Missouri first to adopt fairness test against gerrymandering
The votes won’t be cast for another four years, yet Democrats already appear likely to gain seats in Missouri’s Republican-dominated Legislature in 2022. The reason: a one-of-its kind redistricting initiative approved by voters in the recent midterm elections. Missouri’s initiative marks a new frontier in a growing movement against partisan gerrymandering that has now notched ballot-box victories in eight states over the past decade. Other states have created independent commissions and required bipartisan votes to redraw legislative and congressional districts. Missouri will be the first to rely on a new mathematical formula to try to engineer “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness” in its state legislative districts; the Legislature will continue drawing the state’s congressional districts. An Associated Press analysis of the new Missouri formula shows it has the potential to end the Republicans’ supermajorities in the state House and state Senate and move the chambers closer to the more even partisan division that is often reflected in statewide races. But the size of the likely Democratic gains remains uncertain, partly because the formula has never been put to a test. “Missouri’s engaged in an experiment,” said Sam Wang, director of the Princeton University Gerrymandering Project, which uses math to measure partisan advantages in redistricting. “Democrats have a fighting chance in a way that they didn’t before,” Wang added. But “a lot of it depends on what they do with it.” After the 2010 census, Republicans nationwide controlled more state legislatures and governor’s offices than Democrats. They used that power to draw legislative and congressional districts that benefited the GOP. Since then, advocates have been trying to reform the system to eliminate or greatly reduce partisan gerrymandering, which has been used by both parties over the years to draw political boundaries in ways that give the dominant party a disproportionate hold on power. They have succeeded in making the process less partisan in a number of states, mostly through ballot initiatives approved by voters. Nov. 6 was the latest example of the trend, when voters in Colorado, Michigan and Utah joined Missouri in approving new redistricting systems. All states must redraw their congressional and state legislative districts after the 2020 census. Those new maps generally will kick in for the elections two years later. Although the criteria vary by state, most require districts to contain similar populations, keep communities together when possible and give minorities a chance to elect candidates of their choice. The constitutional amendment approved by Missouri voters in November keeps those criteria. But it also requires a new nonpartisan state demographer to base state House and Senate districts on the votes cast in the previous three elections for president, governor and U.S. senator — races that are decided by voters statewide and are not affected by gerrymandering. The districts must come as close as practical to achieving “partisan fairness” as measured by a formula called “the efficiency gap.” That formula was created earlier this decade by Eric McGhee, a researcher at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, and University of Chicago law professor Nick Stephanopoulos. It compares the statewide share of the vote a party receives with the statewide percentage of seats it wins, taking into account a common political expectation: For each 1 percentage point gain in its statewide vote share, a party normally increases its seat share by 2 percentage points. Although the efficiency gap has been cited in court challenges to politically gerrymandered districts in Wisconsin and elsewhere, no other state has made it a legally required test for redistricting. California, which adopted an independent redistricting commission for the 2010 census, prohibited political favoritism in drawing districts but included no test to determine if that occurs. Since then, Democratic dominance has increased in both the state’s congressional delegation and its state legislative chambers. McGhee, who was not involved in Missouri’s initiative, said the formula will constrain what mapmakers can do to inflate partisan majorities. Missouri’s current state Senate districts were adopted by a bipartisan commission after the 2010 census. Its House districts were drawn by a judicial panel after a bipartisan commission failed to agree on a plan. In the November elections, Republican candidates received an average of 57 percent of the two-party vote across Missouri’s 163 House districts, yet Republicans won 71 percent of the seats. That gave them a 116-47 majority over Democrats. That equates to an 8 percent efficiency gap favoring Republicans — or an additional 13 GOP seats beyond what would be expected from the total votes, according to an AP analysis. The Republican majorities in Missouri’s two legislative chambers remained unchanged after this year’s elections despite the fact Democrats fielded their highest number of candidates since 2002. Stronger Republican fundraising and messaging make it difficult for Democrats to win legislative races in parts of Missouri, said Rep. Peter Merideth, who led the Democrats’ House Victory Committee. But “certainly, the way that they’ve drawn the districts is part of it,” he added. Like many states, Missouri’s urban centers of St. Louis and Kansas City have high concentrations of Democratic voters while the rural areas are overwhelmingly Republican. That results in a lot of lopsided state legislative races, even though statewide races often are highly competitive. By requiring legislative districts to be based on the votes for top statewide races, Democrats are likely to gain influence. The new redistricting formula takes into account nine statewide elections from 2012 to 2020. In the seven that already have been held, Republicans received 51 percent of the vote to Democrats’ 49 percent. To achieve partisan fairness, the new legislative maps would have to be drawn so Democrats would be projected to win about 48 percent of the seats. That means some urban Democratic voters likely would have to be mixed together with rural Republican voters in elongated districts that could look more gerrymandered than the current ones. But it still might not be possible to obtain perfect partisan fairness. Democrats topped out at around 44 percent of the House seats in a simulated map
