Virginia gerrymander barely passes - now come the lawsuits | Hour 2

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. So Virginia, Oh, Virginia, so close, so close, and so disappointing. Look, I think everybody just needs to accept the reality that DC area Democrats just really don't want to hear from Republicans at this point. Yes, so Virginia voters went to the polls and they narrowly ratified what John Fund National Review calls a preposterous jerry mander that was designed by the States Democrat legislature. I went in depth on a lot of this yesterday. And for people who were saying, you know, Texas started all of this, Texas did not start it. And even if you want to claim that Texas started it, so therefore you should respond, well, California already did that California already responded. So if you're going, oh, tit for tat, well you got the tat in California already. So this is above and beyond right, this a massive swing. I think five extra seats. Now. What's also interesting here is that you've heard the term jerrymander, right, and a jerrymander is just lines that Democrats don't like. But there's also a thing called the dummy mander. A dummy mander, which is you think that you're drawing lines that are going to give you more congressional seats or state legislative seats or city council seats or whatever. But you think you're drawing the lines to your advantage, but you're kind of a dummy, and so you do it in a way that actually makes it more likely you will lose. Because you see here, I think I have the Yeah. Here it is Patrick Raffini, who is a polster at Echelon Insights, specifically focusing on I forget what district it's called now, but everybody's referring to it as the Lobster district because it literally looks like a lobster. It runs from as like five of the seats they originate in the northern part near you know, it's in the DC suburbs, right, more left wing people up there, and it runs a lot, as a lot of the districts do. It runs from like Fairfax County and then goes down miles and miles like in one of these districts. It may be the Lobster District, like it would be easier or it's a shorter distance for them to drive from the district to New Jersey than it is to drive from the top of the district to the bottom. Okay, Like that's that's how crazy these maps are. And the Lobster District starts up there in Fairfax, goes right down sort of the center of the state, and then it splits off into the two Claws. And then it's got these two claws that you know, are like bent in little half circles, and then there's another Democrat district plopped right down in the middle of it. So they call it the Lobster District right now. What's interesting, though, is that the Lobster District voted yes for this for this map, but it was only a margin of zero point three. Percent point three percent. If this was a district in the last presidential election, Kamala Harris would have won it by seven. So this is a Harris plus seven district and the yes vote only carried by point three. And to Patrick Raffini, he wonders whether this is a dummy mander. In other words, you thought you were doing something that was going to secure this seat for your team, but you've maybe outraged people in the process, and you've prompted now a greater turnout against you. Also, sometimes you get the dummy mandering because when you draw the lines, you take a district that say, you know, like this was a Harris plus seven, and let's say now you drew the line, so now it's only a Harris plus four, and you're so you're happy that it's still you know, it's still in your column. But when you start shrinking that that number down, chances increase that your opponents can win the seat. There's a question about this also in North Carolina with the district I think which one was. There's a potential dummy mander here in North Carolina. It may be Chuck Edward's seat, or maybe it's Don Davis's I forget, but people are watching one of these seats because they had to cut into a solid Republican district in order to pull Republicans into the new district. That will make it more favorable for Republicans. But you're diluting your power in the surrounding solid red districts. Does that make sense. That's a dummy mander. You think you're doing it for your win and it turns out to bite you. Christian Adams is the president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, and he said, quote Virginia's redrawn map smother's political diversity. Rural interests are swallowed up by progressive urban dominance. Right, So everybody in rural Virginia basically, like almost all rural residents are now going to be quote represented by urban district Democrats, like almost all of them. There's only one district because it went from a six to five map, a six Democrat five Republican map, to now a ten Democrat one Republican map. And what's ironic in this is that when you look at the existing turnout for the yes and the no and everything else they voted, if it was a congressional race, it would have been six' five like like their maps that they had in place from twenty twenty actually were the thing That democrats claimed to, want which is proportional, representation proportional, redistricting which, means how do people vote in the last, election and if you, know you get sixty percent For democrats forty percent For, republicans Then democrats should have sixty percent of the seats And republicans should have forty percent of the. Seats Like that's that's been their argument in all of our redistricting fights In North carolina lo these many. Decades that's what did, WELL i shouldn't say, decades because when they were drawing the, maps they they didn't adhere to any of. This they jerrymandered the begiebis out of our. Maps that Was Roy, cooper by the, way when he was in The. Senate he would do that and he would get sued and then they have to redraw their maps because they were blatant jerrymanders and stuff based on. Race that's How democrats did. It, anyway Since republicans started drawing the, maps, yeah we get sued all the time that to redraw the maps and. Everything and they always argue this proportional representation