Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz in fight to reshape their records on immigration
Republican presidential rivals Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are backpedaling furiously as they try to outmaneuver each other on immigration. Rubio co-wrote a massive 2013 immigration bill that passed the Senate. He disavows it now, but Cruz won’t stop talking about it. Cruz opposed the bill, but he offered amendments to massively increase legal immigration. Now he says that’s not a good idea after all, but Rubio won’t let him off the hook. Both senators are maneuvering to appeal to conservative GOP presidential primary voters in a campaign shadowed by Donald Trump, who wants to deport all 11.5 million immigrants in this country illegally. Trump’s hard-line stance has pushed the entire GOP field to the right and may create problems for the eventual GOP nominee facing a more diverse general election electorate. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pointed to that possibility in Tuesday night’s GOP debate when he said that Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s Democratic campaign would be doing high-fives at such talk. On Thursday Cruz did a complete about-face on one of his long-held immigration stances, telling conservative talk host Laura Ingraham when asked whether he would increase the numbers of legal immigrants to the U.S.: “I don’t believe that’s a good idea.” But during the Senate immigration debate two years ago the Texas senator was an outspoken advocate for increasing legal immigration, particularly for highly skilled immigrants. He called legal immigration “a pillar of our nation’s heritage and strength” and introduced amendments to double the cap on legal immigration and increase the number of high-skilled immigrant visas by 500 percent. Cruz also proposed an amendment to eliminate the path to citizenship in the Senate bill, allowing immigrants in the country illegally to end up with legal status short of citizenship instead. Rubio highlighted those stances in a campaign appearance in South Carolina on Thursday, saying: “Ted is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country illegally. … If you look at it, I don’t think our positions are dramatically different.” Brian Phillips, Cruz’s rapid response director, disputed that over Twitter, arguing in a series of tweets that Cruz was not seeking to support legal status for immigrants in the country illegally, only to oppose citizenship. “For the 1000th time, his amdt had nothing to do with legalization. He intentionally focused on citizenship only … to illustrate that Dems weren’t serious about passing real reform.” For his part, Cruz sought to use his appearance on Ingraham’s show to highlight Rubio’s role authoring the Senate immigration bill with its divisive path to citizenship for many of the immigrants in this country illegally. The legislation passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote in 2013 but ended up dying in the House, and President Barack Obama ultimately addressed the issue through executive actions now tied up in court. When asked about Rubio, Cruz said, “You know where someone is based on their actions, as the Scripture says, you shall know them by their fruits,” Speaking of Rubio and the other authors of the Senate bill, Cruz also said, “They fought tooth and nail to try to jam this amnesty down the American people’s throat over and over and over again.” Rubio now says that a single, comprehensive immigration bill is not the way to go and he would not address the status of the people in this country illegally before securing the border and remaking the legal immigration system. Ultimately he would still allow people here illegally to qualify for citizenship, but only after 15 years. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, appearing separately on Ingraham’s show, also discussed the 2013 Senate immigration bill. He contended that Rubio had struck a “secret deal” with another author of the bill, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, to block any conservative amendments to their legislation. In fact, the deal among all eight bipartisan authors of the bill to vote as a group to defeat troublesome amendments was well known at the time and not a secret. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
AP-GfK Poll: Republicans prefer an outsider candidate
A huge majority of Republican voters prefer an outsider candidate to one with experience in Washington, and most see political rookies Donald Trump and Ben Carson as possible general election winners, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. Carson tops the field as the most positively viewed candidate among Republicans, the poll shows. Some things to know about opinions on the Republican field from the AP-GfK survey. ___ GOP HIGH ON CARSON Carson is the candidate viewed most positively by Republican registered voters in the poll, with 65 percent giving him a favorable rating. Just 13 percent say they have an unfavorable opinion of the retired neurosurgeon. Nearly 6 in 10 Republican voters — 58 percent — have a favorable opinion of Trump. But the billionaire real estate mogul has relatively high unfavorable ratings within his own party, too, at 36 percent. Jeb Bush is another candidate struggling to tamp down negative opinions within his own party: 48 percent of Republican voters say they have a positive opinion and 37 percent have a negative opinion of the former Florida governor. Aside from Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former technology executive Carly Fiorina are the candidates with the widest gap between their favorable and unfavorable ratings, 51 percent to 20 percent for Rubio and 47 percent to 19 percent for Fiorina. