Speaker Seth Hammett of the Alabama House of Representatives, after 32 years serving in the legislature and 12 years as Speaker, presided over his final legislative day when the State House adjourned last week. Speaker Hammett was widely respected for his effective stewardship of the chamber:

Known for his cool and reserved demeanor, Hammett rarely got rattled in the speaker's seat over the years, even when the House members got rambunctious. Hammett said the way to tell when he was getting close to fed up is that he would toss his pencil.

The Andalusia Democrat was adamant about keeping the House orderly and productive, which led to legislators often joking about not fouling up the "speaker's flow chart" -- a plan for the movement of bill's through the House.

Majority Leader Ken Guin, a member of the DLCC Board of Directors, added his own praise for Speaker Hammett, noting “We're all going to miss Seth. I had talked to him throughout the session and had hoped he would reconsider (…) He's been an outstanding speaker, maybe the best in the state's history."

Thank you, Speaker Hammett, for your years of service, and we wish you and your family all the best.

Alaska, home to the nation’s largest state legislative district (Senate District C, which would stretch from Jacksonville, FL to Minneapolis, MN if superimposed over the continental United States), may be adding 6 new legislators in the next round of redistricting, if a state constitutional amendment proposed by the legislature is approved by voters:

The state Legislature has voted to expand both chambers by 10 percent, by adding another two and four Senate and House seats, respectively. The vote comes as the state sees increasing signs of a population shift from rural areas to bigger cities. It also precedes a coming shift in legislative district boundaries to match population estimates from the latest federal census, which is ongoing.

If the new members are approved by voters, the expectation is that rural areas will maintain the same number of Senators and Representatives, instead of losing some of them to fast-growing Anchorage.

It’s still unclear how the proposal would affect the political balance in the state. Both legislative chambers are competitive, with the Senate tied (though run by a unique coalition of Democrats and Republicans) and Democrats within two seats of tying the State House.

An earlier version of the amendment would have expanded the legislature even further.

Last week the Arizona House of Representatives passed legislation being referred to as the "birther bill" that includes an amendment requiring presidential candidates to prove to Arizona's Secretary of State that they are natural born US citizens.

Despite widespread criticism -- Arizona's own Republican Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, has questioned the constitutionality of the amendment -- perhaps the best argument against the legislation is this pathetic defense of it by AZ Representative Cecil Ash (R) during an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper:

Rep. Ash initially says he believes President Obama is a US citizen... but then again he hasn't "personally investigated it" and is "reluctant to believe anything [he] read[s] on the internet." He goes on to admit he has "no idea" where George Bush or Bill Clinton were born*. One thing Rep. Ash is certain of, however: that the moon is not made out of cheese (see 1:15).

*Rumored to be New Haven, CT and Hope, AR respectively. But of course, to quote Rep. Ash, "you can't believe everything you see on the internet."

Republican Tennessee State Representative Mike Bell recently suggested that plenty of people get along just fine in America without health insurance. While discussing legislation that would attempt to nullify the federal health care insurance mandate within the state of Tennessee, Bell embraced the Mennonite practice of exchanging vegetables and other goods for health care as a feasible alternative to health insurance for Americans.

The Nashville Scene reported on a dialogue between Bell and Democratic State Representative Joe Towns in committee:

Bell: They're some of the healthiest people you have ever seen. They pay cash when they go to the doctor. They work out arrangements with the hospitals if their children have to be hospitalized. This is an individual choice that we're talking about.

Towns: You're saying they pay cash? For organ transplants and cancer and heart cases, they pay cash?

Bell: I said they pay cash or work out other arrangements. I know for a fact. I know someone in the medical field who has been paid with vegetables from the Mennonite community.

Towns: That's an anomaly. That's not how the system works. I can't take a sack of vegetables down to the utility company and pay my utility bill on my house. Nobody's going to take vegetables for payment. We can't run the country on vegetables and horse trading.