argument that the number of districts should reflect the voter. Patterns. Right and what's interesting is you only hear these arguments in red. States When democrats are suing red. States you hear this argument When democrats are drawing the maps in their. States they don't make this argument at. All here's a quick. Rundown so democrats call jerrymandering a threat to the. Democracy, right it's a threat and shouldn't be. Done but if we have to do it to save the, democracy then we'll do. It, well what then, explains Say massachusetts thirty six percent Of massachusetts voters Are, republicans they have no, Seats connecticut forty two Percent republican no, Seats maine forty six Percent republicans no, Seats New mexico forty six, Percent republican no, Seats New hampshire forty eight Percent republican no, Seats Rhode island forty two Percent republican no, Seats vermont thirty two Percent republican no, Seats hawaii thirty eight Percent republican no, Seats delaware forty two Percent republican no. Seats out of the one hundred and twenty One house seats in the six, States, California, Illinois New, York, Maryland New jersey And. Oregon out of the one hundred and twenty one, Seats republicans hold twenty four despite having an average of forty two percent of the votes in those. States, california nine out of the fifty two seats In california are held by A republican nine out of fifty, two yet there are thirty eight percent Registered republicans there. Forty four Percent. Republicans In, illinois they only have three seats out of. Seventeen like this pattern emerges in every blue. State this is how they draw their, maps and they Sue republican states if they don't get something like. This you, know stories are. Powerful they help us make sense of, things to understand. Experiences stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending. Generations they help us process the meaning of, life and our stories are told through images and. Videos preserve your stories With Creative video started in nineteen ninety seven And, Minhill North. Carolina it was the first company to provide this valuable, service converting, images photos and videos into high quality produced slide, shows videos and. Albums the, trusted talented and dedicated team At Creative video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect. Project satisfaction. Guaranteed drop them off in person or mail. Them they'll be ready in a week or. 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That so, yeah probably a lot of people a little salty still at being kicked out of their Gov code. Jobs so there's that, yeah heavy you know government town up, there and so that's where all of the support or a lot of. It and In richmond, Too richmond as a that was another you, know high support for the. Yes like you look at the map and basically the whole state was no except for THE dc suburbs And. Richmond those were the two areas that carried the. State and that's what democrats. Want democrats want their clustered voters to be able to dictate how everybody throughout the rest of the state. Lives and they're frankly quite tired of hearing you complain about. It so they're just going to make sure you're not part of the representative body so they don't have to hear from. You city Of, charlotte same, Way County, commission same Way, asheville same. Way they want full control over the local state, governments federal, governments and then if they don't have to listen to, you even. Better this is Again John fund At National. Review the truly tortured map is likely to turn the states six to Five democrat advantage in THE Us house into a ten to one. Advantage Northern virginia's population of federal bureaucrats And beltway bandits will dominate the majority of the State's house. Delegation one district will stretch in a narrow corridor From Reagan National airport NEAR dc all the way To. Williamsburg The Supreme court Of virginia punted on the constitutionality of the new map and allowed the referendum to go, forward but in the coming days it will hear the legal challenges against the. Process and by the WAY i went and looked it, up The Virginia Supreme court is composed of seven lawyers with a wardrobe, change all of whom are appointed by The General. Assembly so these appointments would have been under Previous General assembly, compositions right because right now The General assembly is completely controlled By. Democrats each judge serves a term of twelve, Years SO i don't know because they're all quote unquote non, partisan meaning they don't have to officially represent any, party so we don't. KNOW i don't know what their politics. Are, HOWEVER i have to believe there are some conservatives on the. BENCH i have to believe there's got to be at least one of the seven just twelve year terms appointed by the legislature hasn't been controlled By democrats like it is now so and at one, point depending on how far back you, Go republicans did have. Majorities SO i don't, KNOW i don't know if they're going to take this. Up, WELL i don't know how they're going to. RULE i should SAY i don't know how many conservatives are on the, bench because, YES i can look at A d or AN r next to a judge's name and have a pretty good heuristic as to how they're going to. Rule BUT i have been surprised. Sometimes so what are the arguments that are going to be? Made because the, CHALLENGE i, mean they're already lining up at the, courthouse the, lawsuits they're already, written they're ready to go because of the Way democrats have handled this. Process So number, one the legislature violated the state's constitution by keeping a special session open for nearly two. Years, Okay so that's one. Of the arguments they're going to make that you cannot keep a special session. Open for two. Years even a local judge who heard that case called, it quote a blatant abuse of, power Which democrats are okay with because The orange man bad, right everything is justified when you're Fighting, hitler The Orange, hitler, right we are allowed to do. Anything and this is this is WHY i talk about permission. Structures once you start erecting a permission structure