Missouri lawmaker Maria Chappelle-Nadal posts, deletes Trump assassination comment
A Missouri lawmaker acknowledged Thursday that she posted and later deleted a comment on Facebook about hoping for President Donald Trump‘s assassination, saying she was frustrated with the president’s response to the white supremacist rally and violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Democratic Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal said she was wrong for writing the post and didn’t mean what she said, but she refused calls to resign. She said she wrote “I hope Trump is assassinated!” in response to a post that suggested Vice President Mike Pence would try to have Trump removed from office. “What I wrote down on my private Facebook page, was it wrong? Absolutely,” she told The Associated Press. “But I am going to continue to talk about the anger and the frustration that led to that.” The post drew a swift rebuke, including calls from top Democrats for her resignation. Among them were Missouri Senate Democratic Leader Gina Walsh, who condemned Chappelle-Nadal’s post as “horrible.” The chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, Stephen Webber, said the comments were “indefensible” and the party “will absolutely not tolerate calls for the assassination of the president.” “I condemn it. It’s outrageous,” added Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, the state’s senior senator. “And she should resign.” Missouri’s Republican Gov. Eric Greitens and the state Republican party also called for her resignation, but Chappelle-Nadal said she had no intention of doing so. “I refuse to resign for exercising my First Amendment rights, even though what I said was wrong,” she said. The U.S. Secret Service released a statement saying it looks into all threats against the president, “whether they be direct, implied, or comments in passing.” Chappelle-Nadal, from the St. Louis suburb of University City, said constituents in her predominantly black district are concerned about how Trump blamed “both sides” of the clashes in Charlottesville. The violence included a man slamming his car into people protesting against the white supremacist rally, killing one woman and injuring more than a dozen other people. “By our president saying things such as he does, supporting white supremacy and the Nazis and KKK, it’s causing a lot of trauma,” Chappelle-Nadal said. Chappelle-Nadal, who is black, was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2010, after serving in the state House for five years. She has been an outspoken activist while in the Legislature. She was a prominent voice during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police killing of Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old resident who was unarmed when fatally shot by an officer in 2014. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Jeff Sessions: Ferguson emblem of tense relationship with police
Ferguson, Missouri, has become “an emblem of the tense relationship” between law enforcement and those it serves, especially minority communities, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday during a visit to St. Louis. Sessions, speaking to a gathering of law enforcement leaders at the federal courthouse that sits roughly 12 miles from Ferguson, said the Justice Department will work with them to battle the rising tide of violent crime in America. He said he supports “proactive, up-close policing — when officers get out of their squad cars and interact with everyone on their beat — that builds trust, prevents violent crime, saves lives and creates a good atmosphere.” But Sessions said that sort of police work has become increasingly difficult in what he called “an age of viral videos and targeted killings of police.” “Unfortunately, in recent years law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the crime and unacceptable deeds of a few in their ranks,” Sessions said. “Amid this intense public scrutiny and criticism, morale has gone down, while the number in their ranks killed in the line of duty has gone up.” Ferguson, he said, has become “an emblem of the tense relationship between law enforcement and the communities we serve, especially our minority communities.” Ferguson became a flashpoint after 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed, was killed by white officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. Months of often violent protests followed the shooting. A St. Louis County grand jury and the Justice Department cleared Wilson of wrongdoing in November 2014, and he resigned that same month. But the Justice Department investigation under then-Attorney General Eric Holder found significant racial profiling and bias in both Ferguson’s police department and municipal court. The city and the Justice Department settled a lawsuit last year that requires significant changes in policing. That process is ongoing. Sessions is taking a far different approach than Holder. Civil rights investigations of police were common during the Obama administration. Sessions has suggested that civil rights investigations hinder police, causing them to back off out of fear of scrutiny of their every move. In fact, some have labeled the phenomenon the “Ferguson Effect.” Ferguson Police Chief Delrish Moss, who attended the speech, said he was encouraged by Sessions’ commitment to battling violent crime. And Moss believes the Justice Department remains steadfast in working with Ferguson leaders to eliminate racial bias. “We’re working with the Department of Justice, in fact, on a weekly basis,” Moss said. “They remain as committed as they always have been to the reforms we’ve agreed