Tag Archives: columbus ga

Columbus-Muscogee Redistricting Commission Votes to Send Draft Map to Columbus City Council and School Board

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On Saturday Dec. 4, the Columbus Redistricting Commission (aka the Districting Commission) approved a map to be sent to both City Council and the School Board for their approval. The vote was 15-1, with Katie Bishop voting against the map.

Out of the scenarios crafted by members of the commission, the board approved Scenario J, which protects incumbents and makes the following shifts of land:

  • District 1 (represented by Pops Barnes on Council and Patricia Hugley-Green on the Board) gains a tiny portion of East Inglewood neighborhood from District 4, as well a a portion of the Crystal Valley neighborhood from District 5
  • District 2 (represented by Glenn Davis on Council and Nickie Tillery on Board) gains the remaining portion of land around the I-75-SR 96 interchange and a portion of land along Whittlessey Blvd and Whitesville Rd from District 8
  • District 3 (represented by Bruce Huff on Council and Vanessa Jackson on Board) gains land near 17th Street, Cherokee Avenue and Forest Avenue from District 8, splitting Weracoba Park with District 7
  • District 5 (represented by Charmaine Crabb on Council and Laurie McRae on Board) gains land along the border of Flat Rock Park from District 6
  • District 7 (represented by Mimi Woodson on Council and Cathy Williams on Board) gains Warm Springs Road and Lakebottom Park from District 8 as well as a small section of Wynnton Road from District 3
  • District 8 (represented by Walker Garrett on Council and Dr. Philip Schley on Board) gains more of Hilton Heights, all of Britt David Park, a portion north of Miller Rd and of Columbus Metropolitan Airport, and a portion south of Weems Rd from District 5, and gains all of the Britt David neighborhood, more of Weems Rd, and land south of the Columbus Park Crossing area from District 2

Districts 4 (represented by Toyia Tucker on Council and Naomi Buckner on Board) and 6 (represented by Gary Allen on Council and Mark Cantrell on Board) do not experience any expansions of land under this map. Besides intentionally protecting incumbents from being drawn out of their districts and making largely cosmetic changes to protect their chances of being re-elected, the map also shifts land out of Districts 2, 4 and 6 due to these districts being overpopulated.

Bishop, the lone vote against the map, said that the racial makeup of the new District 8 moved her against the proposal. The ethnic makeup of the district changed over the decade, with more African-American residents moving in than Euro-American residents moving out. The new map would pare down this shift.

Theresa El-Amin of the Southern Anti-Racism Network also spoke against some members’ comments in support of protecting incumbency for current members of both the Council and School Board. Mary Sue Polleys, a member of the commission appointed by Council from District 8, stated in a previous meeting that redrawing members out of their districts could be seen as politically-motivated. State guidelines argue against drawing current members out of their districts.

The map was introduced to Council at its Dec. 7 meeting, and will hold a first reading vote on the map on Dec. 14. The map must also be assessed by the General Assembly’s Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office. If the map does not get final approval from Council within six months of the redistricting commission’s submission to the Council, the new map goes into effect. No date has been set for a first vote on the map in the School Board, which meets next on Dec. 13.

The map is likely to not be approved in time for council and school board elections in May 2022 unless the date for the primary and municipal elections are pushed to a later date by the General Assembly.

General Assembly Passes Pro-Republican Gerrymanders for Legislature and Congress, Columbus and West Georgia Set for Status Quo

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Despite party-line opposition from Democrats, the Republican majority in the General Assembly passed all three of their proposed maps for U.S. House, State Senate and State House with very little dissenters. Notable controversies:

  • the de-facto ousting of Lucy McBath from GA-06 (she has since announced a primary challenge in GA-07, currently held by Carolyn Bordeaux who has also announced her own re-election bid)
  • the cracking of Cobb County into four congressional districts, with a largely-Democratic area in West Cobb being placed into Marjorie Taylor Green’s GA-14 (to her objection)
  • the packing of Democratic voters in Gwinnett et al into GA-07
  • the postponing of a Republican attempt to shoehorn electoral reforms for Gwinnett’s County Commission and Board of Education into the next session, for which outgoing Lt. Governor Greg Duncan has helped organize a bid to make all county boards of education nonpartisan
  • The redrawing of Democratic State Senator Michelle Au’s Gwinnett-based SD48 into a Republican-leaning district, which is notable because Au is Georgia’s first and only Asian American woman state senator
  • The splitting of Coweta County into five State House districts, combining a northern portion with Democratic districts extending into South Fulton County.

State House

In Columbus, the current legislative partisan makeup of the county will likely be retained, with Reps. Carolyn Hugley’s HD136 (now renamed HD141) and the retiring Calvin Smyre’s HD134 (renamed HD140).

