How Republican legislators and political operatives fundamentally rigged our American democracy through redistricting.
“With Barack Obama’s historic election in 2008, pundits proclaimed the Republicans as dead as the Whigs of yesteryear. Yet even as Democrats swooned, a small cadre of Republican operatives, including Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, and Chris Jankowski began plotting their comeback with a simple yet ingenious plan. These men had devised a way to take a tradition of dirty tricks―known to political insiders as “ratf**king”―to a whole new, unprecedented level. Flooding state races with a gold rush of dark money made possible by Citizens United, the Republicans reshaped state legislatures, where the power to redistrict is held. Reconstructing this never- told-before story, David Daley examines the far-reaching effects of this so-called REDMAP program, which has radically altered America’s electoral map and created a firewall in the House, insulating the party and its wealthy donors from popular democracy.” -David Daley
Every decade, with recent results of the census in hand, legislative districts are drawn. Redrawing political lines is a powerful tool that determines who wins an election, controls the legislature, and ultimately which laws pass. In Virginia, legislators create the criteria and draw their own districts. This is a manipulative process known as gerrymandering, a ruthless and endless cycle of corruption intended solely to maintain a stranglehold on the legislative process by whichever party is in power following each decennial census.
Enough is enough. In a unanimous vote on June 13th, the Madison County Democratic Committee adopted a resolution drafted by OneVirginia2021 intended to help make politicians accountable to all Virginians through fair and competitive elections. We encourage all of our citizens to sign this bi-partisan petition to allow voters to choose their elected representatives instead of allowing politicians to manipulate elections by hand-picking their voters.