Karma and the drawing of Georgia’s political boundaries
Ten years later, what went around, came around.
Last week, our Republican-led Legislature plunged into the ruthless process known as redistricting.
Constitutionally, it is an occasion to pay homage to the concept of one person, one vote. In reality, redistricting is the irresistible opportunity for the ruling forces of the Capitol to redraw the state’s political boundaries — with the object of securing their own power for the next decade.
Congressional lines will be tackled this week. U.S. Rep. John Barrow, the Democrat from Savannah, is advised to reserve a moving van — Republicans are almost sure to force him out of his district, again.
A ghost of 2001: Senate District 51, occupied by Republican Bill Stephens, required an eight-hour trek by car
But the true blueprint for power in Georgia was largely settled on Thursday, when House and Senate Republicans passed separate district maps — intended to give their party super-majorities in each chamber.
In the House, white Democrats were paired with black Democrats in heavily African-American districts, which the minority party condemned as an attempt to re-segregate Georgia political life. In depopulated South Georgia, Jimmy Carter’s old state Senate district — heavy with minorities and history — was erased from existence.
But from the beginning, Republicans had this message waiting to counter any Democratic whining: “You deserved worse.”
Definitely not by coincidence, Thursday’s debates on the maps opened in each chamber with a history lesson written by the victors. In 2001, Democrats still ruled Georgia, but Republicans — for the first time — were threatening. Led by Gov. Roy Barnes, Democrats produced a series of maps that stretched the bounds of credulity, as federal courts would later rule.
“They went overboard. They were just messing with incumbents,” said Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist.
Ten years later, Senate Reapportionment Chairman Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, flashed some of the Democratic handiwork on a pair of wide screens in the Senate chamber. District after district snaked across the state in narrow, twisted paths.
Senate District 24, as drawn in 2001 for Republican Sen. Joey Brush
A giggle broke out when Seabaugh unveiled Senate District 51, housing a GOP incumbent, which Democrats had draped across the roof of Georgia like a giant pair of elephant ears — several counties on each lobe. The land bridge that connected the east side with the west was at one point only two football fields wide. (It took a reporter eight hours to make the convoluted 199-mile trek from one end to the other.)
Democrats tried to “systematically eliminate Republicans” from the Legislature, Seabaugh charged. In the House, 18 Republicans were forced out of their districts, and out of the Legislature. In the Senate, four Republicans were ousted after the 2002 elections, but ironically, the chamber still ended up in GOP hands.
After last week’s debate, Seabaugh was asked if Republicans conceived of their 2011 maps as a vehicle for revenge. He said no. In the GOP plan, only one senator — Democrat George Hooks of Americus, holding the same seat Carter once occupied — would be forced out.
“We didn’t pair a bunch of Democrats,” he said. “If anybody would go look at the Atlanta metro area, it would have been so easy, and it would have been justifiable.”
Did the Republican history seminar shame Democrats into submission? Hardly. “A hundred years ago, you used to take away the vote with a whip and a noose,” thundered state Sen. Vincent Fort of Atlanta. “Today you take it away with computers and hard drives and other electronic equipment. It wasn’t right then, and it wasn’t right now.”
But Fort and nearly every Democrat who challenged the GOP maps, in both the House and Senate, were forced to give an awkward acknowledgment of the Democratic excess of 2001, and deny any connection to it.
Which certainly can take the emotional starch out of a protest.
There is, of course, the question of how much the game of redistricting has actually changed in the last 10 years. At a Senate committee meeting, William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, complimented Republican senators for drawing a map with compact and contiguous districts, one that respected county lines and other geographic boundaries, and met the Voting Rights Act standard of one person, one vote.
The House map, Perry would say later, comes up short by splitting too many counties among several districts.
Beyond that, Perry remains a skeptic. “It got a little nauseating hearing the comparison to 10 years ago,” he said. “As far as transparency, it’s not much better than it was.” In his judgment, it is the difference between a closed door, and one cracked open, with the chain still secured.
