Thursday, January 5, 2012
Politics Democrats Threaten Lawsuit over Redistricting: 'They're Trying to Go to a One-Party State'
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 11:25 AM
“We’re headed to court,” House Democratic Caucus chairman Mike Turner declared this morning before equivocating quickly. “There’s no doubt about that—unless something happens and the Republicans want to sit down and talk.”
The garrulous Turner dropped by the Legislative Plaza’s gritty pressroom to make the case that Democrats have been mistreated and took the opportunity to slap Debra Maggart, his Republican counterpart in the House, even as he asked for accommodation from the GOP.
“There was Maggart on Fox News last night saying ‘oh this is really fair,’ she said, ‘it was the population shifts that made us put all those Democrats together.’ Bullshit! They’re trying to go to a one-party state. That’s what they’re trying to do.”
Turner said Republicans did their worst with their map, handing their party “eight or nine potential pickups” in this year’s elections. That would give Republicans as many as 73 of the 99 seats in the House, turning that chamber into a Tennessee version of the Politburo. Before the map was made public, Turner seemed to be tempering his remarks to the media, but he apparently has decided there’s no longer any point in playing nice.
“On paper, they’ve maxed out what they can do,” he said. “They’ve told me, ‘If y’all raise hell we’ll do more.’ And I’ve said, ‘You can’t do anymore. You’re not going to pick up anymore seats.’”
Turner is particularly miffed about the GOP’s pairing of Nashville Reps. Mike Stewart and Sherry Jones in the same district. He said Democrats are trying to talk the GOP into redrawing the lines to put Jones in a newly created district in southern Davidson County.
“That move there is nothing but punitive,” Turner said. “They got two of the people who irritate them. There’s nobody up here who irritates Republicans like Mike Stewart and Sherry Jones. Stewart irritates the fire out of them because he gets onto them. Sherry’s kind of our Democratic barometer. She doesn’t like compromise.”
Turner said any Democratic lawsuit would claim many of the state GOP’s actions have been racially motivated since assuming control of state government after the 2010 elections.
“They’ve got a history. Go back and look at the history of this particular General Assembly. They started out with the school desegregation suit in Memphis. They’ve had the voter ID where they’re disenfranchising African Americans. Now they want to drug-test welfare moms. All this is race-oriented.”
Republicans point out that, while five black incumbents have been drawn into three districts in Memphis and Chattanooga, there are the same number of majority-minority House districts in Tennessee. But Turner said the state’s black population justifies one additional district, and the Democratic alternative plan adds one in Memphis.
Here's House Speaker Beth Harwell on the redistricting plan:
Comments (10)
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And let's not forget that the state's Repubs were against the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act after they were for it, going back on the promise to insure verifiable election results in TN--and gee, in the grace period the Dems all too graciously allowed before the act's enactment, our unverifiable Republican-made DRE machines spewed forth an astonishingly broad Republican victory. No kidding, this state is in, as Turner put it, "Politburo" territory, although I think he meant "Supreme Soviet," as the Politburo was the executive branch. Well, here's hoping our current rulers meet a similar destiny, but that we have an easier time of it than the Russian people have had since the fall of their autocrats.
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This is a mistake, Mike. There will be no winning this lawsuit; it is a waste of resources. Much better to have just manned up, acknowledged that they won and get to draw the lines, and even claimed we like it because of all the opportunities it provides. That would at least make them nervous and get them to arguing among themselves. But too late now, with this ham-handed reaction.
I agree with Betsey Reid that this map is not as terrible as you might think, and I do in fact see a few opportunities for Democrats (the Jim Summerville Senate district, for instance). With the right kind of recruiting, an actual message (and our Democratic leadership has been just awful at devising one), and patience, I can see Democrats being competitive again within 6 years, and perhaps even back in the majority by 2020. But we need some capable leadership, and clearly Mike Turner and Chip Forrester ain't it.
Now Mike, those of us that remember the income tax battle also remember the way that Naifeh and the Democrat party redrew lines to put the screws to Marsha Blackburn, Mae Beavers, Diane Black, and Donna Rowland. The leaders of the people that were against the income tax. Marsha ran for Congress and Mae ran for the State Senate. Don't the people of your party have the ability to do something similar? Threaten lawsuits...it's stuff like that that's the reason your party is in the shape it's in now.
Mike how many reps would you have if not for the two previous gerrymanders by your boys? I would wager it would be close to the numbers you are worried about. This isn't gerrymandering, it is a "market correction". You really going to go to court for your God-given right to your previously gerrymandered districts? What bothers you, disenfranchised voters or unemployed democrats?
lktome, your memory of the 2002 redistricting is way off. The income tax battle had nothing to do with Blackburn, Beavers, Black or Rowland. Blackburn ran for Congress because of the new map - it took Williamson County from the 6th District to the 7th. About 40% of the GOP voters in the 7th are in Williamson County and about 40% are in Shelby County. Remember, that district somehow includes both Brentwood and Germantown. She correctly surmised that if she was the only Williamson County GOP in the race, she would win since the Shelby vote would be split between David Kustoff, Mark Norris and someone else I do not remember. Beavers ran for Senate because Bob Rochelle was the most endangered incumbent in the state and he eventually dropped out. Diane Black later ran for Senate and won largely because that Senate District had become much more GOP friendly in the 2002 redistricting. Rowland was re-elected to her same district and stayed in the House until she finally realized that everyone else thought she was the complete joke that she had been since her first day in the House.
The 2002 redistricting was remarkably fair actually. Democrats were able to avoid combining districts as a result of already planned retirements. I believe the only district that paired two incumbents was a House seat in East TN, and both Mark Goins and William Baird agreed that there was no way that could have been avoided. There was one Senate seat that shifted from just north of Chattanooga to southern Middle Tennessee, but Gene Elsea (possibly the funniest human being I ever met) had already announced his retirement from that seat. The GOP narrowly won that seat.
It appears that some incompetent incumbents may have to actually work
for their re-elections versus being handed the election by former boundaries
they enjoyed! It's really too bad the former Speaker doesn't have to run
where he actually lives versus the west tn district.
In 2000, the majority Dems had drawn up fair, contiguous districts in Upper E TN. The Repubs of course, yelled and stamped their feet, so the Dems CAVED, and let Ramsey & Mumpower, 2 of the most powerful Repubs, have their way. We got one very narrow district that runs along the state line from Bristol to Kingsport, and took part of district 2. 1 and 3 were so run together that Bristol looked like swiss cheese with little pockets of one district nestled inside the other. How do you think they have maintained their stranglehold, and gotten rid of Nathan Vaughn up here? This is just more of the same on steroids.
It the same old tactics both parties use. The Dems have done it the past and the republicans have too. It is what happens when you lose the majority.The only thing that stands out here is that this happening on a national basis - the dems are losing .You got Obama, and I think that is one of the best things to happen in this country for it has shown that the liberals cannot run this country at all unless it be in the ground.It has made the conservatives come out , to stand up and say that they will not let the minority run this country off the cliff . And that is what the dems are a minority political machine run by minority interest groups who want special consideration over the vast majority.Well the tide is turning, and hopefully we can pull this country back from the brink of socialism.
