You will no doubt be excited to hear that I now have electoral data for the new State House districts as they currently stand. My thanks to Joe Madden of the Legislative Study Group for getting all that to me. There’s a lot that can happen to them between now and the next election – the Senate, the Justice Department, and ultimately the courts will all get a chance to weigh in – but until then we need to know what we’re up against. I’m working on a series of posts that will take a look at where the opportunities are under this map for Democrats. I’ll be rolling them out this week.
In the meantime, here’s the LSG analysis of CSHB150, the various alternate plans that were introduced during the debate over it, and the effect CSHB150 would have on existing districts. I will rely on this in several places during my subsequent posts. There’s too much to adequately summarize, so go read it and get up to speed. Much of what is in this analysis is outlined in this letter to the Justice Department from Rep. Garnet Coleman. There’s no guarantee that the DOJ will get involved – Lord knows, they’re going to have their hands full with Congressional maps – but if they do, there will be plenty for them to look into. Again, read the whole thing.