Yes, Republicans made their maps public before a vote. But on a Friday afternoon, before a session that began the next Monday. Important information was withheld, such as what incumbents lived in which renumbered districts. Republicans made many claims about the superiority of their maps over the ones drawn in 2001, but refused to provide the vital population data that backed up those claims.
Democrats were refused access to the $425-an-hour law firm hired with taxpayer funds to help build the maps. Just as Republicans were denied the same help in 2001.
Bottom line: In 2001 and 2011, after the leaders of the ruling party introduced their outlines of power, not a single line was changed by the protests of the opposition, or the complaints of the public.
There is more similarity. In the four decades since the passage of the Voter Rights Act, not a single redistricting map passed by the Legislature has escaped a federal court fight. And just as in 2001, the maps of 2011 are headed the same way.
In the meantime, sit back and wait for the payback that 2021 will bring.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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80 comments Add your comment
double
August 20th, 2011
11:54 pm
after 2012 Democrats in Georgia will be on the endangered species list.Then we will all be hunting squirrel to survive.
eatmotacos
August 21st, 2011
12:10 am
@serious
td is in the category of voters that Isackson refers to as the unwashed – unfortunately, based on the fact that Johnny and his draft dodging cohort, Mr.Vidalia Onion, are in Washington, he represents the typical, clueless Georgia voter.
Republican
August 21st, 2011
2:10 am
robuck you need to eatmotacos.It will make you sick though.
Ralph
August 21st, 2011
6:35 am
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. If wise, the Republicans now temporarily in power would allow a credible opposition to survive in order to allow a check on their own team’s temptation to excess. By nearly exterminating the remnant of white Democrat legislators, the Republicans sow the seeds of their own destruction.
Smoke
August 21st, 2011
6:38 am
Just think. The same folks southern conservative country club gentlemen (who have run this State for nearly two-centuries) call trailer-trash, rednecks, unwashed, bubba, barefoot-and-pregnant, and worse, are the same folks who called themselves yellowdog democrats in the past and conservatives today.
You buried the lead
August 21st, 2011
7:23 am
The most important aspect to this story appears in the third-to-last paragraph. No amount of protest yielded any change to the maps. Once the Republican leaders presented their map, that was it. Basically, the Republicans said we’re in charge and the maps are going to look THIS way.
Compare this exercise with our national politics. Despite the fact that Republicans had great affect on the healthcare legislation (more than one-hundred of their amendments were adopted), Republicans falsely claim that Democrats shut them out of the process. Republicans stirred-up their base with that baseless accusation. It’s kind of funny.
Republicans ignore the people
August 21st, 2011
8:04 am
Politicians are self-serving, self-interested creatures. They thought that redistricting was all about them. That they were the sole focus of this event. As such, they ignored the people of Georgia.
They need to be reminded that they are public servants.
td
August 21st, 2011
9:30 am
Serious Robuck
August 20th, 2011
11:16 pm
td, did you ever go to school, Sweet Baby? You are one special, ignorant, barely literate redneck
At least I can say I did not vote for a person that will go down in history as one of the worst Presidents we have ever elected. Now who has a intellectual problem?
honested
August 21st, 2011
10:07 am
td
quick there is something shiny on faux newz, you better go look.
With that out of the way, ‘buried the lead’ is right. Despite the numerous ‘Public Hearings’ the repugs on the Joint Committee obviously did not hear the public. Having attended and spoken at two of them, I can assure you people were more concerned about keeping access for their community, county or area ‘of interest’ rather than ensuring the so called leadership would be free of challenges to their iron fist.
The maps had been under development before the ‘hearing’ and were probably finalized before the hearings ended.
Even speaking as an individual who views Georgia Democrats as right wing, it should be obvious to everyone looking that the majority party is not populated with thoughtful, introspective leaders concerned with ensuring the maximum possible benefit of liberty to the maximum number of Citizens. That just ain’t the republican way.
These are mostly loud and proud yahoos with their first taste of power funded by people with no concern other than to prevent a fair sharing of the tax burden.
