The Hidden Hands in Redistricting: Corporations and Other Powerful Interests

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The Hidden Hands in Redistricting: Corporations and Other Powerful Interests

September 23, 2011, 11:40AM


by Olga Pierce, Jeff Larson and Lois Beckett, ProPublica,

Their names suggest selfless dedication to democracy. Fair Districts Mass. Protect Your Vote. The Center for a Better New Jersey. And their stated goals are unarguable: In the partisan fight to redraw congressional districts, states should stick to the principle of one person, one vote.

But a ProPublica investigation has found that these groups and others are being quietly bankrolled by corporations, unions and other special interests. Their main interest in the once-a-decade political fight over redistricting is not to help voters in the communities they claim to represent but mainly to improve the prospects of their political allies or to harm their enemies.

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"Reshaping a map is very powerful" for donors, said Spencer Kimball, a political consultant who is executive director of Boston-based Fair Districts Mass. "It's a big opportunity to have influence at the state level and the congressional level not one race at a time but for 10 years."

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Fair Redistricting describes itself as independent, but it has much of its leadership in common with the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, a group with ties to the political empire of the Koch brothers, industrialists from Kansas who've spent millions funding conservative causes. The head of the Freedom Foundation, Annette Meeks, told ProPublica she has "no involvement" with Fair Redistricting. But both organizations' tax filings list the same address: Meeks' home address.

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http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/the-hidden-hands-in-redistricting-corporations-and-other-powerful-interests.php

Worth a full read!

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