Rep. Hugley’s district will undergo one key change: the entirety of Gentian/Elizabeth Bradley Turner precinct will move into her district from Richard Smith’s HD134 (renamed HD139), including the main campus of Columbus State University. Under the outgoing map, this precinct was split between the two districts.

Rep. Debbie Buckner’s HD136 will undergo the biggest map change: her district, currently stretching from east Columbus-Muscogee into eastern Harris, southern Meriwether, and all of Talbot, will now consist of eastern Columbus-Muscogee, all of Talbot County, a smaller portion of Meriwether County (cutting out Greenville, Gay and Woodbury), and southeastern Troup County stretching into African-American majority parts of southern LaGrange, completely excluding Harris County. This results in an odd hook shape for the district.

Under this rewrite, Harris County loses a House district while Troup County gains a district. Buckner’s former portion of Harris (Waverly Hall precinct) goes to Richard Smith’s district. Vance Smith’s HD133 (renamed to HD138) as well as David Jenkins’ HD132 (renamed to HD136) both lose chunks of southern Troup to Buckner’s district.

State Senate

Sen. Ed Harbison’s SD15 has undergone minor changes, with the Salvation Army precinct (formerly Blackmon precinct), Gentian/Elizabeth Bradley Turner precinct (formerly Gentian/Reese precinct) and Epworth precinct all being shifted to SD15 from Randy Robertson’s SD29.

Congress

With those maps passed, the General Assembly Republicans introduced on Wednesday Nov 18 a congressional map which, besides notably nuking Lucy McBath’s re-election chances in GA06 and making the GA07 much more Democratic, also shifts Sanford Bishop’s GA02 into a more interesting position: moving a bit more of northern Columbus-Muscogee into GA02 from Drew Ferguson’s GA03, but also shifting Warner Robins, northern Houston County and Thomas County into GA02 from Austin Scott’s GA08. While the addition of Thomas County would shift the African-American share of the population to under 50% and increase the Republican presence in the district, the addition of the strongly-blue precincts of Warner Robins would likely help keep Bishop in office and the district blue.

As far as Columbus is concerned, the new GA02 would pick up Moon/Morningside precinct as well as most of Cornerstone precinct north of J.R. Allen Freeway, while splitting a northern bit of the Columbus Tech precinct into GA03, cutting through the streets of the Crescent Ride neighborhood.

Aftermath

The entire process of redistricting by Republicans in the General Assembly was centered around protecting incumbents through anti-competitive measures such as packing and cracking while taking out a few Democratic casualties. New York Magazine notes that the Republicans’ treatment of voters in GA-06, among other plans, may invite a new round of litigation under the Voting Rights Act to combat instances of racial gerrymandering, although any of the challenges under the VRA face a high threshold to succeed in federal court, with nearly 2/3s of 11th circuit district judges being appointed by the last three Republican presidents (the largest share being appointed by Trump).

On the “bright side” for Democrats, this year’s redistricting process was not as brutal as in the 2011 cycle, which further sunk Democrats to such a historic nadir from 2013 to 2017 that Republicans enjoyed a supermajority of 38 seats in the State Senate, was one seat shy of a 120-seat supermajority in the State House, and held 10 congressional seats. Under the General Assembly-approved map for next year, Republicans are clearly favored for 9 seats in Congress, 33 Senate seats (with Au’s SD48 being the most competitive) and 85-97 House seats. Even though historic levels of public scrutiny and partisan intrigue were ignored by the legislative majority, they could not ignore the massive growth in population by over a million new Georgians, largely moving to the Atlanta region.

Meanwhile, redistricting for Columbus City Council and Muscogee County School District may continue into next year, as will other local redistricting processes across the state, due to the delays of the 2020 Census by the COVID-19 pandemic. This will either 1) push primaries and nonpartisan local elections later by a month or 2) force local elections across the state to be held under the current map and delay implementation of the new maps into the 2023 and 2024 elections.

Comment Now on Redistricting

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Gerrymandering diagram

The clock is ticking for making your voice heard in how you are represented at the Gold Dome and U.S. Capitol.

The Georgia General Assembly has a public form for submitting comment online regarding redistricting, which for most Georgia residents may be the only means by which they can shape an otherwise tightly-controlled process.

To date, only three comments have been submitted from Columbus-Muscogee:

A. Russell of Muscogee County:

we would like all of Muscogee to be in one district. it would be my idea for Muscogee, Harris, and Meriweather to all 3 move to the 2dd Congressional District. thank you for this meeting.