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is next, viewed favorably by 48 percent and unfavorably by 26 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the least well-liked of the candidates among Republican voters, with 4 in 10 rating him positively and 4 in 10 rating him negatively. ___ MOST WANT AN OUTSIDER By an overwhelming 77 percent to 22 percent margin, Republican registered voters say they prefer an outsider candidate who will change how things are done, rather than someone with experience in Washington who can get things done. Similarly, they prefer someone with private-sector leadership experience over experience holding elected office, 76 percent to 22 percent. By contrast, two-thirds of Democratic voters prefer experience in Washington over outsider status. ___ REPUBLICANS SEE TRUMP AS BEST SHOT Seven in 10 Republicans and Republican-leaning registered voters say they think Trump could win in November 2016 if he were nominated; that’s the most of any Republican candidate. Slightly fewer — about 6 in 10 — say they think either Carson or Bush could win a general election. Rubio is the only other candidate viewed as electable by a majority of Republican voters, at 54 percent, while 47 percent think of Fiorina as a possible November winner. The poll found that many GOP candidates, including Christie, Huckabee, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are viewed as electable by well under half of Republicans. Close to 7 in 10 Republican voters say they think Hillary Rodham Clinton could win if she were nominated by the Democratic party. ___ AMERICANS NOT SEEING GOP VICTORY Among all people in the U.S., less than half view any of the Republican candidates as people who could win a general election. Bush and Trump are both seen as possible winners by 48 percent of Americans. That’s more than say so for any other Republican candidate, but far less than the 75 percent who say that Clinton could win the election if she is nominated on the Democratic side. Among Democratic registered voters, only one-third think Trump could win and one-quarter think Carson could. Nearly half see Bush as a general election opponent who could emerge victorious. ___ NOT HIGH ON EITHER PARTY’S CANDIDATES Among those questioned, every Republican candidate except Carson is viewed in a more negative than positive light. Just 31 percent of respondents have a favorable view of Trump, while 57 percent have an unfavorable view. More have an unfavorable than a favorable view of Bush, 48 percent to 26 percent. Opinions on Carson are about evenly split: 32 percent favorable, 31 percent unfavorable, 33 percent have no opinion. Rubio is also still largely an unknown name to people, with negative opinions outnumbering positive ones, 33 percent to 23 percent, but 4 in 10 still saying they don’t know enough to have an opinion. The poll shows that Clinton is also viewed more unfavorably than favorably, 48 percent to 41 percent. Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, like Carson, splits the public evenly, 32 percent favorable to 30 percent unfavorable, while 35 percent have no opinion. ___ The AP-GfK Poll of 1,027 adults was conducted online Oct. 15 to Oct. 19, using a sample drawn from GfK’s probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods, and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn’t otherwise have access to the Internet were provided access at no cost to them. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Analysis: GOP is party desperately in search of a leader
The GOP is a party in chaos, desperately in search of a leader. In the unruly U.S. House, Republicans enjoy a near-historic majority, yet deep divisions between ultra-conservatives and more traditional GOP lawmakers have left them at a loss over who should be in charge. In the Republican presidential primary, experienced governors and senators – long the party’s national leaders-in-waiting – are overshadowed by outsiders like Donald Trump who only seem to get stronger as they challenge the GOP establishment. Trump even claimed he helped push California Rep. Kevin McCarthy out of the race for House speaker this week, a shocking pullback by a lawmaker seen as the heir apparent. “They’re giving me a lot of credit for that, because I said you really need somebody very, very tough,” said Trump, the brash billionaire who has led GOP primary polls throughout the summer and fall. McCarthy was felled by the same factors that led current Speaker John Boehner to announce his resignation: a rebellion among members sent to Washington by voters who believe the party has compromised far too often with President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. The challenge now facing Republicans is not only looking for leaders to unite the party’s warring factions, but determining whether finding them is even possible. For all the talk about ideology, the split among