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Republican Infighting Leads to Chaos in Kansas Redistricting

By Andrea Peterson posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Jun 11, 2012 at 6:54 pm

Gov. Sam Brownback (R-KS)

The filing deadline for state races in Kansas passed earlier today, just four days after a federal court had to redraw the state’s legislative maps because two factions of the state Republican Party could not agree on which maps they wanted to pass. With only a few short days to round up candidates for the new districts, both political parties spent the weekend in chaos:

There are 25 open House seats, fully 20% of that branch of the legislature. Forty-six incumbent members have been tossed into potential races with other incumbents (not counting the spouse of the late Bob Bethell.)

Kansas law requires filers to “reside” in the district they wish to represent at the time of filing. That means the political parties mush work all weekend to find candidates for the open seats, and/or convince incumbents to establish residence in the new open districts before Monday at noon.

Yet, while the legislature’s failure to draw districts led to a hectic weekend for politicians across the state, the true victims are the people of Kansas. In some districts, it’s likely that only one candidate will manage to file, leaving the voters with no choice regarding who will represent them. It’s even possible that some districts could have no candidates at all.

Even members of the legislature themselves appear to be disgusted with the entire process. Leading moderate Republican Sen. John Vratil announced his retirement in response to the ordeal, claiming to have lost interest in the being part of the Senate and taking a shot at his fellow Republican Gov. Sam Brownback in the process. House Minority Leader Paul Davis (D) expressed similar concerns, telling ThinkProgress “the redistricting situation was caused by Governor’s Brownback desire to oust members of his own political party from the Kansas legislature. He is very intent on trying to drive out Republicans that don’t support his agenda – that’s really the root cause of why the legislature was not able to successfully complete the redistricting process.”

Yet, while state lawmakers no doubt deserve blame for being unable to complete a fairly basic legislative task, much of the blame for these events rests with the Supreme Court, which largely abdicated oversight over politically motivated gerrymanders in a case called Vieth v. Jubelirer. Thanks to this decision, partisan lawmakers now have no adult supervision when they set out to draw maps, and little real incentive to avoid using redistricting as a once-in-a-decade opportunity to consolidate their own power.

NEWS FLASH

BREAKING: Department Of Justice Sues Florida Over Voter Purge | The U.S. Justice Department is suing Florida after the state disregarded the federal government’s request to suspend its voter purge campaign. In a letter to the Florida Secretary of State, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez argues that Florida is violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Voting Rights Act. “Please immediately cease this unlawful conduct,” Perez writes. The full text of the letter is available HERE.

BREAKING: Governor Rick Scott Announces Florida Will Sue Obama Administration Over Voter Purge

By Judd Legum on Jun 11, 2012 at 4:29 pm

During an appearance on Fox News Monday afternoon, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) announced that the state will sue the Department of Homeland Security to obtain access to a database that it believes will provide more accurate information on the citizenship status of Florida voters.

“The Florida’s Secretary of State office wil be filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database,” Scott said. “We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and so we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.” The move comes after Scott disregarded a request from the Department of Justice on Wednesday to abandon efforts to purge eligible voters.

Neil Cavuto, who conducted the interview, pressed Scott on why many of those who objected to the purge were Republican election supervisors. Cavuto also noted that other prominent Florida Republicans, notably Sen. Marco Rubio, were notably silent on the purge.

Watch it:

DHS has expressed skepticism at allowing Scott to use its database — called SAVE or “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements” — in order to suppress the vote, telling the Orlando Sentinel last week that the data is incomplete and does not provide comprehensive information on all eligible voters:

On Thursday, a senior DHS official, who would speak only on background, said the agency was waiting for Florida and the U.S. Justice Department to settle their dispute on whether Florida’s purge violates federal voter-protection laws before allowing the state access the SAVE database. Only then would DHS consider access legally authorized, the official said.

“Obviously, removing folks from the voter rolls is something we take seriously,” said the official.

The DHS representative also cautioned that even if Florida could use SAVE, it would not paint a complete picture of who is a U.S. citizen — as the list deals largely with green-card holders and naturalized citizens, and is not a comprehensive list of all Americans who have the right to vote.

We will update the post as more information becomes available.

Justice

Legalized Bribery: Group Linked To House Republican Leadership Offers Campaign Ads For Key Votes

By Josh Israel posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Jun 11, 2012 at 2:21 pm

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

The YG Network, a secret-money outside political group run by former aides to House Republican Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), launched a new radio ad campaign today designed to reward Republican Members of Congress who back Cantor and the party’s leadership on key votes. Politico explains:

The YG Network is seeking to “leverage the floor schedule and votes scheduled by Cantor to help members at home,” an aide said. If a member — specifically, an ally of Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — votes for a leadership priority, they can look forward to an ad in their district.

The YG Network hopes the effort becomes “another tool in the belt to call attention to members and help encourage cohesion on difficult-to-whip votes,” the aide said. Leadership is not permitted to offer anything in exchange for a vote.

Listen to an ad on behalf of Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO):

Essentially, YG Network is saying that it will reward members who vote as they wish with “independent” expenditures on their behalf. Because the 501(c)(4) tax-exempt group is technically independent of Cantor, it can provide a significant carrot that the Republican Leader cannot offer himself.