A. Corley of Muscogee County:

I have bodycam footage of the kidnapping that was concealed during the TPR. I have SAAG Kent Lawrence and Mathias Skrowneak signatures on orders that they prepared for the Judges to sign. Kidnapping is a felony and placing my daughter up for an unlawful adoption is human trafficking. I have everything properly documented and authenticated with certification and seal. I also have audio recordings. Gov. Kemp was forwarded everything from Senators Johnny Isakson and Kelly Loeffler’s office as, federal government had to give the the State opportunity to investigate before they could. Gov. Kemp can do something as, he appointed the Commissioners for DHS. Gov. Kemp can do something as, he is head of the State of Georgia and is the executive level. Gov. Kemp had the authority and responsibility to enforce the laws made by the General Assembly. The executive branch which Gov. Kemp is under is defined as: Executive Georgia’s main executive official and head of state is the governor.

H. Underwood of Muscogee County (yours truly):

Good evening committee members, my name is Harry Underwood. I’m a resident of Columbus, a resident of Georgia since 1993 and a board member of Better Ballot Georgia, which advocates for instant-runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you how shameful and tiring I find this practice of redistricting by elected legislators, and how we Georgians ought to know better that this political system – of winner-take-all elections, of partisan redistricting by legislators, of restrictive ballot access laws – perpetuate a baked-in culture of constant two-way factional disrespect, drowning out the needs of our state’s residents. Other than these United States, no other political system on earth has quite the amount of unilateral temerity shared among so many elected legislators to bake in incumbent advantages for their own (and their friends’ own) benefit over the next ten years. The people of this state – no matter what party we may support – should feel upset that our elected legislators won’t let themselves compete on competitive grounds nor let themselves be judged by their ideas and goals for legislation across whole communities, not partitioned neighborhoods who are traded between districts because of their partisan lean. We have done this for over 200+ years, with one party having done this for most of this time, and another party which gained power in the early 2000s now doing the same thing. It is time to say “enough”. The people of this state should demand a better political system than that being exhibited through this committee. Georgia should adopt independent, nonpartisan redistricting by a jury of citizens representative of our state’s demographics. Georgia should adopt multi-winner districts and proportional elections systems including ranked-choice voting. Georgia should let those who want less compromise on their political principles register their own political parties with less cost and overhead than is currently, irrationally demanded under state law, so that we could have even more competitive elections. Georgia should adopt rules which count our state’s prisoners, who are currently barred from the voting franchise, as residents of their last voluntary residence rather than of their current prison, so that prison-hosting districts are not artificially inflated in their numbers during the redistricting process. And finally, Georgia should join 30 other states, including our neighbors in South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, in adopting a state constitutional amendment requiring all elections in this state to be free, fair and open without civil or military interference. These five reforms could make for more elections which are reflective of our communities and demographic changes without legislators feeling the need to create maps which bake in their own advantages over the course of at least the next five successive legislative elections. These reforms could make for elections in which candidates feel more of a need to seek consideration from all voters, not merely those who “look” like they would vote for a certain party. And these reforms could set the guardrails for how our demographics are represented in our General Assembly without pitting our legislators against their constituents. I ask the members of this committee to consider the adoption of nonpartisan redistricting, instant-runoff voting, fairer ballot access laws, a ban on prison gerrymandering, and a free elections amendment to our state constitution. Thank you.

By comparison:

  • 89 from Fulton
  • 72 from DeKalb
  • 46 from Athens-Clarke
  • 25 from Cobb
  • 25 from Forsyth
  • 18 from Macon-Bibb
  • 17 from Gwinnett
  • 11 from Rockdale
  • 10 from Augusta-Richmond
  • 9 from Cherokee
  • 9 from Glynn
  • 8 from Chatham
  • 6 from Dougherty
  • 6 from Whitfield
  • 5 from Camden
  • 5 from Fayette
  • 5 from Hall
  • 5 from Henry
  • 4 from Baldwin
  • 4 from Bartow
  • 4 from Clayton
  • 4 from Columbia
  • 4 from Oconee
  • 3 from Barrow
  • 3 from Floyd
  • 3 from Houston
  • 3 from Jackson
  • 3 from Madison
  • 3 from Newton
  • 3 from Tift
  • 2 from Decatur
  • 2 from Pickens
  • 2 from McIntosh
  • 2 from Morgan
  • 2 from Towns
  • 2 from Walker
  • 2 from Ware
  • 1 from Bryan
  • 1 from Bulloch
  • 1 from Burke
  • 1 from Carroll
  • 1 from Chattooga
  • 1 from Coweta
  • 1 from Crisp
  • 1 from Dade
  • 1 from Douglas
  • 1 from Effingham
  • 1 from Gilmer
  • 1 from Harris
  • 1 from Johnson
  • 1 from Jones
  • 1 from Monroe
  • 1 from Montgomery
  • 1 from Toombs
  • 1 from Walker
  • 1 from Walton
  • 1 from Washington
  • 1 from White

In the meantime, a special session of the General Assembly has been called by Governor Kemp for November 3 to redraw congressional and legislative districts for the next ten years. Partisan gerrymandering is likely, with no constitutional guardrails in place at the state level and the process being controlled by Republican legislators.