upon.” President Ronald Reagan chose Sessions for a federal judgeship in the 1980s, but the nomination was rejected amid concerns about racially charged comments and his failed prosecution of three black civil rights activists on voting fraud charges. Denise Lieberman, a St. Louis lawyer with the civil rights group Advancement Project, said Sessions’ approach is concerning at a time when allegations of violence by police are at an all-time high. “We also know that the role of the Department of Justice is absolutely critical to ensuring that policing agencies are complying with the law, and they are a crucial step in bringing accountability to policing,” Lieberman said. “We see that right here in Ferguson.” Sessions told the St. Louis audience he has ordered the creation of a crime-fighting task force that brings together the leaders of the FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Marshals Service. He said battling the heroin and opioid epidemic is a crucial element of the fight to stem violent crime. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Minority Dem delegates frustrated with ‘Bernie or Bust’
As most Democrats rally around Hillary Clinton, the lingering “Bernie or Bust” movement is stirring frustration at the party’s convention among delegates of color, who say they’re upset at the refusal of the Vermont senator’s most fervent backers to fall in line. “I am so exhausted by it,” said Danielle Adams, a black Clinton delegate from North Carolina. “I think there are undercuts of privilege that concern me.” Adams is among those who say the “Never Hillary” crowd, a group that is largely younger and white, isn’t considering the struggles black Americans still face every day. And, they argue, how the nation’s ethnic and racial minorities may be affected by a Donald Trump presidency. Rep. Cheryl Brown, a California delegate from San Bernardino who is black, condemned what she called the “aggressive” behavior of some Sanders delegates, saying they jumped on tables and shoved people at the state’s hotel the night that Sanders moved that the convention nominate Clinton by acclamation. “I think here at the convention, it’s been exacerbated by the way they are treating people,” she said. “I haven’t had that happen with any of the African-American Bernie supporters.” Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, an African-American and close ally of Clinton, was telling the story of his late father — a share-cropper in South Carolina — on the convention’s first day when Sanders supporters started chanting “No TPP” and holding up signs opposing the trade pact. “It was downright disrespectful,” said Kweisi Mfume, a Clinton delegate and former head of the NAACP, who called it “a low point” of the four-day summer meeting. “I think it does not necessarily help the relations that Bernie’s people may have with the larger African-American community.” To be sure, many black delegates at the convention said they don’t view the “Bernie or Bust” movement through a racial lens. Count Cummings among them. He said that as a veteran of many civil rights protests, he understands the passions that drove the mostly young delegates to shout over his speech. “The optics were not pretty, but I couldn’t be upset with them. Two or three years ago, they would have been outside politics,” he said, adding that more than 100 people have since apologized for the outbursts. “I am so glad these people are under our tent.” Others, meanwhile, are frustrated by Sanders backers who contend the nomination was stolen from the Vermont senator. They say those delegates are ignoring the fact Sanders lost the nomination to Clinton, in part, because he didn’t appeal strongly enough to African-American voters. “They haven’t considered the perspective of minorities,” said Kenneth Williams, a black Clinton delegate from Texas. “I don’t think there was enough there to bridge to that community.” Clinton undoubtedly has far more appeal than Sanders among black voters, a critical voting bloc in Democratic primaries. The former secretary of state won more than three out of four black votes in 25 primary states where exit polling was conducted and, by the end of the primary season, she had swept the 15 states with the largest black populations. “At the end of the day, (Sanders’) coalition looked too much like a modern day Woodstock, and not enough like the Obama coalition it takes to win the primaries and the general,” said Boyd Brown, a Democratic National Committeeman from South Carolina who supported former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Michelle Bryant, a radio talk host in Milwaukee who is attending the convention, said she’s heard similar concerns from some people who call into her show. She said Clinton has a decades-long history of fighting for racial and economic justice that some Sanders supporters seem willing to dismiss — even as they promote Sanders’ civil rights advocacy. “You wouldn’t have expected this stuff to kind of break out along racial lines,” Bryant said. But those complaining about Sanders supporters and expressing fears of Clinton losing to Trump are missing the point, said Natalie Vowell, a white Sanders delegate from Missouri. Clinton, she said, just hasn’t been a positive for black Americans. “There have been more young black men imprisoned, more brown bodies piling up across the globe, and I’m not sure at this point that a warmonger like Hillary Clinton is any better than a tyrant like Trump,” said Vowell. She said she’s not yet sure if she will vote at all in November. Ohio state Rep. Alicia Reece, president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus and a Clinton delegate, said she heard some complaints when a few people booed Michelle Obama when she mentioned Clinton’s name Monday night. But she predicted the party would ultimately come together. “Both groups have strong feelings about what’s going on,” she said. “Even non-African-Americans are afraid of Donald Trump, not just pro-Hillary people. They know we’ve got to unite and stop Trump.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
