - HotAir

According to WaPo’s analysis of the new Florida map last week, Rooney and West were the two big losers from redistricting, with each of their home bases turning roughly four points bluer. That’s the bad news; the good news is that the 18th (i.e. the 16th) District has been more reliably Republican in recent years than West’s 22nd has.

Here is some good news about State Senate redistricting from CRP Chairman Tom DelBeccaro:

Good news! We passed another important milestone!

As you know, the California Republican Party supported the referendum to have the Senate district lines drawn in a fair fashion. We supported that referendum because we do not believe that the Citizen Commission acted fairly in the way they conducted business in general and in the way they drew the lines in specific.

The CRP was not the only one skeptical of the Commission. Recently, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative team at ProPublica cast a highly critical shadow over the way the Democrats gamed the system to their advantage with respect to the congressional districts. We also know that the recipients of donations from at least one Democrat Commissioner benefitted from the lines that were drawn.

Supporting the referendum was the right thing to do under all of the circumstances.

Today I am pleased to report that based on the total number signatures and the quality of the signature gathering - in which CRP volunteers played a key role - the referendum surpassed a key hurdle. Because the random sampling is indicating that we have sufficient signatures to qualify the Referendum for the November ballot, the State is now required to count all of the signatures to confirm the measure.

Local: Democrats manipulated California redistricting commission; ProPublica investigation reveals process was biased

◼ California's congressional Democrats ran a secret effort earlier this year to manipulate the work of the independent citizen panel that drew the state's new political districts, foiling the intent of reformers who sought to remove the redistricting process from the control of party bosses. - Times-Standard

Democrats met behind closed doors at the party's Washington, D.C., headquarters, hired consultants, drew their ideal districts and presented maps to the panel through proxies who never disclosed their party ties or “public interest” groups created specifically for the purpose. In many cases, the panel responded by doing just what the Democrats wanted.

The New York-based nonprofit investigative foundation ProPublica released findings last week from a months-long reconstruction of the Democrats' stealth redistricting strategy, relying on internal memos, emails, interviews and map analysis.

The success of the strategy has Democrats projecting they may pick up as many as seven congressional seats in 2012 under new district boundaries adopted last summer, far more than had been expected originally.

◼ Local officials respond to ProPublica investigation; analysis: Democrats manipulated state redistricting effort - Times-Standard

Representatives in Thompson's office said the congressman was traveling with family for the holidays and was unavailable for comment.

LaMalfa, a Republican and Butte County resident, said he was pleased to see the ProPublica investigation address some of the issues he'd seen during the redistricting process.

”It has someone else talking about the stuff many of us have been concerned with on the games that were being played behind the scenes on the new lines being drawn,” LaMalfa said. “The maps were compromised by outsiders.”

ProPublica's investigation revealed last week that Democrats allegedly hired consultants to present their ideas to the commission and that the consultants never disclosed their party affiliations or intent. LaMalfa said the Democrats made a blatant effort to influence the new district lines.

”The Republicans didn't actually place people on there and work hand-in-hand with them, inappropriately with them, on that,” LaMalfa said about the map creation process.

Investigation Uncovers Democrats' Successful Efforts to Subvert Citizens Redistricting Commission

◼ An investigation has uncovered evidence that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outright manipulated the redistricting process to benefit Democrat candidates. - CA GOP

SACRAMENTO — An investigation has uncovered evidence that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outright manipulated the redistricting process to benefit Democrat candidates. The report, published this morning by ProPublica, a Puliter-Prize winning investigative journalism website, detailed the relationship between the DCCC and local activists, stating that "California's congressional Democrats ran a secret effort earlier this year to manipulate the work of the independent citizen's panel that drew the state's new political districts, foiling the intent of reformers who sought to remove the redistricting process from the control of party bosses."

Read the entire ProPublica investigation, "How Democrats Fooled California's Redistricting Commission" ◼ HERE, as well as the report in the San Jose Mercury News ◼ HERE.

