Download or read book Ratf ked written by David Daley and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The explosive account of how Republican legislators and political operatives fundamentally rigged our American democracy through redistricting. With Barack Obama’s historic election in 2008, pundits proclaimed the Republicans as dead as the Whigs of yesteryear. Yet even as Democrats swooned, a small cadre of Republican operatives, including Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, and Chris Jankowski began plotting their comeback with a simple yet ingenious plan. These men had devised a way to take a tradition of dirty tricks—known to political insiders as “ratf**king”—to a whole new, unprecedented level. Flooding state races with a gold rush of dark money made possible by Citizens United, the Republicans reshaped state legislatures, where the power to redistrict is held. Reconstructing this never- told-before story, David Daley examines the far-reaching effects of this so-called REDMAP program, which has radically altered America’s electoral map and created a firewall in the House, insulating the party and its wealthy donors from popular democracy. Ratf**ked pulls back the curtain on one of the greatest heists in American political history.

Download or read book Redistricting and Representation written by Thomas Brunell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-04-02 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pundits have observed that if so many incumbents are returned to Congress to each election by such wide margins, perhaps we should look for ways to increase competitiveness – a centerpiece to the American way of life – through redistricting. Do competitive elections increase voter satisfaction? How does voting for a losing candidate affect voters’ attitudes toward government? The not-so-surprising conclusion is that losing voters are less satisfied with Congress and their Representative, but the implications for the way in which we draw congressional and state legislative districts are less straightforward. Redistricting and Representation argues that competition in general elections is not the sine qua non of healthy democracy, and that it in fact contributes to the low levels of approval of Congress and its members. Brunell makes the case for a radical departure from traditional approaches to redistricting – arguing that we need to "pack" districts with as many like-minded partisans as possible, maximizing the number of winning voters, not losers.

Download or read book The Fight to Vote written by Michael Waldman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On cover, the word "right" has an x drawn over the letter "r" with the letter "f" above it.

Download or read book Redistricting written by Charles S. Bullock and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-03-10 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2022 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title This authoritative overview of election redistricting at the congressional, state legislative, and local level provides offers an overview of redistricting for students and practitioners. The updated second edition pays special attention to the significant redistricting controversies of the last decade, from the Supreme Court to state courts.

Download or read book A Return to Normalcy written by Larry J. Sabato and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2021-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book leading American politics experts examine every facet of the stunning 2020 election and its aftermath, and how these events will impact America moving forward. Each contributor goes beyond the headlines and dives into the underlying forces and shifts that drove the election from its earliest developments to its chaotic conclusion.

Download or read book Congress in Black and White written by Christian R. Grose and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-31 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The symbolic importance of Barack Obama's election is without question. But beyond symbolism, does the election of African-American politicians matter? Grose argues that it does and presents a unified theory of representation. Electing African-American legislators yields more federal dollars and congressional attention directed toward African-American voters. However, race and affirmative action gerrymandering have no impact on public policy passed in Congress. Grose is the first to examine a natural experiment and exceptional moment in history in which black legislators – especially in the U.S. South – represented districts with a majority of white constituents. This is the first systematic examination of the effect of a legislator's race above and beyond the effect of constituency racial characteristics. Grose offers policy prescriptions, including the suggestion that voting rights advocates, the courts, and redistricters draw 'black decisive districts', electorally competitive districts that are likely to elect African Americans.

Download or read book The Public Mapping Project written by Michael P. McDonald and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Laurence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal is an initiative of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Pennsylvania State University. It annually recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce exceptional innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world. Micah Altman and Michael P. McDonald unveil the Public Mapping Project, which developed DistrictBuilder, an open-source software redistricting application designed to give the public transparent, accessible, and easy-to-use online mapping tools. As they show, the goal is for all citizens to have access to the same information that legislators use when drawing congressional maps—and use that data to create maps of their own. Thanks to generous funding from The Pennsylvania State University, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Download or read book Unrigged How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy written by David Daley and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “wildly undersold story” (Lawrence Lessig) of the next American revolution, and the inspiring citizen activists fighting to save America’s fragile democracy. Our country is dominated by a political party that has no interest in governing, and that seeks to entrench its power by limiting democracy—going so far as to force people to the polls in the middle of a pandemic. Yet there is hope, as best-selling author David Daley argues in Unrigged, though it doesn’t lie in Congress, gerrymandered statehouses, or even the courts. We must, instead, look to the grassroots. Introducing us to groups that have pioneered innovative organizing methods—often combining old-school activism with new digital tools—Daley uncovers the story behind voting-rights victories nationwide and the new organizations reinventing our politics. The result is a vivid portrait of a new civic awakening, and an essential toolkit for reviving our democracy in the Trump era and beyond.

Download or read book The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts 1789 1983 written by Kenneth C. Martis and published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. This book was released on 1982 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Chief written by Joan Biskupic and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive biography of the Supreme Court's enigmatic Chief Justice, taking us inside the momentous legal decisions of his tenure so far. John Roberts was named to the Supreme Court in 2005 claiming he would act as a neutral umpire in deciding cases. His critics argue he has been anything but, pointing to his conservative victories on voting rights and campaign finance. Yet he broke from orthodoxy in his decision to preserve Obamacare. How are we to understand the motives of the most powerful judge in the land? In The Chief, award-winning journalist Joan Biskupic contends that Roberts is torn between two, often divergent, priorities: to carry out a conservative agenda, and to protect the Court's image and his place in history. Biskupic shows how Roberts's dual commitments have fostered distrust among his colleagues, with major consequences for the law. Trenchant and authoritative, The Chief reveals the making of a justice and the drama on this nation's highest court.