Republicans is often more about tactics. Boehner and McCarthy are both staunchly conservative lawmakers, but members elected in the tea party-era openly question whether they can be trusted to hold the line in budget negotiations and on other matters. In the House, some Republicans are begging Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to step into the void. Ryan is no more conservative than Boehner – like the outgoing speaker, he has called for immigration reform – but he’s widely respected in the party and seen as one of its intellectual leaders. “It would be hard for people to confront Paul Ryan and say he’s not a good Republican or he’s not loyal,” Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said. “He has the stature nobody else has right now.” Yet it’s telling that Ryan, a budget expert and the GOP’s vice presidential pick in 2012, has so far said he doesn’t want the job. He’s left the clear impression that ascending to speaker in the current political environment would be more detrimental than helpful to his political future, which includes White House ambitions. Indeed, the next speaker will face a quick test to corral lawmakers who equate compromise with surrender. Congress must lift the nation’s debt limit by early November in order to avoid a default and faces a Dec. 11 deadline to pass a budget and keep the government open. A protracted fight over either issue would spill into the GOP presidential primary, forcing candidates to pick sides between the House’s small but vocal “hell no” caucus and leaders who warn the party would take the blame for a default or a federal shutdown. The risk for the party establishment is that those fights could harden support for presidential candidates running as political outsiders, namely Trump as well as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former technology executive Carly Fiorina. Predictions that Trump, and now Carson and Fiorina, would fade in polls have so far proved unfounded, yet few Republican strategists believe any of the three could win the general election. If former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio or another experienced politician does become the GOP nominee, it’s unclear whether the hardliners would fall in line or simply abandon the party on Election Day by not showing up or backing a third-party contender. For Republicans aghast at the turmoil roiling their party, there’s this to cling to: The GOP’s electoral prospects beyond the White House remain strong. They’re sure to keep control of the House thanks to heavily gerrymandered districts, they have a legitimate shot at holding the Senate, and their prospects are good in several governors’ races. And while Democrats have demographic advantages in the presidential race, given their strength with Hispanics, blacks and younger Americans, voters may simply prefer a change rather than giving the party a third straight term in the White House. At least a few Republicans also appear to be clinging to the hope that the current chaos marks the low point for the party, not the start of a deeper descent. “It’s a rocky, difficult period,” said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a Boehner ally. “But it’s probably a cathartic moment as well.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
This fall, Jeb Bush bridges two great American institutions: politics and football
As fall arrives, so does two all-American traditions — football and politics. And with the 2016 presidential race in full swing, candidates are beginning to stake ground in both fields. On Saturday, Republican candidate Jeb Bush takes his White House ambitions to Athens, Georgia for the game between the Carolina Gamecocks and the Georgia Bulldogs. Bush will attend a tailgate party hosted by the College Republicans of the University of Georgia. The Gamecocks, underdogs at 1-1, have the added benefit of coming from South Carolina, a key early primary state. The Bulldogs are undefeated at 2-0. On his campaign website, Bush rolled out a schedule of four football-related appearances, as well as the formation of a ten-member Southeastern Conference Advisory Committee. The committee is part of an effort “bring some fun” to the process and drum up grassroots support ahead of the March 15 “SEC primary.” ABC News reports that Right to Rise, the super PAC behind Bush, has been looking into advertising rates for many of the SEC primary states, including Ohio, Missouri and Florida. As governor, Bush also led Florida, another SEC state. “Come meet Jeb on the field,” Bush’s website says, “learn how you can get involved and maybe even take a few selfies.” On Oct. 10, Bush will be at the Tennessee vs. UGA game in Knoxville; he will then go Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the LSU and Alabama Crimson Tide rivalry Nov. 7. Later in the month, Bush will be at the Ole Miss Rebels vs. Mississippi State Bulldogs on November 28 in Starkville, Mississippi. Of course, Bush is not the only one linking football and politics. Four Republican candidates — Donald Trump, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul — attended a Sept. 12 GOP tailgate event for the Iowa vs. Iowa State match-up, an attempt boost their ground game by appealing to the everyday American football fan/voter.
Ann Eubank: Governor Robert Bentley and the Twilight Zone.