The California Republican Party has consistenly expressed concerns that the redistricting process, which was designed to be a transparent, non-partisan procedure, had been overrun by partisan interests and its outcome unfairly manipulated.

"The ProPublica report vindicates my repeated contention that the redistricting process was hijacked," said CRP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro. "That report, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. The corruption of the process went far beyond what was disclosed in that report. No fair minded person can now say the process or the result was fair. I am calling for an immediate and thorough investigation, by Congressional and State authorities, to get to the bottom of this obviously corrupted process. Beyond that, the lines as drawn by the Commission should not be used in any way for the upcoming elections."

Earlier this year, Chairman Del Beccaro wrote a scathing article in the political website, Flash Report, called ◼ "The Redistricting Commission — Worse Than I Could Possibly Imagine." In it, Del Beccaro wrote:

"It has been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The intentions of Prop 11 and 20 were indeed good. But the process intended to provide fair redistricting has been overtaken by partisanship and incompetence. The truly fair-minded people on the Commission cannot allow this process to be cynically hijacked. It is time for them to vote down any plans that remotely resemble the most recent visualizations. It is also time for Californians to consider saving themselves from the Commission they created, even if that means by referendum."

From the Redistricting Commission's inception, the CRP petitioned the CRC to conduct itself with openness and fairness. In March, the party recommended that the commission hire bi-partisan line drawing experts and Voting Rights Act counsel to assist them with re-drawing legislative lines to avoid the commission being cast as a partisan one. Instead, they chose to ignore the party's advice and hired Q2 Data and Research, a firm widely known for its ties to Democrats. Please ◼ read the letter (pdf) Chairman Del Beccaro sent to the commissioners regarding this decision.

Chairman Del Beccaro also chronicled the Commission's proceedings with pieces in the ◼ Sacramento Bee and ◼ Fox and Hounds Daily, which pointed out the high level of partisanship involved with the selection of Q2 Data and Research.

Shortly thereafter, it was ◼ revealed by Cal Watch Dog that one of the commissioners, Dr. Gabianno T. Aguirre, had made multiple political campaign contributions to Democratic candidates and has a special "web of connections" with a special interest group that submitted its own redistricting proposals to the commission. Again, a clear violation of the Redistricting Commission's rules.

The CRP ◼ called for Aguirre to step down as his involvement compromised the commission's integrity. Those calls fell on deaf ears, and Dr. Aguirre was allowed to maintain his position on the Commission.

These concerns, as well as numerous other complaints, are ◼ listed in this memo from Fairness and Accountability In Redistricting (F.A.I.R.) as well as links to official letters to the Citizens Redistricting Commission listed below:
◼ CRC PRA Request (PDF)
◼ Letter to CRC re: McDonald Barreto (PDF)
◼ Letter to CRC re: Population Deviation (PDF)
◼ Letter to CRC re: Aguirre (PDF)
◼ Letter to the CRC re: Not Adopt Senate Plan (PDF)
◼ Bagley Keene Act Proposition Objection to Action' (PDF)

◼ How Democrats Fooled California’s Redistricting Commission - ProPublica
◼ California Democrats secretly influenced drawing of new political district boundaries - Lisa Vorderbrueggen/Contra Costa Times

"Perhaps Holder believes that perjury is now passé, or at least that a DOJ employee does not have the requisite “state of mind” when the ideological cause is deemed righteous enough. "

◼ Breaking Bombshell News on DOJ Perjury Imminent - PJMedia

◼ The Justice Department Condones Perjury … Again - Hans A. Spakovsky/PJMedia

A career employee in the Voting Section of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has confessed to committing perjury, sources say. The employee, Stephanie Celandine Gyamfi, reportedly told investigators from the Inspector General’s Office that she perjured herself during an inquiry into Justice Department leaks during the previous administration. Despite the admission, she has not been fired for criminal malfeasance. Indeed, it appears she has not been disciplined in any meaningful way at all.