by calling your Opponents nazis And hitler and all of, this you are now granting permission for a wider array of recourse that can include some stuff that might be a little, violency you. Know so that's one argument. That the special session was kept open for two years blatant abuse of. Power number. Two virginia law requires that constitutional amendments be passed at least ninety days before any election in which the people ratify. Them lower courts had initially blocked the redistricting process on these, grounds, Right so this may be an argument that nullifies this thing. Too there are a couple. Others i'll get to. Them, SORRY i was just checking. HERE i have alert set up on my phone from zillo and this is A zillow update From Nova Northern virginia four bed three bath spans seven congressional, districts seller highly. Motivated That's Eric telford's post, there. Formerly With americans For. Prosperity, Okay so the arguments that are going to be made to the State Supreme court In virginia over this gerrymandering map and the. Vote they're mainly processed. QUESTIONS i told you the first. Two the third argument is that the jerrymander improperly tossed out the work of the twenty twenty voter approved bipartisan Redistricting commission in the middle of the. Decade, now remember the twenty twenty maps were drawn by this quote independent redistricting or bipartisan Redistricting commission Because republicans had control And democrats basically guilted them into doing the independent Redistricting, commission which, is by the, way just like In, california they have one of these two and what did they. Do they scraped them both in order to. Jerrymander so for the people that are running around today, saying, well if you don't like What virginia, did you should you should do an independent redistricting law at the national, level WHY i just saw two examples of you guys tossing out the law because you didn't want it to harm your electoral. Prospects SO i don't believe. You see this is one of the problems IS i don't believe The democrats when they make these, arguments BECAUSE i don't believe you're making them in good. Faith for, Example Mike's solana From Pirate. Wires he, says he points, out requiring id to vote in our elections is called disenfranchising. Voters actually disenfranchising your. Voters, well that's saving. Democracy. Right this is WHY i don't believe your. Arguments you jerrymander the bejeebus out of your, states and then you complain if you don't get enough seats in red. States and by the, way, yeah let me go over here and pull this, Up Harrison, fields Former White house. Spokesman in red, states you have mixed. Delegations for, example In, texas, right that was so. Jerrymandered they got Thirteen democratic congress people, there, right Thirteen democrats In. Texas In florida they have. Eight In georgia they have. Five here In North carolina they have. Four In michigan they have. Six, okay those are red states that controlled the And democrats still got. Seats and now you look at the states that are controlled By democrats and they they're pitching. Shutouts massachusetts zero AND i said earlier That california had nine of the fifty two seats Were. REPUBLICANS i forgot that went down to. Four california redrew their, maps jerrymandered them even more. So, right they went to a vote to basically do What virginia, did which is to suspend their own constitutional rule on independent redistricting so they could jerrymander the, maps and they took The republican seats from nine down to four out of fifty Two. Connecticut. ZERO i mean all Of New england has zero and Now virginia has. One it's like these are not the same. Results like you can complain about losing seats in, redistricting but you still get some seats in those. States that is not How democrats play this, game, though when they're in control of the. Maps oh and twenty, twenty when they did this redraw In, virginia they didn't Want Glenn youngkin to have any kind of impact on the map making A republican. Governor, Right that's why they did, this and then their first chance to do away with it for partisan, gain they took. It SO i don't believe you when you say that you really don't want a. JERRYMANDER i suspect that what you're doing is trying to gain the. System you're just trying to find different ways to do. It the language number four are the fourth. Argument the language on the ballot was blatantly biased in claiming that the referendum's goal was to quote restore fairness in upcoming, elections which presupposed that The Bipartisan commissions map was. Unfair, now when asked about, This democrats will, say. Well we weren't talking about our. Maps we believe the six', five split the, previous maps that those. Were fair it wasn't fair though at a. National level which if you're going to use that excuse that you will disenfranchise half of your, own constituents that you will do that out of some sense of quote fairness for another legislative body at the, federal, level well then that's there are no. Guardrails there you can literally do anything to your own voters, and people right if you think that there's some larger issue. At play this is precisely What the founders, fought against because states were entering into compacts with. Each other this same argument applies To what virginia also, just did was to Join The National Popular. Vote compact they're entering into alliances with other states in order to wield power over, smaller states. Weaker states that's what the founders implemented The electoral college, to prevent and that's What the democrats are attempting. To undo they're trying to make an end run around The electoral college because they don't have the support to actually AMEND The. Us Constitution While Virginia's high court is usually deferential to, the legislature there is a reasonable chance it will decide that after this, gerrymandering process the legislature has in fact gone. Too Far By john Fund At, national review we shall see from the, Email inbox tim says regarding gov co, WORKERS voting i have come to think that no gov co workers should be allowed to vote because they will always