This legislative session I have, as a Tea Party Republican and an Alabama Legislative Watchdog, made several comments about the alternate reality of Montgomery; the feeling that I had “crossed into the Twilight Zone.” However, this time there are absolutely no words to describe my astonishment after reading Governor Robert Bentley’s comment, “…we’ve got too many Republicans in Montgomery.” EXCUSE ME? This statement should send earthquake size shock waves through the citizens of Alabama; from the grassroots/tea party level up to the most moderate of republicans. Voters should be appalled that our elected Republican governor has suddenly failed to remember that he himself is a Republican. Governor Bentley has become the epitome of a “Republican in Name Only.” (RINO) Now I know that we don’t like to use that word in polite political circles, but in this case, conceivably, it is applicable. How many Republican governors do you know that have as their chief of staff a Democrat? Governor Bentley does. How many republican governors do you know that want to raise $500 million dollars in revenue by taxing the people? Governor Bentley does. How many republican governors do you know that think “there are too many republican lawmakers in their state houses? Governor Bentley does. He acts like a liberal democrat and sounds like a liberal democrat. In my view, deceptively, Alabama now has an unelected democrat as Governor. So, perhaps the good doctor should examine himself. There has to be a medical reason for this sudden loss of memory. Or maybe he is right – there is at least one republican too many in Montgomery. Perhaps he needs to return to the party from whence he came, and the republicans in Montgomery should continue to stand and deliver on what we the people of Alabama were promised when we elected republicans to a super majority. Ann Eubank is the statewide co-chair of Rainy Day Patriots, and the legislative chair of the Alabama Legislative Watchdogs. Ann is a frequent visitor of the Statehouse and has bridged the gap between strong advocate and respected resource for members. She is also a member of the Alabamians United for Excellence in Education Taskforce and several other Stop Common Core groups.
GOP steels itself for uncertainty in White House race
Republicans are steeling themselves for a long period of uncertainty following a raucous first debate of the 2016 presidential campaign. There are no signs that Thursday’s debate will winnow their wide-open field anytime soon. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Before the campaign got underway, Republican Party leaders developed a streamlined set of debates and a nomination calendar that aimed to avoid a messy fight. But few envisioned a field of 17 candidates, the explosion of outside money that appears ready to keep second-tier candidates flush with cash, and the rise of Donald Trump. “I don’t think we have to have total clarity,” said Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman. “I think clarity is boring. I think what we have right now is some excitement, intrigue, and that’s great, as long as you can contain it.” He said “containment means jabs and a few elbows are great, but I think beyond that it can be problematic.” Rival camps do not expect Trump to be a serious contender for the nomination when voting starts early next year. But they also cannot predict what might drive him from the race. So far, he has proved to be immune from what would be viewed as missteps by any other candidate. But those missteps are piling up. Trump was disinvited from a prominent conservative forum Saturday in Atlanta because of disparaging comments he made about Megyn Kelly, the Fox News moderator who had asked him tough questions in the debate. For now, Trump’s unexpected summer surge has vaulted him to front-runner status. It will be several days before public polling shows whether he was damaged by his caustic debate comments about women and refusal to rule out a third-party run. Most GOP strategists expect little shake-up in the rest of the field before the second debate next month. “The electorate is going to take time to think through this,” said David Winston, a Republican pollster. “So I think everybody else is going to have to have patience.” Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the two candidates closest to Trump in early polls, escaped the first debate without damage, but also without any breakthrough moments. Ohio Gov. John Kasich capitalized on a home-state crowd at the Cleveland debate to exceed expectations with an upbeat and optimistic performance. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was praised for a substantive showing. The candidates made their case before a prime-time television audience of 24 million people, making the debate the biggest nonsports cable broadcast history. During the tumultuous 2012 Republican primary, a series of 13 debates before the kickoff Iowa caucuses kept the race in flux through its early months. Four years later, party leaders have cut in half the total number of approved debates — just six before the Iowa caucuses in February. So fewer debate chances for breakout moments or disqualifying stumbles. On top of that, Iowa canceled its famed summer straw poll — a death knell for candidates in the past. The growth of super political action committees, which can collect unlimited donations, means fewer candidates are at risk of having to shut down because they are out of money. “At this point in past cycles, there would be death watch coverage of a couple of the candidates,” said Fergus Cullen, the former New Hampshire Republican party chairman. “That’s not going