There are several districts in the map, for instance the most southeast House district, where clear retribution against those who put the people ahead of the ‘power’ feel the retribution of the flatheads.
honested
August 21st, 2011
10:16 am
Ralph
I think you are quite correct. Some of these (especially Senate) districts leave plenty of room for a sentient Democrat to win or at least massively increase the cost of the campaign. That won’t please the teapottie funders at all!
We the people...
August 21st, 2011
10:40 am
We the people, the ones funding this circus posing as a government, should demand term limits. The clowns are more interested in protecting their own job rather than helping those who elected him find one. Doesn’t matter if they are a Republican or a Democrat.
Disgusted Voter
August 21st, 2011
10:46 am
Reapportionment atempts by political parties in power to increase that control usually have a way of backfiring. Georgia Democrats tried to gerrymander Districts to increase their control of the General Assembly a few years back and ended up as the “Minority Party”…losing control instead of increasing it. Same thing could happen to the current crop of Republicans. Greed has a way of coming back and biting you right in the seat of your britches. All just a bunch of political pigs slopping at the public trough so nothing much ever changes to really help make life better for the common folks no matter who is in power.
double
August 21st, 2011
11:22 am
Wonder if the pole watchers let TD’s oriental wife go in booth or assist him voting.
double
August 21st, 2011
11:23 am
opps pol better than then
Don Abernethy
August 21st, 2011
11:30 am
I think I understand the redistricting game by both parties but what I am puzzled by is the use of the word “karma” in the title of the article .Karma is usually associated with Buddhism or Hinduism. Is the writer of this persuasion or do we have a “new age” government in Georgia? Would not surprise me.Seems we are being surprised more and more by who sits in our government.
double
August 21st, 2011
11:34 am
my since not working good this am.mint poll…..duh – Do not understand karma meaning here either.
Smoke
August 21st, 2011
1:23 pm
Those who squeal for term limits are the same ones who vote for the incumbents every election. Southern conservatives have treated their electorate like mushrooms for generations. Just think, Georgia still has never had a Lincoln/Roosevelt type Republican governor to serve a full term in office.
captguitarman
August 21st, 2011
1:47 pm
I remember those King Roy years well, and the 2001 redistricting, which one Dem legislator called “political right down to your toe nails.” Quite naievly, I assured myself then that the Dems did this because they are scared of what they see coming, but they won’t be able to stop it, and then the Pubs will show them what good and responsible government looks like. To the contrary, the Dems and now the Pubs have showed me what Georgia politics look like (revenge is the highest priority), and will forever look like. I guess I am just too much of a traditional Pub/Con, which translstes here to “old Boy Scout” and I was wrong to think that the Gawja Pubs would be bigger and so much more classy in their approach. This state is hurting and lagging behind in its economy, health care, transporation, education, and in many areas, and the once acclaimed capital of he new south is definitely looking over its shoulder at competing cities located in much better governed states that are coming up hard and fast.
So what’s the second most brilliant idea the Pubs have come up with . . . after the first most brilliant idea of gutting the Ethics Commission (whatever did happen to those subpoenas that were all signed and ready to go to the Deal campaign anyway?) . . . one party state government control for as far and long as the eye can see. Hey, Mr. Pub legislator, was that a good idea during the King Roy years, and was it good for Georgia? Uh. No, not at all. Then why are the Pubs doing it? Uh . . . because we can . . . a-hyilt, a-hyilt, a-hyilt . . . and because of Karma. You know? What goes around comes around. Pay-backs are hell, etc. And because it jes’ makes us feel rill good. Yes, but this state is full of all kinds of different people of different parties and ideas, not just neo-con Pubs. And while having a working majority is certainly your due from your November election victories, is totally gutting the opposition and quieting all other voices (which once happened to the Pubs in 2001) a really good thing? Doesn’t a government, or a business, or any serious enterprise perform better with the positive dynamic tension that occurs when you have competing ideas and methods and internal checks and balances? Say whut? Uh . . . let me read it from this here paper the leaders handed out. It wasn’t good when the Dems did it, but it will be good if the Pubs do it. Did I read that right? Not exactly, Mr./Ms. legislator, but we get the drift. We voters can see that things have changed. Yes, you baseball caps and lapel pins now says Pub on them instead of Dem. Other than that, we don’t see any change — except that Tennessee and the Carolinas are looking better every day now.