vote for their personal. Best interest kind of like an honest judge recusing themselves from a case because of, vested interests, you Know Like sonya sotomayor recusing herself from all sorts. Of case, oh no let me jump, over here Chat. With, Chris, hello. Chris got here, From. You pete i'm coming back home if you will, safe, Travel sir so coming back home to you. Your home so let me call you dad for a. Second second i'll tell you a WAY why. I left you mentioned The Word, james LINDSEY and i kind of run OFF and i go listen to a whole bunch. Of it so that's kind Of where, i've Been and i'm Back and I'M always i listened. To you so it's kind of your Fault that, I'll left, but no. It is, That's fine i'll. OWN it i hope you got some good intel and info out. Of, it yeah and there's a lot of stuff to keep going over and mulling over and the yeah. He's got so let me let me make two points two arguments that we. COULD make, i mean, in reality We know texas kind of the reason why they did their resisting. Is redistricting it's because they. Had to but we can make this argument that, Before that republicans are looking all over at the districts that are, out there and you mentioned it in a to go with. The, northeast right you have five six states and we're talking maybe twenty percent of all Those are republicans voting with hardly any representation. Or zero, zero right and more, than twenty it's somewhere around forty percent in all of the States. Or republicans so we. Can make this Argument that texas sees this and, they, Say, okay democrat you, Have that we, want that and we're going to. Do it we're going to redistrict and get the, same thing the same thing. With redistrict so we can kind of make that argument from. That, point sure and then and then, they'll, say, well, Okay fine texas, did it so now we have. To, respond well they did Respond in california and they clawed back the. Five seats so Why. Is virginia doing this except for. More power that's what this. Is. About it it's to try to get even. More power and that. Guy goes into my second point on say. The constitution so when you ask so many of our, listeners Here, conservatives republicans we look At the constitution and we think of it. As sacred it is like the underpinning of how we are going to, govern, ourselves right and we take this. As. Sacredness right so we have the citizens in two states with their own constitutions and you probably already, said This but i'm going to. Repeat it this he did to state for the the people in these states voted that we are going to take what we believe. As sacred we are going. To postponent we are. Going to deny what we've set as we are going, to do and we are going to redo our own thing in our, own way which should tell you everything we know about their belief in Even. The, constitution, yeah well it's not something that. They honor it's something. They. Use right if they can Use the constitution to, get power they will. Do so if they need to ignore it to, gain power they will. Do. So yeah so it's like if there were, bad standards there's be no standards. At, all yeah just don't well even governing their selves the way they legitimately should by following. Their, constitutions, Yeah, EXACTLY chris i. Appreciate it. Voted, That, YEAH no i appreciate. The call it is, about power that's what it comes. Down to and they appeal To the constitution when they think that they can use it to persuade people who actually do Honor. The, constitution right they know that that argument works. On us that's why they. Make it they. Don't Care, ken kuchinelli the former attorney General. In virginia he says there's going to be four challenges that are now. Tied up three of them are on the amendment. Process itself the first is that passage. Was invalid the amendment was taken up during a special session convened in twenty twenty four to four. Budget Purposes The general assembly's own call To the governor and Its governing resolution limited the. Session's scope expanding it to include a constitutional amendment on redistricting would have required a two, thirds vote and that. Never happened Number two constitution requires that after, first passage a proposed amendment be referred To The general assembly at its first regular session held after the next. General election so in, other words you're going to do first passage of, the bill then you have to have a, general election and then you can take up the. Second reading an election has to intervene between the first and, second passage but here the first passage occurred during an, election cycle not before an. Intervening one Number three constitution requires the amendment be submitted to voters not sooner than ninety days after. Final passage the timeline from second passage To the april twenty first vote did not satisfy. That requirement and then there's one challenge to the. Actual Map the constitution requires that every electoral district shall be so it's not may it's shall so that's required shall be composed of contiguous and. Compact territory these maps violate both of. Those standards it's NOT even, i mean it's not. Even. Close Right the lobster district in and of itself is proof. Of that. Then there was this one of. The richest this Is from. Chris withins, he says one of the richest and most privileged Counties. In America fairfax county saw how much power they have and decided it. Wasn't enough fairfax was plus forty percent in favor of taking power away from poorer and, rural counties and they will hate you for. Noticing that he then thanks the thirty percent of the voters who. Showed restraint there was also a lower turnout in some of Those heavy, democrat districts indicating that they weren't too comfortable voting to approve these. Map seed, all right that'll do it for. This episode thank you so much. FOR listening i could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on, The podcast so if, you'd like please support them too and tell them you heard. It here you can also become a patron At my patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow. Dot, com again thank you so much, for listening and don't break Anything while. I'm gone