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December 01, 2011 05:46 AM UTC

Claims of GOP Reapportionment "Screwing" Rapidly Disintegrate

  • 48 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

THURSDAY UPDATE #2: Republicans on the warpath for reapportionment commission chair Mario Carrera’s head are going to probably want to explain why, as Tim Hoover of the Denver paper updates today, none other than Colorado GOP chairman Ryan Call recommended Carrera’s appointment. Hilariously, a reminder of that persuades Call to denounce fellow Republican Mario Nicolais’ frothing characterization of Carrera as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” after Tuesday’s vote as neither “accurate, or frankly, very helpful.”

We’re thinking this little tantrum has just about run its course, folks.

—–

THURSDAY UPDATE: Sources tell us that Republicans on the commission in fact attempted to submit revised maps on Monday, even later than has been specifically reported. And these were reportedly not small “changes to existing maps,” with one such late proposal making major shifts among federally-sensitive Hispanic populations in the San Luis Valley.

The fact that Republicans were still making submissions to the commission as late as Monday underscores the problem with the case they are making that they “didn’t have as much time” as Democrats did to draw maps–or consider them. Obviously, if Republicans were still submitting maps on Monday, they knew they could still do so on Sunday (when they turned in maps as well). And more importantly, they eliminated their grounds to complain about less time.

It seems that the only thing left for Republicans to complain about is the unremarkable fact that unaffiliated commission chairman Mario Carrera has made political donations to Democrats, including during his time serving on the commission. It’s been noted several times that one such donation was to a congressional candidate, as though that has some bearing on his role in state legislative reapportionment. The fact is, Carrera’s political donations are a matter of record, and Republicans knew about most of them long ago. It seems like they were ready to pull the trigger on accusing him of favoritism the moment he didn’t vote their way all along.

Carrera responds that he has dealt fairly with both sides on the commission, and as for his political giving, he’s tended to give to Democrats for the same reason Hispanic voters tend to gravitate towards that party in elections. We haven’t tuned in, but it’s our guess that’s how the story of Carerra’s donations is being told on Noticias Colorado.

We’re already not sure what Republicans hope to gain from throwing what amounts to a baseless tantrum, supportable only by very serious accusations against nonpartisan staffers we don’t think they’re willing to make (see below), but another round of bad press in the Hispanic community is certainly something more they could lose. Original post follows.

—–

Recapping from yesterday, the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone reports:

Robert Loevy, a Colorado Springs Republican who served on the reapportionment commission, said he believes the Supreme Court will uphold the Democratic map the commission adopted, despite Republican objections that it pits many Republican incumbents against each other in the same districts and ignored public comments about pairing communities in districts.

“The things that concern me about the Democrats’ plans are simply things that the court is not allowed to consider,” he said. “I think a remand is unlikely just for that reason. The plan adopted has gone out of its way to meet the court’s requirements.”

And the result, Loevy said, is that Democrats are likely to regain the majority in the House and hold it for a good part of the next decade.

In the aftermath of the 6-5 vote yesterday sending revised state House and Senate district maps back to the Supreme Court for approval, Republicans flew into a rage of accusations–that the process has been rigged to favor Democrats, and that unaffiliated commission chairman Mario Carrera had violated some kind of principle by voting with Democrats. A right-wing advocacy group even called for Carrera to resign from his executive position with Spanish-language media corporation Entravision. Safe to say that Republicans are very, very upset.

Unfortunately, their victimized narrative seems to be coming apart as fast as it took shape: in a story now up on the Denver newspaper’s website, reporter Tim Hoover basically demolishes the case that Republicans were not treated fairly in the commission’s latest round of mapmaking.

To summarize, Hoover reports that both Republicans and Democrats on the commission were communicating with nonpartisan commission staff regarding deadlines, not Carrera or members of opposing parties. Even noted GOP operative/commissioner Mario Nicolais, who yesterday led the accusations of unfair treatment in media coverage, praises the integrity of the nonpartisan staff on the commission, and today says the whole issue of “differing deadlines” for the maps may have been a “miscommunication.” Since the only way Republicans could make their charges logically stick was to accuse nonpartisan staff of malfeasance, which is a very big deal, we’d say Nicolais is making a wise decision to backpedal.