trooth
August 21st, 2011
1:52 pm
Fact is you bone headed liberals did the same thing years ago now it is time for payback.Whats goes around comes around.Plus your presbo has put this country in such a mess you will be left sweeping the streets without a broom.
d
August 21st, 2011
6:32 pm
Just remember, a good number of these republicans were democrats in 2001. I forget how many converted parties after Sonny was elected. These are the same people doing the same thing they did 10 years ago. Is anyone really surprised?
honested
August 21st, 2011
11:43 pm
d
And the stink is still as nasty.
Smoke
August 22nd, 2011
5:32 am
trooth. If the “liberals” did the same thing 10-years ago, how come they are not in control. Not that “liberals” have ever been in charge of the State. I can’t wait to see what great “real issues” policy debates will take place in the next session.
honested
August 22nd, 2011
8:33 am
smoke
It will be the same Un-Constitutional nonsense these backward-lookers focus on (as that is all they know).
Creationism, prayer in school, confederate loser flag status, exempting the top 2% from all forms of taxation, gut EPD and interfere with EPA, probably attempt to put the ten commandments in the Capitol, eliminate all remaining ethics rules, school vouchers, etc.
kw
August 22nd, 2011
8:49 am
it was OK ten years ago when the Democrats changed the district to get minorities elected. just shut up.
Seller
August 22nd, 2011
8:57 am
It should be distinguished that a single Democratic party is like 50 parties. The Democratic party has always been a coalition of small interest groups. That’s why the party is so easy to marginalize.
The Georgia Republican Party is much less diverse – dare it be said that the legislative ruling class is one of the more like minded groups in state history.
Is this good? Even with a disparate Democratic single party rule, corruption and authoritarianism reigned. Be prepared for the dumbing down of public education and the evisceration of any opposition. The judicial branch, that branch of government that stands between the people and an overreaching state will be marginalized by reducing it’s budgets until it is ineffective and a mere pupped of the exccutive.
Sell.
Alex
August 22nd, 2011
9:02 am
It is humorous to see everyone tag repub and dem and conservative and lib in GA. Barnes was no liberal just as Perdue and Deal are not conservative. Their policies are more about preservation of power than political ideology. This has been true in Georgia for a long time – and dispite my best hopes over the decades, it doesn’t look like it will change.
A a seventh generation Georgian, I wanted better.
mike 'hussein' smith
August 22nd, 2011
9:23 am
Your last line seems to predict Democrats can use GOP-drawn districts to reassert themselves and become the majority party again in time for the 2021 redistricting? That would be the only way there could be payback.
catlady
August 22nd, 2011
11:21 am
Centrist, I am surprised at your comments about the town hall meeting in Ellijay. I thought the populace, based on what I have seen, would just love having the boys there. But,upon further reflection, I realized that they are both “too liberal” in this Tea Party area!
Zykra Cosmos
August 22nd, 2011
3:31 pm
I think this is great. Now John Barrow will come back to Clarke County and this idiot Paul Broun out of office. Even the country bumpkins ringing the outskirts of this blue oasis are tired of being ridiculed across the country for having a complete joke represent them.
Joe Mama
August 22nd, 2011
5:10 pm
Judge Dawg — ” More uneducated people for the Armed Forces..”
I hold multiple undergraduate degrees. And I double-majored in grad school. And I’m an honorably-discharged Army veteran. So take a flying leap, Judge Dawg.
Willie Rae — “Judge dawg is a proud progressive and reflects the dominant perspective of the democrats toward military service and toward everyone who is not just like them.”
I’m a proud progressive, and I’m a disabled veteran as well. So you can take a flying leap too, Willie Rae.