Florida taxpayers: you paid for the redistricting horror but exactly who profited and by how much remains a mystery ... by gimleteye

Imagine if you could create a computer data base of every precinct and registered voter in Florida, overlay the data on top of district boundaries, then create an algorithm to shift the outcome according to majority you wanted to create; within a precinct, within a county, region or a demographic.

That is exactly what state Republican leaders did, using tax dollars. They hid the process through sworn-to-secrecy conversations. But for opponents who scraped together their own war chest to fight this battle, the extent of Republican collaboration to violate the law would never be known.

Thanks to Mary Ellen Klas and the Miami Herald for shedding some light on the disaster.

The legal team that uncovered the shadow redistricting process that invalidated Florida’s congressional and Senate districts didn’t rely just on maps and cloak-and-dagger emails to prove that legislators broke the law.　

The best clues came in the form of data — millions of census blocks — delivered electronically and found in the files of political operatives who fought for two years to shield it.　

David King, of King, Blackwell, Zehnder and Wermuth, the lead lawyer for the redistricting challengers the League of Women Voters and Common Cause. Daniel Smith, University of Florida professor of political science and one of the challengers’ election map data sleuths. David King, of King, Blackwell, Zehnder and Wermuth, the lead lawyer for the redistricting challengers the League of Women Voters and Common Cause. Daniel Smith, University of Florida professor of political science and one of the challengers’ election map data sleuths.

Daniel Smith, University of Florida professor of political science and one of the challengers’ election map data sleuths. Courtesy of Dan Smith
The Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in July that lawmakers were guilty of violating the anti-gerrymandering provisions of the Florida Constitution and ordered them to redraw the congressional map.

It was a landmark ruling that declared the entire process had been “tainted with improper political intent” — a verdict so broad that it prompted an admission from the state Senate that lawmakers had violated the Constitution when they drew the Senate redistricting plan in 2012. The Legislature has scheduled a special session in October to start over on that map.　

But the breakthrough for the legal team — lawyers for the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, a coalition of Democrat-leaning voters and their redistricting experts — came just days before the May 19, 2014, trial on the congressional map was set to begin.

After two years of legal challenges, Florida justices ruled that emails, maps and accompanying data produced by political consultants and related to redistricting must be produced and could be discussed at trial. The challengers had already learned that the Legislature’s maps selectively shed and added populations to congressional districts to improve the performance for incumbent candidates, but they had only circumstantial evidence that the maps found on the computers of the political consultants played a role.

Using a matrix that reviewed 400,000 precincts covering 27 districts in each map, the lawyers and their experts “were able to trace the evolution of the maps and figure it out,” said David King, of Orlando-based King, Blackwell, Zehnder and Wermuth, the lead lawyer for the League of Women Voters and Common Cause.

Behind the maps were the data files — census block statistics such as population, voting age, party registration and ethnic makeup. Each census block has unique characteristics, like DNA. By comparing the census block data from maps produced by the Legislature to those produced by the political operatives, a pattern emerged.

The documents showed that Republican operatives Marc Reichelderfer and Frank Terraferma had produced dozens of congressional and Senate maps that included components identical to those enacted by legislators.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article34169631.html#storylink=cpy

The budget for the GOP exercise in illegal redistricting has not been made clear, but it should be.

In a perfect world, all the actors would be held personally accountable. They would be required to forfeit any earnings obtained in an illegal process. For example, in a trial process we would depose Miami-Dade former legislator and Republican strategist Miguel De Grandy. But not just Mr. De Grandy. We would ask all the GOP consultants: "Wow much money did you earn, and who else earned money along side you in the redistricting battle?"

The folks on the other side of this disaster are too lawyerly to show the full range of emotion that accompanies this pitiful chapter in Florida political history.

It has taken millions of dollars to prosecute -- several times before the Florida Supreme Court -- illegal actions by the state GOP and its hirelings. They are counting on ordinary voters to not pay attention, and they might be right. Turning off voters is also a tactic, and judging from low voter turnouts who can argue the result.

There ought to be a criminal offense in here, somewhere, to incarcerate individuals found guilty of violating Fair Districts. Ask your state legislator, Democrat or Republican, if they would be willing to support such a law. In the absence of an answer, then ask if for God's sake they will just reveal exactly who took taxpayer dollars to drag out a redistricting process judged to have been illegal.

Put them in stocks in the public square.