DeKalb Democrats decry redrawn districts
- 8/25/11
- Categorized in: DeKalb News, Politics
DeKalb Democrats in the state legislature are upset with redistricting plans that passed the Republican-controlled Georgia Assembly on Aug. 18.
“It’s not good,” said Rep. Scott Holcombe (D-82). “It basically destroys the communities of interest that are represented in the county.”
Holcombe said the “snake-like” districts are not compact or contiguous.
“The communities that they cover aren’t even communities,” Holcombe said. “What we have now are these crazy-looking districts.”
Holcombe said the districts have been gerrymandered to “silence the voices of Georgia voters.”
“What has me upset is that the maps don’t make sense and they don’t have the best interests of the people they represent.”
The newly drawn District 81 is an amoeba-looking area encompassing parts of Dresden Road, DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, Chamblee, Doraville, Mercer University, Henderson Road, and a chunk of Gwinnett County surrounding Best Friends Park.
The district would pit Holcomb against Democrat Rep. Elena Parent, who currently represents District 81.
The districts are “really problematic” and are “clearly intended to target White Democrats,” Parent said. “In Fulton and DeKalb they are racially gerrymandered.”
Parent said she would be surprised if the maps pass a review by the courts. The new districts are engineered to get render ineffective White Democrats by making it more likely that a district would vote in a White Republican, she said.
“I hope these are not the maps we’ll be running under in 2012,” said Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-85). “If precedence is any indicator, this will be not the map.”
For DeKalb County the new districts will mean less representation and a “reduction of influence,” said Rep Howard Mosby (D-90).
Under the plan, Mosby would face Benfield in a race to represent District 83, a sliver of the county stretching from North Druid Hills to parts of South DeKalb.
“That is unfortunate—pitting two long-term incumbents against each other,” Mosby said. “The county loses.”
“Republicans have overreached and tried to use the Voting Rights Act as a weapon—a rationale for why they believe they could draw a constitutional majority of Republican seats,” Mosby said.
Passed in 1965, the act requires the Justice Department to preapprove changes made to election procedures, including the altering of districts, in states with a history of racial discrimination. Georgia is one of nine states that are required to have preclearance.
The biggest change in DeKalb’s senate districts is in the 44th district, now represented by Sen. Gail Davenport, a Democrat. That district, currently based in Clayton County, will now encompass a large section of south DeKalb.
“Because DeKalb tends to vote Democratic, its voice continues to be degraded,” said Sen. Jason Carter (D-42).
Republicans “will be able to pass constitutional amendments solely with Republican votes,” Carter said. That is the “ultimate political authority” because the votes cannot be challenged in courts.
The Republican Party “designed this map to be challenged in court,” Carter said. “They chose to push the Voting Rights Act as far as they could. Now it has to be ruled on by the court.”
Sen. Fran Millar (R-40) said he feels “very comfortable that it will be upheld by the courts.” He also said he is sorry that some incumbents are paired against each other in the new districts, but, “That’s life.”
The shapes of the districts were necessary to comply with the Voting Rights Act, Millar said.
To follow the act, legislators had to start by creating majority-minority districts.
“I personally don’t think that’s right, but it doesn’t matter what I think because it’s the law,” said Millar, adding that he does not like the Voting Rights Act. “I don’t like to see anything done on the basis of race. This isn’t 1960 or even 1980.”
According to the 2010 Census, DeKalb County’s population increased by 3.9 percent, less than any other county in metropolitan Atlanta.
“DeKalb lost three districts because we didn’t grow,” Millar said. “You’re not going to have these perfect districts that are squares. You’ve got to go find the people.”
A similar scenario plays out in every state every time redistricting occurs. Of course the party out of power is going to be unhappy with the way the party in power redraws districts. Probably the only way a fairer redistricting could happen is if a non-partisan group created the districts, irrespective of current officeholders locations. But neither party would be happy then. Usually the cries for third-party, independent redistricting are made by the party out of power. That is until they gain power again.
Several things caused problems for DeKalb Democrats in the redistricting process. The first issue is what Senator Millar mentioned. DeKalb's growth was very small. The state grew by 18%, but DeKalb grew by only 4%. The fact that DeKalb is surrounded by counties that grew much more (Gwinnett, Fulton, Rockdale, Henry) meant that districts were going to be severely altered to accomodate drastic changes in population. And even though the county as a whole grew by 4%, areas in central and south DeKalb saw population declines by 10-20%. Add all this together and it meant a likely loss in the number of representatives for DeKalb.
Another major factor is the Voting Rights Act. This requires current majority-black districts to be maintained. Several of these majority-black districts in central and south DeKalb included the areas with the greatest population losses. This meant that in order to preserve a majority-black district and keep the current black representative (because otherwise the black representatives would really be raising hell), district boundaries would have to be changed and run more north-south in order to incorporate enough people to meet the new population requirement.
So look at what actually happened. All black representatives retained a seat. The three districts that DeKalb lost were Fulton-dominated.
The current districts 84, 85 and 88 already do what Democrats are now complaining about when it comes to not adhering to communities of interest. The Democrats had one last chance at redistricting in 2001 and they went crazy, so much so that maps had to be redrawn. Even then DeKalb Democrats enjoyed smaller, more compact districts that are no longer possible due to huge population losses.
I'll note that the biggest complaint from Democrats seems to be that white Democrats were targeted. This is said even though Stacey Abrams' map also pitted Elena Parent and Scott Holcomb against each other. Yes, black Democrats other than Abrams are complaining a little, but they are all mostly happy that they retained their seats due to the special privileges afforded them by the VRA. But they all knew that going into the process. White Democrats were bound to be the losers.
Stacey Abrams and other House Democrats want us to believe that a map could be drawn that would preserve all black Democrats and white Democrats and not change district boundaries too much. And this map was going to be drawn by Republicans who would have no interest in trying to increase their majority. Abrams' whole argument fails when she revealed her map choice in which 16 Republicans were pitted against each other statewide.
If Democrats truly want to preserve communities of interest rather than preserve their seats, then the VRA needs to be eliminated so that a map can be drawn regardless of race and where current officeholders live. Until that happens, Democrats will just keep the numbers they have and grow no bigger.
When the majority wouldn't stand up to Mosby, they lost my respect. And then when they protested the efforts at the state level to reform the Board, they totally lost my respect. Mary Margaret Oliver will forever be my hero for taking the Board on.
Hopefully now some of the Reps that think they " own their seat " will be gone !
Howard Mosby returns none of my Emails over concerns of South DeKalb - May he be the first to fall !