The recent tendency of Democrats after losing redistricting battles in the respective state legislatures is to take them to court. With the remaining lifetime-appointed judges from past Democratic Administrations, they are often able to win in those friendly fora what they could not in the legislatures, a definitely "anti-democratic" attitude.
Now, they not only affirm this tactic for the forseeable future, but they have also enlisted help. Where are your union dues going? To fund collective bargaining? To improve workers' conditions? To pay for union benefits? No, you will be delighted to know your dues are going to help Democrats fight in court instead, as Will Lester of the Associated Press reports:
One of the nation's largest labor unions, joining with other Democratic-leaning groups, is forming a political committee to raise millions of dollars for redistricting fights with the GOP.
The formation of the political group Foundation for the Future, called a 527 because of the part of the tax code section that governs it, was at least partially a response to aggressive redistricting tactics by Republicans."Republicans are prepared to use all means necessary so they can gain power and govern," said Larry Scanlon, political director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "They were willing to go into states and do mid-decade redistricting, turning our whole democracy on its ear."
The committee expects to spend about $17 million over the next five years on redistricting at the state and federal level, with more than half of that money provided by AFSCME, Scanlon said Thursday.
Read the rest at link above.
What Mr. Scanlon conveniently omits is that Republican legislatures have only passed "mid-decade redistricting" in those states where legislatures could not pass a plan, usually due to Democratic obstruction, and courts drew the lines. Redistricting is a power of the state legislatures (in some states the Governor has a role as well), NOT the courts.
Unions join the Democrats is saying to voters: "Screw you. If we can't win elections, we'll try in court."
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