to happen this time.” Bush maintains a massive financial advantage over his rivals, having raised more than $114 million in the first half of the year between his campaign and super PAC. Despite that haul and his political pedigree, he has not broken away from the pack as some thought he might. “You’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to earn it,” Bush said Friday during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. “A well-funded campaign is important — it’s better than a nonfunded campaign — but it’s not the only thing that matters.” Bush allies privately concede he underperformed in the debate. He appeared even-keeled but unremarkable amid Trump fireworks and showed signs of nerves in the opening moments of his first debate in more than a decade. Suggesting many voters still do not know Bush well, the son and brother of former presidents will devote much of the summer is to highlighting his accomplishments while governor of Florida, said campaign spokesman Tim Miller. Bush will pay particular attention to New Hampshire, where his brand of politics is likely to play the best among the four early voting states. It’s also where he will face increased competition from Kasich, a lesser-known Republican presidential contender who exceeded modest expectations in the debate. The next debate is Sept. 16 in California. Host CNN has said it will use a similar model to select the candidates on stage as Fox News did for the first one: a grouping of the top 10 candidates, according to public polling, and a second that includes lower-ranked candidates. One of the biggest questions to emerge is whether Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the GOP race, will break into the top tier. The former technology executive impressed many in the party with her sharp, forceful performance before the prime-time debate, but it’s not clear who she might dislodge from the top 10. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
As Republican infighting grows, donors call for calm
Worried about “Republican on Republican violence,” top party donors are taking action, with one firing off a letter calling for more civility and another seeking to block businessman Donald Trump from the debate stage altogether. Foster Friess, a Wyoming-based investor and one of the party’s top 20 donors in the last presidential contest, issued a letter to 16 White House prospects and the Republican National Committee late last week calling for candidates to stay on the “civility reservation.” “Our candidates will benefit if they all submit to Ronald Reagan‘s 11th Commandment, `Thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican,’” Friess wrote in a copy of the letter sent to Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and obtained by The Associated Press. In the dispatch, Friess cites the backing of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts. “Would you join the effort to inspire a more civil way of making their points?” Friess wrote. “If they drift off the `civility reservation,’ let’s all immediately communicate that to them.” The call for calm comes as the sprawling Republican field shows signs it could tip into a bare-knuckles struggle for the nomination — a scenario that the party’s elite donors see as a distressing echo of four years ago. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Monday charged that Republicans don’t need Texas Sen. Ted Cruz‘s “lectures.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker repeatedly dismisses Republicans in Congress as doing little. And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul regularly jabs his Republican opponents by name. Yet no candidate has injected more provocation into the 2016 Republican presidential primary than Trump. While few party officials see the reality television star as a credible candidate, he has lashed out at a growing number of Republican critics who have condemned his recent description of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists. Trump over the weekend posted a message from another user on his Twitter account charging that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush “has to like the Mexican illegals because of his wife,” Columba, who was born in Mexico. Campaigning in New Hampshire over the weekend, Bush said he “absolutely” took the remark personally. Trump has not apologized, but spokeswoman Hope Hicks on Monday said, “This was a retweet from somebody else” about a news story. But Trump stood firm on his comments about immigrants Monday, saying “the Mexican government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States,” and “criminals, drug dealers, rapists” are among them. He said “many fabulous people” come from Mexico and the U.S. is better for them, but this country is “a dumping ground for Mexico.” Republican donor John Jordan said Monday that GOP leaders should take steps to block Trump’s access to the first presidential debate in early August. Organizers at Fox News, backed by the Republican National Committee, have released guidelines allowing the top 10 candidates in national polling to participate. Trump would qualify under the current terms, while contenders such as Ohio’s two-term Gov. John Kasich would not. “Someone in the party ought to start some sort of petition saying, `If Trump’s going to be on the stage, I’m not going to be on there with him,’” Jordan told AP on Monday. “I’m toying with the idea of it.” “It’s something I feel strongly about as somebody who not only cares about the Republican Party, but also Latinos,” Jordan said. Even as the other candidates say they’re trying to avoid intraparty backbiting, however, they can’t