The genesis of Ms. Gyamfi’s perjury is apparently rooted in political attacks on the Bush Justice Department. Throughout 2005-2007, numerous attorney-client privileged documents, confidential personnel information, and other sensitive legal materials were leaked from inside the Voting Section to the Washington Post and various left-wing blogs.

One of the most prominent leaks involved the Voting Section’s privileged, internal analysis of the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan, submitted to the Civil Rights Division in October 2003 for review under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The contents of the internal memorandum appeared on the front page of the Washington Post on Dec. 2, 2005, to great fanfare from Democrats on Capitol Hill and their surrogates in the liberal blogosphere....

Amazingly, despite Ms. Gyamfi’s admission of committing perjury not once, but three times, she so far has been neither terminated nor disciplined by the Justice Department. In fact, her boss, Voting Section Chief Chris Herren, continues to assign her to the most politically sensitive of matters, including the Department’s review of Texas’s congressional redistricting plan.

◼ Confessions of Perjury Inside DOJ - J. Christian Adams at Breitbart's Big Government

California Supreme Court to fast-track ruling on Senate maps

◼ The California Supreme Court expects to rule "as early as the end of January" on which state Senate districts would apply to next year's state elections if a referendum challenging newly drawn maps qualifies for the November ballot. - Jim Sanders/Sacramento Bee

The high court released an expedited briefing schedule today in response to a petition by Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting, a Republican-backed group pushing to kill the Senate maps drawn by the Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The group, known as FAIR, has submitted more than 700,000 signatures to the state. If 504,760 of those signatures are from valid voters, the group's referendum will qualify for the November ballot.

To prepare for that possibility, the state Supreme Court must decide which state Senate districts would be used in next primary and general elections while a statewide vote on the referendum is pending.

Justices told both parties to submit arguments this month in preparation for oral arguments in early January.

Federal suit challenges California's new congressional districts

◼ Rebuffed by the California Supreme Court, a former Republican congressman and four others filed suit this week in federal court to overturn the state's newly drawn congressional maps.

California: 2 new developments in drama over political redistricting

◼ The secretary of state said there are enough signatures to send a Republican-led referendum effort to overturn state Senate maps onto the next stage -- the verification of those signatures. If at least 504,760 of them are found to be valid, the matter will be put to voters in November. - Jean Merl/LA Times

The signatures were collected by Republican activists, aided by donations totaling $2.5 million. As of late afternoon Wednesday, nearly 700,000 signatures had been reported to the secretary of state, with some counties yet to turn in their numbers.

Also Wednesday, a separate group of Republicans, including former Rep. George Radanovich, filed suit in federal court, alleging that the commission’s congressional district maps violate the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act.

The case, filed in the Central District of California, “provides irrefutable evidence” that the commission “intentionally ignored federal law” in drawing the new districts, Radanovich said in a statement announcing the suit.

Federal lawsuit filed against California congressional maps

◼ Critics of California's new congressional districts are taking their case against the political maps to federal court. - Sacramento Bee

Former GOP Rep. George Radanovich and four other plaintiffs announced today that they will file a lawsuit in federal district court arguing that the lines drawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission violate the Federal Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.

The lawsuit, which will likely be filed later this week in Southern California, will argue that California's 14-member commission violated the law by intentionally not creating majority African-American and Latino congressional districts in Los Angeles County when it drafted the state's 53 congressional districts, according to a release.

"The California Redistricting Commission chose to put politics above the law when they drew the new congressional lines," Radanovich said in a statement. "We are confident the Court will agree with us to right this wrong and order new lines to be drawn."

The new congressional maps, drafted as part of the decennial redistricting process, have come under fire from conservatives who say they give an edge to Democrats.

Lawsuit asks court to kill new California Senate districts

◼ Gilliard's group has raised nearly $500,000 thus far for its two-pronged effort to kill the Senate maps, including $188,000 from the California Republican Party and a cumulative $200,000 from current or past GOP state senators. - Sacramento Bee/Capital Alert

Arguing that California's newly drawn Senate districts are unconstitutional, a Republican Party-backed group filed a lawsuit today asking the California Supreme Court to kill the new maps.

