Eric Holder and Democrats begin redistricting wars in Georgia

Eric Holder and Democrats begin redistricting wars in Georgia
By Tony Pugh

October 10, 2017 5:00 AM
WASHINGTON


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With Republican hopes for a legislative supermajority in jeopardy, Georgia’s GOP lawmakers passed HB 566 in 2015, which removed 946 black voters from Strickland’s district and implanted 590 new white voters. In his closest election yet, Strickland defeated Democratic challenger Darryl Payton by 946 votes in 2016.

Payton and 10 other African Americans are now plaintiffs in the first federal lawsuit by former Attorney General Eric Holder’s new group, the National Redistricting Foundation, which will challenge Republican reapportionment efforts it sees as overly partisan or racially motivated in the run-up to the 2018 elections.

The suit claims Strickland’s re-drawn district and another, Georgia House District 105, were illegal racial gerrymanders designed to dilute African American voting power and empower white incumbents in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The foundation, which is backed by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, will also challenge challenge questionable legislative and congressional maps drawn after the 2020 census.

Both groups hope to help Democrats exert more influence on the redistricting process after Republicans used sophisticated mapping technology to draw favorable electoral maps nationwide after the 2010 census. That effort, dubbed Operation REDMAP, helped Republicans capture more seats in Congress and in state-level races in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

The GOP now controls both state legislative chambers in 31 states, compared to 12 for Democrats.

The Democrats’ effort to constrain GOP redistricting won’t go unchallenged, however. The National Republican Redistricting Trust was recently formed to counter Holder’s efforts and fight similar battles in traditionally blue states where electoral maps have favored Democrats.

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