seem to avoid it. In an interview Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Cruz refused to condemn Trump’s comments, saying he’s not going to perpetrate “Republican-on-Republican violence.” Christie, who entered the presidential race last week, wasn’t having it. “I find it ironic, right, that Ted Cruz is giving lectures on Republican-on-Republican violence,” Christie said on Fox News, accusing the Texan of sponsoring hardball ads against Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander in 2014 primaries. “I mean, all due respect, I don’t need to be lectured by Ted Cruz.” The Republican National Committee has dramatically reduced the number of primary debates before the 2016 contest largely to avoid the kind of attacks that bloodied their 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney. As the last GOP nomination heated up in January 2012, Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got particularly nasty. Gingrich joined Obama supporters in attacking Romney’s business background, calling him a “vulture capitalist.” Donors remember those exchanges well and fear a repeat of primary vitriol would lead to another general election loss. “Ninety-nine percent of leading donors saw the candidates carve each other up in the 2012 primaries and come out weaker for it and are determined not to let that happen again,” said Fred Malek, who has helped raise money for GOP presidential candidates for four decades. Responding to Friess’ letter, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wrote he plans on “becoming the nominee by playing a better game, not by breaking the legs of my rivals.” “I hope that we don’t commit fratricide again as a party,” Huckabee wrote, according to a copy of his response obtained by AP. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Fight over legislative districts returns to district court
The fight over Alabama’s legislative districts is shifting back to Montgomery after a divided U.S. Supreme Court said a lower court must take another look at whether GOP lawmakers relied too heavily on race when they drew new district lines. James U. Blacksher, a lawyer for the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, which filed the lawsuit against the plan, said they will fight to have the legislative districts redrawn after the case officially gets back to federal court next week. The caucus this past week presented a map of proposed new lines, which Blacksher said should be a starting point for negotiations. “Ultimately we are going to have to have another election,” Democratic Sen. Rodger Smitherman of Birmingham said. “It’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to do what the court said without having new elections.” The Alabama Democratic Conference and the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus had challenged the lines that were the drawn in 2012 under the newly elected GOP legislative majority. The U.S. Supreme Court last month reversed a lower court ruling that upheld the plan, saying the court did not properly consider complaints that state officials illegally packed black voters into too few voting districts. Justices said the lower court should have looked at claims of racial gerrymandering on a district-by-district level, not just statewide. The Supreme Court majority also said Alabama took a position of prioritizing racial targets when drawing districts. Instead of asking how it could maintain the minority percentages in districts, justices said, the court should have asked what percentages the minority should have to elect their candidate of choice. “The issue now will be whether the plaintiffs proved any of these districts were drawn predominantly on race,” Alabama Solicitor General Andrew Brasher, who handles appellate litigation for the state. Brasher predicted that the map would ultimately be upheld. “The district court said there are a lot of other reasons to draw the lines that way.” Republicans said their plans complied with the voting rights law by preserving all the districts in which blacks were a majority and adjusting populations so that districts contained about the same number of people. The new plan allowed only a 2 percent population difference between districts, a much lower variance than previous plans. Black lawmakers said the new lines resulted in the “stacking and packing” of black voters into designated minority districts, limiting minority voters’ ability to influence elections elsewhere. Justices put a spotlight on Senate District 26, a district that includes most of the majority-black neighborhoods in Montgomery. “Of the 15,785 individuals that the new redistricting laws added to the population of District 26, just 36 were white — a remarkable feat given the local demographics,” justices wrote. The Supreme Court majority, in its opinion, said, “There is strong, perhaps overwhelming, evidence that race did predominate as a factor when the legislature drew the boundaries of Senate District 26.” “It was so obvious and so blatant what happened,” said Quinton Ross, the senator from Senate District 26. Plaintiffs said the doubt raised by justices over that specific district is a strong indicator that they will prevail on remand. “There will be a big ripple effect,” Blacksher said. “The problems they identified in Senate District 26 are identical to those in the other districts.” GOP legislative leaders said they think their map will ultimately be upheld. “I’m confident at the end of the day, district lines are going to stay like they are,” said Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, an Auburn Republican. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