"We believe there are serious constitutional flaws in the maps produced by the redistricting commission, and these are matters that the Supreme Court should look at immediately," spokesman David Gilliard said.

Gilliard's group, Fairness & Accountability In Redistricting (FAIR), also is collecting signatures in a referendum drive aimed at asking voters to reject the newly drawn Senate districts in a statewide election next June.

Redistricting Update: The Democrat Party Expands Its Statewide Control

Karen Brooks

I, for one, was hopeful that a citizen commission would fairly dole out districts and make significant improvements to break up this one-party controlled state. Now that the commission’s work is done and they have submitted the maps to the Secretary of State, I fear we’re going to miss the “good ole days” of gerrymandered districts drawn by our Legislature.

“Be careful what you wish for,” echoes in my head. In 2008, voters thought we were taking away the Legislature’s responsibility of redistricting and placing it in the hands of fourteen non-partisan, neutral voters. Unfortunately, we’re on the politically correct left coast, so the selection process can’t help but be flawed. Last year, a special panel was convened to narrow an applicant pool to about 60, with our Legislature eliminating about a third of those applicants before the State Auditor “randomly” picked the final eight, and then those eight picked the final six.

This experiment, in hindsight, has some fatal flaws. The process focused too heavily on minority, non-engaged (in politics) applicants at the expense of the most qualified people. The second fatal flaw is that the commission wanted specific citizen input, namely the “communities of interest.” They were looking for minority ethnic communities, not necessarily economic or social or even geographic communities. They were not looking at voter registration or voter turn-out either. And finally, the party in control controls everything in this state.

New boundaries don't change supervisorial race; County's 2012 election gears up

◼ At least one supervisorial candidate plans on moving to a new residence in order to keep his bid for the 1st District supervisor seat. - Times-Standard

With the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors' approval of the new district lines on Tuesday, 1st District candidate Rex Bohn's current residence would no longer be within the district. The candidate said he plans to move within the new district by the time the boundaries go into effect in January.

”I've made a commitment to quite a few members of the community that I was going to run in the 1st District,” Bohn said in a phone interview before the board's decision was made. “I spent the last 30-plus years in the 1st District. When the lines are activated in January, I will still be in the 1st District.”

◼ Supervisors approve new boundaries; Public officials see changes to districts
- Times-Standard

The supervisors opted to move forward with Plan 2A, which moves Blue Lake into the 3rd District and leaves both Fieldbrook and Glendale in the 5th District. The plan straightens the border of the 1st and 4th districts and moves the Tompkins Hill area to the 1st District. The only change made was to move a precinct called ES-3 in Cutten from the 3rd District back into the 1st District.

...First District Supervisor Jimmy Smith said the approved map has him taking on some new territory and new constituents. For example, he'll be representing the town of Scotia instead of 2nd District Supervisor Clif Clendenen.

...Rio Dell Councilman Frank Wilson said Scotia wanted to be part of the same district as Fortuna because Scotia residents' children attend Fortuna high schools.

Referendum challenges congressional lines; If measure passes, Thompson could land back in North Coast

◼ A statewide referendum is currently circulating that would put recently re-drawn California congressional district lines up for approval before the state's voters. - Times-Standard

There's also a chance that the referendum could land North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson -- who was drawn out of the coastal district by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission -- back representing Humboldt County, at least for a little while longer.

...(T)he referendum put into circulation Friday by Julie Vandermost -- president of a southern California based environmental and regulatory consulting firm -- would put the new maps up to a vote of the people

Proponents of the initiative need to gather 504,760 signatures of registered voters by November in order to qualify for the next statewide ballot, according to the California Secretary of State's office. If the referendum qualifies and voters reject the new boundaries, court-appointed officials would set interim boundaries to be used in the next statewide election.