District maps from a prior era (File photo)
Congressman Sander Levin
Emails suggest the Michigan Republican Party deliberately gerrymandered the state's Congressional districts in 2011 to give the party a decade-long advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives, Bridge magazine reports.
The League of Women Voters and 11 Democratic voters have sued Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in federal court, and the emails are part of the evidence in that case.
The lawsuit references private emails that allegedly show one Republican aide saying a Macomb County district is shaped like “it’s giving the finger to (Democratic U.S. Rep.) Sandy Levin. I love it.” Another email from a GOP staffer was said to brag about cramming “Dem garbage” into four southeast Michigan congressional districts.
In a third email, a longtime Michigan Chamber of Commerce executive predicts the maps will keep Republicans in power for years — and implies the 4th Congressional District in the central Lower Peninsula was drawn to the wishes of Dave Camp, a longtime Republican congressman from Midland who has since retired.
“We will accommodate whatever Dave wants in his district,” wrote Robert LaBrant, who has since left the Michigan Chamber and is now a GOP consultant, on May 18, 2011, to two Republican consultants and a Camp staffer. “We’ve spent a lot of time providing options to ensure we have a solid 9-5 delegation in 2012 and beyond.”
Bridge writers Lindsay Van Hulle and Joel Kurth explan the emails are becoming public as the Michigan Supreme Court is poised to rule on whether the Voters Not Politicians ballot initiative will reach the November ballot.
The president of the Michigan Chamber -- and the state GOP -- denied their "discussions" were an intent to gerrymander the state. Redrawing districts, a chore which falls to the state legislature after the U.S. Census, is a complicated task, but drawing lines to unfairly privilege one party over another is a practice both parties deny happens. The Voters Not Politicians movement seeks to give the job to a nonpartisan commission.
