Weekly Web Gems- The Politics of the States

Following up on a previous Recovering Politician blog post, the New York State Legislature will indeed be returning to chambers this week, though nobody seems quite certain what they’ll be doing. Moreover, only Democrats have promised to come back for further legislative sessions, while no Republicans have said whether they plan on working out the numerous budget issues that continue to face New York State. [NY Daily News]

In the story of partisan politics that just wouldn’t die, Wisconsin Republicans are refusing to pay legal expenses incurred by their Democratic colleagues during that state’s public sector union battle. Bob Jambois, a lawyer who represented Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, a Kenosha Democrat, says he is owed $15,155 in legal fees, which the State Assembly is obligated to pay. “If we have to pay it, we’ll probably pay it,” Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, a Republican representing rural Horicon, was quoted as saying, while not commenting on whether the assembly would pay the fees otherwise. Thus far, the Assembly has paid $294,094 to Michael Best, a lawyer who represented Republicans in that body, in addition to $27,706 to lawyers representing Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller and Secretary of State Douglas LaFollette, both Democrats. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

In the interest of full disclosure, this is where the redistricting stories begin. Feel free to stop reading if you wish, but at least the first item should be of interest.

Following a court-drawn Congressional District map, Texas Secretary of State Greg Abbott has asked the Supreme Court of the United States to block that map from being implemented, calling it “legally flawed” and “likely to be overturned on further review.” The map was drawn after an earlier, heavily gerrymandered map was rejected by federal courts. Texas gained four new Congressional seats in the latest round of redistricting, after Census data showed the state had gained 4 million residents, growth that was driven almost exclusively by minorities and largely by Hispanics. Republican-drawn maps gave that party a massive advantage in the new seats, while the court-drawn map includes three minority-majority districts. [CNN]

A GOP-backed group has filed suit against newly-drawn State Senate maps, asking that they be shelved if and when the group receives the requisite 504,760 valid signatures to put the maps on statewide ballot. Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting (FAIR) argues that maps drawn by the state’s Citizens Redistricting Commission are unfair to California Republicans, and that the state should either revert to old maps, combine two adjacent Assembly districts to create each Senate district, or some combination of the above. This is not the first time Republicans have taken legal action against California’s new legislative districts; its new United States House districts have also been challenged in court. [Sacramento Bee]

Florida’s new State Senate maps were drawn without political data, but they nevertheless appear to benefit Republicans, who control the state legislature and the governor’s office. Although a handful of incumbents are squeezed in the new districts, Florida’s minorities and Democrats find themselves compressed into fewer districts than before in not one but two proposed State Senate maps, a state of affairs that is drawing some criticism in the Sunshine State. [St. Petersburg Times]