But it’s possible that it doesn’t matter, since Hoover also reports that Republicans submitted new maps themselves on Sunday–just like Democrats did! Republicans say they were just “amended versions of existing maps,” but if you’re not stupid (and Hoover thankfully is not), you already know that can mean anything they want it to mean. Now, if that’s right, then all of the arguments about having sufficient time to review the proposals are moot. And if Democrats were not hiding anything about the deadlines as feverishly suggested for the last 24 hours, which would obviously be correct if Republicans submitted new maps on Sunday too…

It’s as silly as it appears to be, folks. It looks like both sides were simply working on their maps up to the last minute, and Republicans are really upset about ending up on the losing side of a close vote. The rest of this is just noise, perhaps with an aim of persuading those Republican voters paying attention to forget about the original legislative reapportionment maps. You know, the ones that passed with bipartisan support, possibly gave the GOP a better shot at holding their slim House majority, and that Frank McNulty and Ryan Call chose to appeal.

Perhaps instead of angry words to eat later, some introspection about overreaching is in order.

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48 thoughts on “Claims of GOP Reapportionment “Screwing” Rapidly Disintegrate”

  2. Curtis Hubbard has promised an editorial about this terrible crime committed against fair play in Colorado. I can’t wait to read it. The Monday Morning Gerrymander…

    I predict that this will galvanize Republicans to fight even harder next year. I’m going to double my giving to state house candidates. No matter what, EVERY voter in this state will learn about your shameless attempts to stack the deck.

    2. Not the one who did not know that Carrera was appointed by Bender not Hick.

      Not the one who did not know that Hick good have appointed 3 Dems and made your whole hissy fit irrelevant.

      I think you said last night “This is not over.”

      You are very wrong this is very much over.

      Go find something else to be mad about.

    3. Anyone up for throwing in $5 each to a fund so we can get a couple therapy sessions for ArapaGOP?  Think of it as an investment.  If it works we will not have to listen to any more mind bending nonsense.

    4. Remember years ago when you Republicans so over-reached in trying to gerrymander that the courts struck you down? And yet you’re now upset because the new districts make things more competitive. You’re a total hypocrite on this issue.

  3. Hoover’s article may demolish the GOP case, but the way it’s written certainly tries to minimize the damage it does to GOP egos.  One might even call it biased in favor of the GOP based on how it prioritizes certain information over the less controversial admissions that, essentially, nothing bad happened here.

    1. Pols unburied Hoover’s lede. I assume Hoover was under some pressure with this story – after reading it, his headline doesn’t really make sense. And Pols is right: unless the Republicans are going to accuse nonpartisan legislative staff of wrongdoing, this is all a bunch of sour grapes bullshit.

      1. The sharp-minded truth-seeker at “WhoSaidYouSaid” (whatever that means) and the levelheaded bloggers at Colorado Peaks Politics have got the goods.

  5. The Dems finally figured out how to do redistricting as well as, if not better than, Republicans.  At least now it’ll be a fair fight.  Hope that the the Colorado Dems can spread their magic nationwide.  There are number of states where Republican Gerrymanders give them a number of seats which they wouldn’t get in a less partisan draw.  I’ve seen some estimates of as much as 25 seats.

    1. If the Delaymander was undone and the 4 new seats all went to majority-Hispanic districts (90% of their population increase was Hispanic), Democrats would gain 6 or 7 seats.  (It would be greater, but despite the gerrymander, Democrats have managed to win some of the supposedly Republican districts…)

      The Federal judge overseeing the VRA suit has issued an interim map in Texas that gives Democrats 3 of those 4 seats, plus puts another seat up for grabs.  Despite being perhaps the best that Texas Republicans could hope for in a VRA settlement, Republicans are trying to get the interim map overturned by the Supreme Court in favor of the one they originally drew that somehow (I’m not sure how they managed this) gives Republicans 3 of the 4 new seats.

    2. Democrats nationwide apparently are learning that they can’t bring a knife to a gun fight when it comes to redistricting.

      They’ve done a fairly good job of increasing their seat count in several states this time around – though it’s offset by increasingly aggressive Republican redistricting in other states.

        2. Is a RINO, I always knew it.  He was supported by the fat cats and by Wadhams.  He isn’t a true Republican.  He can’t be.  He’s to honest and logical.

    2. It was Carerra who knew Republicans did not have all the information about deadlines, and it was Carerra who did not allow any compromise proposals to be voted on. Carrera shoved the Democrat maps down Colorado’s throats, and it was a dastardly power play.

      4. You eliminate any chance to ever garner any credibility. I’m open to listening and considering well reasoned arguments from the right. But when you spout obvious falsehoods like this it tells me that what you say will be truthful only by coincidence.

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