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Texas
Related: About this forumTexas appears to be paying a secretive Republican political operative $120,000 annually to work
Texas appears to be paying a secretive Republican political operative $120,000 annually to work behind the scenes on redistrictingby Alexa Ura, Texas Tribune
A Republican redistricting operative whose clandestine work helped drag Wisconsin into a legal morass last decade appears to now be on the payroll of the Texas Legislature as lawmakers work to redraw maps that will determine the distribution of political power for years to come.
The operative, Adam Foltz, was part of the team that helped craft Wisconsins legislative maps after Republicans took control of that state Legislature in 2010. Foltz played a key role in a tight-lipped and questionable redrawing process that shut out Democrats and drew the condemnation of federal judges who described it as needlessly secret, according to court records.
Foltz may now be playing a behind-the-scenes role in Texas. The Capitols internal staff directory, to which The Texas Tribune obtained access, shows Foltz is working for the House Redistricting Committee. His office and phone number in that directory match those of the committees staff office in the Capitol basement, but at least one Democrat on the committee said they had not been advised of his involvement. Foltz has not been a visible part of the committee's public-facing work.
Though Foltz is assigned to the House Redistricting Committee, state employment records show that Foltz is actually on the payroll of the Texas Legislative Council, a nonpartisan state agency that supports the Legislature in drafting and analyzing proposed legislation and manages the internal mapping tool lawmakers use to redraw political maps. During the redistricting process, the council also plays a crucial role in providing demographic and election results for lawmakers proposed maps.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/29/texas-redistricting-adam-foltz/
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Texas appears to be paying a secretive Republican political operative $120,000 annually to work (Original Post)
TexasTowelie
Sep 2021
OP
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,296 posts)1. Sounds to me as though Adam Foltz needs to be watched closely.
I suspect that he may be up to no good.
LetMyPeopleVote
(143,998 posts)2. This will come out in the upcoming redistricting litigation
summer_in_TX
(2,680 posts)3. Well, well.
I testified in person to the House Redistricting Committee a couple of years ago when Phil King was chair.
King is a long-time member of ALEC, a past-president and still on their board.
This has ALEC's fingerprints. (And King's.)
He's smooth, good-mannered, urbane, dangerous because he's ideologically aligned with ALEC.
Javaman
(62,435 posts)4. "Foltz is actually on the payroll of the Texas Legislative Council, a nonpartisan state agency"
as I have come to learn, with the fascist repukes in power here, there is no such thing has a nonpartisan state agency