GOP emails: Let's 'cram Dem garbage' into southeast Michigan districts

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Detroit News

Lansing — Republican aides suggested ways to contain “Dem garbage” to four congressional districts in southeast Michigan and joked about how one district could be shaped to give “the finger” to a Democratic congressman, according to 2011 emails revealed in a federal lawsuit alleging GOP gerrymandering.

The emails show Republicans “packed and cracked” legislative and congressional district maps to benefit GOP candidates and hurt Democrats, attorneys representing the League of Women Voters argued in a recent court filing.

In a May 2011 email, Jack Daly, chief of staff for then-U.S. Rep Thaddeus McCotter, told Michigan Chamber of Commerce legal counsel Bob LaBrant and consultant Jeff Timmer that lines should be redrawn to swap some voters in Wayne County with others in West Bloomfield to ensure Democrats are in a “dem district and reps in a gop district” and increase the black population in black districts. . . .

Read more: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/26/gop-emails-dem-garbage-gerrymander-lawsuit/838694002/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. How many more of these e-mails are out there in other Gerrymandered States?

[SoCalNative]

3. Well, if they are

I'm guessing they're being scrubbed and shredded after this.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. My guess is,Dem activist have

captured some,hope fully.

[markses66]

2. Our models of civility, doncha know

[dalton99a]

6. Bingo

[Initech]

8. #Civility

[jmowreader]

5. I know we're "better than this"

But if the Democrats take the majority in 2020 in these gerrymandered states, it is our absolute responsibility to gerrymander so hard we wind up with about 400 seats in the House at the 2022 election.

[Merlot]

12. If Dems win, all they need to do is make legitimate maps then dems win.

repubs are a minority and only win by gerrymandering, dems win on ideas.

[Initech]

7. Stay classy, republicans.

[appalachiablue]

9. K & R

[MrScorpio]

10. It's not to late to point out that MI-GOPrs are the scum of the Earth, right?

[DeminPennswoods]

11. This is the same argument LWV made in Pennsylvania

Our constitution specifically calls for districts to be compact and not to split municipalities. That's the basis on which the state supreme court threw out the federal congressional districts.

If Michigan has similar language in its constitution, the state supreme court could also toss the districts and order a new map to be drawn. The federal courts will not intervene because the issue will have been settled based on the state constitution and not the VRA.