Weekly Web Gems- The Politics of the States

It may be the end of a beautiful (bipartisan) friendship in New Jersey, as Republican governor Chris Christie and Newark’s Democratic mayor, Cory Booker, are said to be no longer on good terms with one another. Earlier in Christie’s term, the two had been famously cordial, though a recent brouhaha over Christie’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in Newark seems to have highlighted a drifting apart. Explanations of this are varied, though they include Christie’s desire to cut funding to various institutions of higher education in Newark, in addition to Booker’s political aspirations– he is rumored to be considering a run agains Christie in 2013 or, failing that, a bid for the United States Senate in 2014. [NJ.com]

Redistricting fights have taken on a racial tone in Florida, where lawmakers are mulling Constitutional changes that would prohibit making it difficult for ethnic and language minorities to elect legislative representatives who are members of those same minorities. The chief issue here is that there is limited legal language, either state or federal, regarding what constitutes such maneuvering, and in the meantime, state legislators have been butting heads with each other and various interest groups over redistricting. Most notably, Republican State Senator Alan Hays has suggested that all Hispanic Floridians be checked for citizenship before majority-Hispanic districts are drawn, while Democrat Nan Rich has critiqued the NAACP’s efforts to keep minority-majority districts in spite of voter wishes. [St. Petersburg Times]

In California, Republicans continue to stoke redistricting fight fires, as the most recent, citizen-drawn legislative district maps are being challenged in federal court. Brought by former Congressman George Radanovich, the suit, which the California Supreme Court refused to hear last month, allege that by protecting three Los Angeles-area incumbents, the Citizens Redistricting Commission infringed on the rights of African-American and Latino voting communities. The redrawn lines preserve three African-American-plurality seats in Los Angeles County, a maneuver which the suit says costs other ethnic groups in the short run and may backfire on African-American voters in the longer run. [Sacramento Bee]

Still more redistricting fighting, this time in Wisconsin, where two cases are in court deciding whether upcoming recall elections should take place in new or old legislative districts. Republicans, who drew district lines that reach appropriate population levels and, unsurprisingly, favor that party, argue that it is unconstitutional for recall elections to be held along old lines, leading to a situation in which people will voting for or against someone who will not represent them in the state legislature after next year. Democrats, meanwhile, argue that the new map is unconstitutional, and that many people who voted for one person in the previous election will not be able to vote for or against that person again if the new maps are utilized. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

They couldn’t all be about redistricting. New York’s elected officials are at odds as to whether or not the state legislature will be called back into session this year, with some Senate Republicans and Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo saying it most likely will next month, while party leaders on both sides deny that this is likely. The cleave over a new legislative session to address pressing budget concerns is indicative of intra-party splits in New York, most notably that between Cuomo and his more liberal party rank-and-file. [NY Daily News]