Democrats say Republicans look weak and broke in upcoming redistricting efforts

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2/1/11, "Campaigns and Elections: "As re-districting begins, Republicans are short on cash,"" Democrat Legislative Campaign Committee

"In his most recent column in Campaigns & Elections, Noah Rothman highlights some of the difficulties Republicans are facing as both parties prepare for redistricting across the country.

…[A]s the process gets underway in a series of first-round states, including New Jersey, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana, some party insiders are concerned that Republicans have failed to amass the funding necessary to capitalize on their advantages.

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“The DLCC has been working with the Foundation for the Future and NCEC [The National Committee for an EffectiveCongress] for almost five years to make sure Democratic state legislators have as much and as high-quality data as possible when they draw district lines and evaluate Republican gerrymanders,” [DLCC Executive Director Michael] Sargeant told C&E. However, he agrees that the failure of the MAPS project is a negative for Republicans. “By letting the MAPS project languish, the

• GOP isn't in as good of a position for redistricting as most think,” Sargeant said.

Roll Call’s Gonzalez reports that donors to MAPS lost faith in the group when they discovered that its “vision was too broad.” Underscoring the importance of MAPS to the Republican redistricting strategy, former RNC Chair Ed Gillespie told Hotline last week that, while there was still time to recover from the loss,

• the failure of MAPS has left Republicans at a distinct disadvantage in the first states to redistrict.

The notion that Republicans aren’t well-prepared for redistricting is nothing new. Politico picked up on this in June of last year, and the parties’ relative preparedness is discussed in “GOP lags in early redistricting race.”

Last Wednesday, a Hotline On Call post (Republicans Looking For Leadership On Redistricting) highlighted some anxieties from prominent GOPers.

"I've been surprised that I didn't see the party yearning for some sort of outside effort to get the map-making up and going," [former NRCC chair Tom] Reynolds told Hotline On Call. "Normally instead of having the party pay for that, someone on the outside would take that initiative and I haven't seen that leadership."

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Another Republican deeply involved in redistricting at the state level described the GOP's organization toward redistricting in one word: "Chaos."

Did Republicans not realize redistricting was getting underway this soon? Maybe next time they should set themselves an Outlook (Google?) calendar reminder."

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