Ratf**ked

May 15, 2016
An alarming study of the GOP's redrawing of the American political map across the country. According to Salon editor-in-chief Daley, while Democrats were celebrating President Barack Obama's victory in 2008, they took their eyes off the important state legislatures, especially in key swing states. Subsequently, the defeated Republicans were already hatching nefarious plans to turn the "disaster into legislative majorities so unbreakable, so impregnable, that none of the outcomes are in doubt until after the 2020 census." According to law, every state redraws its district lines every 10 years, after the census. Both parties use gerrymandering--named after Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, who redrew a state Senate map in 1812 so skewed it looked like a salamander--to their advantage, but with wildly more sophisticated mapping abilities, gerrymandering has become a "more lethal weapon." Republican strategists initiated the Republican State Leadership Committee in order to raise millions of dollars for the Redistricting Majority Project, REDMAP, which would indicate where the money should be spent in order to bolster Republican candidates in Democratic-controlled state legislatures from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Michigan to Wisconsin, flip control of the chamber, lock in redistricting, and thus control Congress for the next decade. This political "dirty deed done dirt cheap" is called "ratfucking," as designated by Edmund Wilson in the 1920s and used by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate scandal. Indeed, this is just what happened after the midterm election of 2010, as the GOP captured 63 seats in the House of Representatives and 680 new seats in the state legislatures. Daley takes on each significant state race in turn and notes that despite the country's pulling more center-left on many issues, the far right is going to be calling the shots until 2020. The author looks at the masterminds behind the strategy and the mapmaking technology as well as the roles of restrictive voting rights laws, "dark money," and voter turnout. A chilling intimation of the growing entrenchment of partisan politics.

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June 15, 2016

The 2010 election cycle was far more consequential than either of the previous two presidential races. The Republican Party, whose candidates took over 26 state legislatures and 29 state governorships that year, gained not only the power to pass laws and write budgets as they saw fit but also nabbed the real prize--the ability to redraw their states' legislative district lines. This power, ostensibly to assure proportional representation in an evolving population, has been so thoroughly taken over by partisanship and high-tech gerrymandering that, according to Daley (editor in chief, Salon), legislators have ever greater sovereignty to pick their own voters. Daley takes a hard look at the most recent district reshuffling and places it into historical context. He examines the realignment process in several states, primarily ones with a nearly evenly divided electorate that tipped just to the right in the 2010 midterm elections, and finds the myriad ways state legislators (or supposedly nonpartisan boards) used inside baseball and advanced mapping software to carve out districts favoring Republican legislators. VERDICT Liberal readers will find much to chew on in this book, an early warning to prepare for the next round of redistricting. [See Prepub Alert, 1/4/16.]--Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2016

Editor in chief of Salon, Daley takes us on a spin through politics following Obama's election in 2008, when Republicans made a concerted effort to regain the political initiative through systematic redistricting and the passage of restrictive voting laws. This kind of slick maneuvering, called ratf**king by politicos, has effectively redrawn America's electoral map and threatens democracy. We've read about it, but Daley gives us the big, behind-the-scenes picture.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.