In addition, it will be the first redistricting process since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance provisions, meaning that state legislatures do not have to submit their maps to the U.S. Justice Department for review for any racial bias prior to implementation. Finally, it is possible that bills will be filed to ban local governments from issuing mask or vaccine mandates, a bete noire of Republicans nationwide.

VIDEO: I Spoke at Columbus City Council for a Citizens’ Review Board

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Went to the council meeting and spoke in favor of a citizens’ review board with subpoena powers for Columbus, largely from the perspective of Black LGBT people and the high rate of police misconduct we face. Short and sweet speech, in and out.

Touching moments when the widow of Kenneth Walker and the relative of the triple homicide victims in Upatoi area also spoke in favor. I left with Raijeim and Connie when the opposition went on for way too long.

Also talked with the Muscogee County Republican Party chair about, among other things, ranked choice voting. He’s not sold on it but I’d *really* like to talk with him more.

A rare sighting of me outside lol

After Mark Jones’ Victory, the Bigger Work Ahead

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This is part of why I did whatever I did with Mark’s campaign.

This year, we blew the judicial and DA elections, badly. 4 Supreme Court justices, 6 Court of Appeals judges, 138 Superior Court judges across 49 circuits, all nonpartisan.

Out of those 138 Superior Court seats, only 14 received challengers, across 9 circuits.

Out of the 35 District Attorney races up for election, 6 will have major party candidates go up against each other in November (in Alcovy, Augusta, Dublin, Eastern, Gwinnett and Houston). Dems decided 7 DA races by default in the primary, and the GOP decided 22 other races by default. All DA races are partisan.

So the next chance we get to make an impact on these judicial and DA elections should be seriously capitalized upon.

In 2022, 1 Supreme Court Justice, 2 Court of Appeals judges, 74 Superior Court judges in 36 circuits, 44 State Court judges in 30 counties, 17 chief magistrate judges, and district attorneys in 10 circuits will be up for election. Most of these hardly ever get challengers, and that needs to be changed.

We can’t say that we are pro-CJ reform but not get involved in pro-reform electoral bids for judicial and prosecutorial seats.

So I’m writing forum questions to ask judgeship candidates for 2022.

ENDORSEMENT: Mark Jones for District Attorney

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Full disclosure: I state the following in my own personal capacity.

This mail ballot was the first time in my life I have ever voted on paper, and I voted for Mark Jones for District Attorney.

However that I may have felt about his unorthodox campaign style for DA was obliterated by the developments of the last month. After seeing his dedication to his campaign and to those who he hopes to have as his constituents, as well as the attacks made against him by the law enforcement establishment in this region, I could not be more proud of voting for him.

I also could not be more proud of supporting his move into this campaign from the get-go. He reached out to me in late February after I made a post about the need for more primary contests in the upcoming qualifying week, and asked if there was room for him to run against Julia Slater for DA. He hesitated for a few weeks, and then I reached back to him and said that he – a lawyer, a resident of the circuit, a reform-minded person – is more than qualified to run as a Democrat, and that I wanted a good, clean primary contest to draw attention to this position and it’s role in corrections reform. The following week, he did not hesitate to jump in, drive to Atlanta to qualify, and loan himself money to buy signs and digital billboards, all before buying a website domain. He has been campaigning non-stop ever since, and being charged and staying for two nights at Muscogee County Jail has not stopped him one bit. Two of his supporters being arrested, charged and jailed has not stopped him fighting to get them released and their charges dropped.

I am angry at the behavior of the law enforcement establishment in this region against Mark, his supporters and BlackLivesMatter protesters in Columbus. I am angry that the jail is filled to such capacity as it is. I am angry that the police here are no better than the other police departments who should be defunded. I am angry at civil asset forfeiture, cannabis criminalization, cash bail and other stupidities committed by the laws and law enforcement establishment of this city and this state. Damn this authoritarian system, and damn this state and this city for perpetuating it.

Out of all of the votes I filled out on paper, I may have cast my first vote for Mark Jones for District Attorney.

Local Politics of Scale

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We want to talk about how there are not enough young people participating in politics.

But the problem is that the pathway to participation is incredibly narrow for a growing population, even at the local level. Our political system is not keeping up with the growth or complexity of our public, even at the local level.

Think of Columbus-Muscogee. 10 people sitting on a city council representing a population of 200,000+ people. That is 1 person per 20,000 people.

8 of the members represent districts, and 2 are elected at-large. That’s too few for too many. That’s a disparity of representation.

Where are the elected neighborhood councils for the districts? Where are the opportunities for the less-monied but just-as-able-minded residents of our city to advise and decide policy at a smaller level than the entire city itself?