While likely legal, Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center told ThinkProgress “many would characterize the way Washington politics has long worked as ‘legalized bribery.’” He observed that this is exactly what the 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court made possible by its Citizens United ruling:

When you allow unlimited special interest money in politics, this type of behavior should be expected. Criticism is fair, but never the less, its predictable. This is the world that this Supreme Court majority has given us with the Citizens United decision. It’s troubling, but entirely predictable.

Even more troubling is the likelihood of conversations behind closed doors — threats of huge corporate-funded independent spending campaigns made [for those who don't act in the corporation's interest on a given piece of legislation]. And much of it, we will never hear about.

Ryan warns that he expects lobbyists will meet with legislators and say, “you saw what we did to so-and-so,” referring to a lawmaker who did not behave in the interest of the lobbyist’s client. “Do you want that to happen to you?” Ryan asked.

LGBT

Minnesota State Board: Anti-LGBT Group May Exploit Loophole To Evade Disclosure

By Josh Israel posted from ThinkProgress LGBT on Jun 11, 2012 at 12:27 pm

Minnesota Vote No shirtThe Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled last week that the Minnesota Family Council, an anti-LGBT group spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of a state marriage inequality constitutional amendment, need not disclose its donors because its “major purpose” does not qualify it as a “political committee.”

In their ruling dismissing a complaint by Common Cause Minnesota, the board said:

Minnesota statutes allow the association to allocate the amount of general treasury money used to promote or defeat a ballot question among donors to the association’s general treasury. The association is required to itemize only those donors who, based on the allocation, contributed $1,000 or more of the general treasury money used to promote or defeat a ballot question. The allocation and itemization threshold provisions used together provide a means by which an association may limit or, in some cases, entirely avoid itemized donor disclosure.

This loophole means that proponents of ballot initiatives can legally launder money through non-profit groups, as long as the non-profit group does other things beyond just fighting for that particular ballot initiative. Because the Minnesota Family Council has taken other right-wing positions over the years — including opposing anti-bullying protections for LGBT students and regulation of pre-school programs — it can raise and spend as much money as it wants to this year to support the amendment and voters will have no opportunity to know who is paying for their advertising and other campaign efforts.

While Minnesotans United for All Families, the pro-equality group fighting against the amendment, released a lengthy list of its scores of individual donors, the anti-equality forces disclosed just seven donors whose contributions accounted for less than three percent of their funding — instead relying on contributions from groups like the Minnesota Family Council who do not disclose donors.

This sort of loophole is not particular to Minnesota and shows the major problem with the post-Citizens United campaign finance universe. While Justice Anthony Kennedy defended unlimited spending in elections saying “Disclosure is the less-restrictive alternative to more comprehensive speech regulations,” right now voters have neither.

Growing Number Of Republicans Fear Ultra-Partisan Extremism In Current GOP

By Josh Israel on Jun 11, 2012 at 11:55 am

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL)

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL)

Jeb Bush is a member of one of the most prominent families in the 158-year-history of the Republican Party. His grandfather was Sen. Prescott Bush (R-CT), his father and brother both served as President of the United States, and he himself was twice elected governor of Florida.

And today, he became the latest in a lengthy parade of former GOP officeholders to express significant discomfort with the current purge by far-right wing Republicans of any moderates or even bipartisan-minded conservatives in their party. Bush told reports and editors that:

Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, as would my dad [former President George H.W. Bush] — they would have a hard time if you define the Republican party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement, doesn’t allow for finding some common ground.

Bush noted he expects the current GOP dominance by those hyper-partisan Republicans who are pushing out voices for bipartisanship to be “temporary.”

Over his three-terms as Congressman and three-terms as Senator from Maine, Republican William Cohen earned such bipartisan respect that upon his retirement from the Senate, Democratic President Bill Clinton appointed him Secretary of Defense. Senator John Warner (R-VA) said in 2000 that “Bill Cohen earned his place in history, alongside the best, and the men and women in uniform render a respectful ‘hand salute.’”

Like Bush, former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO), former Rep. Connie Morella (R-MD), and former Rep. Claudine Schneider (R-RI) told ThinkProgress that the modern Republican Party is no longer a place for centrists.

Cohen observed:

It’s rather obvious that the [Republican] Party has moved dramatically to the right. There no longer is a center that can provide the basis for reaching a consensus on the central issues confronting our country. The center has been hollowed out…

It’s argued that the public prefers a check and balance government, and there is truth to be found in limiting the power of any one branch of government. But today, everyone is in check and no one is in charge. Something has to change or we will be looking at four more years of political stalemate and paralysis.

Former Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) told ThinkProgress that he thinks defeats at the polls will eventually force the Republican Party to become more inclusive of moderates:

When the tent of a political party grows too small and it is repeatedly defeated at the ballot box over several election cycles and for various offices, internal forces are then unleashed to re-enlarge the tent to a size sufficient to assure victory. I’ve lived long enough to observe the repetition of these cycles and trends in both parties, so I’m somewhat philosophical about what is happening at present to my party.

But, as Cohen notes, that return to inclusion may be a long way off. “In the short term, I don’t see moderates being elected,” he observed. “Long term? Only the Shadow knows.”

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