Download or read book General Election Laws written by Washington (State) and published by . This book was released on 1905 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Dark Money written by Jane Mayer and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Who are the immensely wealthy right-wing ideologues shaping the fate of America today? From the bestselling author of The Dark Side, an electrifying work of investigative journalism that uncovers the agenda of this powerful group. In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system. Why is America living in an age of profound and widening economic inequality? Why have even modest attempts to address climate change been defeated again and again? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? In a riveting and indelible feat of reporting, Jane Mayer illuminates the history of an elite cadre of plutocrats—headed by the Kochs, the Scaifes, the Olins, and the Bradleys—who have bankrolled a systematic plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. Mayer traces a byzantine trail of billions of dollars spent by the network, revealing a staggering conglomeration of think tanks, academic institutions, media groups, courthouses, and government allies that have fallen under their sphere of influence. Drawing from hundreds of exclusive interviews, as well as extensive scrutiny of public records, private papers, and court proceedings, Mayer provides vivid portraits of the secretive figures behind the new American oligarchy and a searing look at the carefully concealed agendas steering the nation. Dark Money is an essential book for anyone who cares about the future of American democracy. National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist LA Times Book Prize Finalist PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalist Shortlisted for the Lukas Prize

Download or read book The Justice of Contradictions written by Richard L. Hasen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eye-opening look at the influential Supreme Court justice who disrupted American jurisprudence in order to delegitimize opponents and establish a conservative legal order

Download or read book Ratf ked Why Your Vote Doesn t Count written by David Daley and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Daley’s “extraordinarily timely” (New York Times Book Review) account uncovers the fundamental rigging of our House of Representatives and state legislatures nationwide. Lauded as a “compelling” (The New Yorker) and “eye-opening tour of a process that many Americans never see” (Washington Post), David Daley’s Ratf**ked documents the effort of Republican legislators and political operatives to hack American democracy through an audacious redistricting plan called REDMAP. Since the revolutionary election of Barack Obama, a group of GOP strategists has devised a way to flood state races with a gold rush of dark money, made possible by Citizens United, in order to completely reshape Congress—and our democracy itself. “Sobering and convincing” (New York Review of Books), Ratf**ked shows how this program has radically altered America’s electoral map and created a firewall in the House, insulating the Republican party and its wealthy donors from popular democracy. While exhausted voters recover from a grueling presidential election, a new Afterword from the author explores the latest intense efforts by both parties, who are already preparing for the next redistricting cycle in 2020.

Download or read book Usurpers written by Billy Corriher and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses the Republican-led North Carolina legislature's quest to control state courts. The legislature in 2011 drew biased election districts that ensured Republicans kept their majority, even when Democrats got more total votes. In 2013, Republicans even passed a law designed to keep African Americans from voting. Civil rights lawyer Anita Earls took the legislature to court for discriminating against Black voters in their voter ID law and their election districts. She laid out the undeniable evidence of racial discrimination. And the legislators' attorney, Thomas Farr, justified their actions as attempts to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The federal courts struck down the voter ID law and the racially gerrymandered districts. When lawmakers redrew the districts, Lewis stated clearly that the new boundaries would discriminate against Democrats. To keep the courts from blocking their power grabs, legislators tried to control the judicial branch. A 2013 memo from a GOP consultant advised legislators that "supreme court races are critical for long-term Republican dominance." Republicans tried to cancel the 2016 North Carolina Supreme Court election. When that failed and voters elected a progressive majority, they briefly considered a proposal to pack the court and overturn the results. Instead, legislators passed bills giving themselves more power over the other branches.Legislators passed bills that gerrymandered judges, un-packed the court of appeals, and manipulated election ballots to help Republican judicial candidates. Lawmakers passed a constitutional amendment that would give themselves control over filling vacant judicial seats. It would've opened the door to another court-packing scheme.Republicans in Washington, D.C., were pushing to nominate Farr, the GOP's lawyer, to a federal court in Eastern North Carolina, where around half of the population is Black. Rev. Barber and other activists around the country raised concerns about Farr's history of defending discrimination and his ties to a racist lawyer. In 2018, as Republicans were reshaping the federal courts, Earls ran for a seat on the state supreme court. It was a challenge for a quiet, reserved lawyer. She campaigned on a platform of judicial independence, as legislators passed laws intended to hurt her campaign.

Download or read book The Sum of the People written by Andrew Whitby and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating three-thousand-year history of the census traces the making of the modern survey and explores its political power in the age of big data and surveillance. In April 2020, the United States will embark on what has been called "the largest peacetime mobilization in American history": the decennial population census. It is part of a tradition of counting people that goes back at least three millennia and now spans the globe. In The Sum of the People, data scientist Andrew Whitby traces the remarkable history of the census, from ancient China and the Roman Empire, through revolutionary America and Nazi-occupied Europe, to the steps of the Supreme Court. Marvels of democracy, instruments of exclusion, and, at worst, tools of tyranny and genocide, censuses have always profoundly shaped the societies we've built. Today, as we struggle to resist the creep of mass surveillance, the traditional census -- direct and transparent -- may offer the seeds of an alternative.

Download or read book The Long Red Thread written by Kyle Kondik and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive study that shows how Republicans transformed the US House of Representatives into a consistent GOP stronghold—with or without a majority. Long-term Democratic dominance in the US House of Representatives gave way to a Republican electoral advantage and frequently held majority following the GOP takeover in 1994. Republicans haven’t always held the majority in recent decades, but nationalization, partisan realignment, and the gerrymandering of House seats have contributed to a political climate in which they've had an edge more often than not for nearly thirty years. The Long Red Thread examines each House election cycle from 1964 to 2020, surveying academic and journalistic literature to identify key trends and takeaways from more than a half-century of US House election results in order to predict what Americans can expect to see in the future.