Former AG launches redistricting effort to help Dems reclaim power

Former Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday launched the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), which will focus on addressing issues of gerrymandering and creating new electoral maps to increase Democratic representation. 

Holder announced the launch of the NDRC during a speech Thursday at the Center for American Progress.

“This redistricting process will be critical to the future of our democracy,” Holder said in a statement announcing the launch of the committee. “Those who control state governments draw the lines that shape Congress for the next decade. Fixing this redistricting problem will involve not just focusing on the lines, but focusing on the larger effort to win back governance. This is the path to ensuring Democrats have their rightful seats at the table in 2021.” 

The NDRC plans to look at races in every election cycle through 2020, including gubernatorial, state legislative and ballot initiative campaigns to help produce electoral maps more favorable to Democrats in 2021.

{mosads}The plan laid out by Holder Thursday includes looking at down-ballot races, checking for infrastructure and a legal strategy for map drawing and supporting state ballot reforms. 

“We heard a lot in this past election about rigged systems, but I want to say the biggest rigged system in America is gerrymandering,” Holder said. “A system where the lines are drawn not to represent American communities, but benefit politicians. A system where politicians pick their voters.”

Holder hit the GOP, saying the party realized its “governing philosophy is not a winning one, so because they can’t win the game, they’ve decided to change the rules.”

The ultimate goal of the committee, Holder said in a video, is to “win back governance” and regain Democratic control in the House and Senate. Holder added, though, that there will be a focus on the Virginia gubernatorial race and the potential special legislative races in North Carolina, which would be toward the end of 2017.

The committee includes Elisabeth Pearson of the Democratic Governors Association; Ali Lapp of the House Majority PAC; Jessica Post of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee; and Greg Speed, from the America Votes Action Fund.

President Obama is expected to take on a prominent, post-presidency role in the effort to rebuild the Democratic Party alongside the NDRC.

Democrats’ losses in 2010 affected the party’s ability to influence redistricting, especially in Midwest states. Meanwhile, the GOP made significant gains in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 elections, gaining influence on district boundaries.