Mike Bell is not the only Republican politician advocating a return to 18th and 19th century health care practices; even candidates for the U.S. Congress and Senate have made similar arguments. While Democrats are fighting to make affordable, universal health insurance a reality, Republican state legislators like Mike Bell would have middle class Americans facing cancer and other serious diseases bringing vegetables and chickens to their doctors to plead for medical treatment.

The idea that Americans should return to the bartering system in health care shows how out of touch the Republican Party is with the real concerns of modern American families struggling to make ends meet.

John D’Elia is a Klindt/Dye Intern for the 2010 Spring Semester

What do you think 2010 should be all about? What do you want your legislators to care about when they go to work in the morning?

Let's face it -- the health care debate is still raging at the state level. Families are still struggling in a tough economy. Schools and roads and police and firefighters all need support.

Lawmakers have a lot of tough decisions ahead. They want to know -- they need to know -- what issues are important to you, what problems need to be solved, and what kind of solutions you want to see.

So make your voice heard! Click here to complete the 2010 Legislative Priorities Survey.

Last year's survey had an amazing response. Thousands of individuals participated, and many of the DLCC's legislative leaders told us they were excited to hear this year's responses.

They were very interested in what you had to say last year, and many of them were deeply moved by the personal stories you told in your responses.

Just like last year, we'll be presenting your responses to our DLCC Board of Directors, made up of state legislative leaders from across the country. But we'll also send a summary to you, so you know what other people had to say.

Simply click here to take the survey!

Congress has recently passed legislation banning misleading mailings that appear to be from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Republican National Committee recently sent out fundraising letters entitled, “Congressional District Census.” The words “Census Document,” and “DO NOT DESTROY - OFFICIAL DOCUMENT” are printed on the exterior of the envelopes. The letter deceptively mixes this official sounding language with GOP talking points and a fundraising solicitation.

The chairman of the Senate panel that oversees the Census has called these practices “despicable.” Census officials are unanimous in their condemnation of these mailings and believe they will confuse citizens and have a harmful effect on the returns of the actual Census. Even a former Republican-appointed Census director has forcefully criticized the fundraising letter. But most disturbing is a quote Politico has obtained from an anonymous Republican operative familiar with the misleading mailing strategy:

"Of course, duping people is the point. ... That's one of the reasons why it works so well,” said one Republican operative familiar with the program, who said it’s among the RNC’s most lucrative fundraising initiatives. “They will likely mail millions this year [with] incredible targeting.”

Fortunately, mailings like these will now be illegal under the new federal law.

As we have reported previously, a voter in Minnesota who decided to call the phone number listed on the mailing to complain about the misleading nature of the letter found that the number connects callers with a phone-sex line offering "live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl who will do anything you want for just $2.99 per minute."

The DLCC would like to remind the readers of its blog, once again, that an official U.S. Census mailing will never ask for donations or provide a number for a phone-sex line.

John D’Elia is a Klindt/Dye Intern for the 2010 Spring Semester

A new study by a Brigham Young University professor highlights something that might seem intuitive but is still valuable to see in statistical form: state legislators in America are a highly-educated group of people.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has an overview of the data:

It turns out that 71 percent of state legislators nationwide have at least a bachelor's degree and 40 percent have an advanced degree on top of that. Given that 12 percent of the education data among state legislators is “unknown” it is impossible to know which state has the most educated legislature in the country.

However, it appears Virginia and California have the highest percentage of legislators with at least a bachelor's degree at 89 percent and 87 percent respectively.

This compares very favorably to the 95% of members of Congress with bachelor’s degrees and is nearly three times higher than the 27% of the entire adult population with such degrees.

Much more interesting, however, is the advanced degree variation between legislatures. For instance, Nebraska and Ohio have the highest percentage of state legislators with doctorates and law degrees, respectively.

NCSL has added all this data to their interactive map of legislator demographics. The tool includes a host of other data including legislator occupations, religions, ages, etc.

The Oklahoma Senate passed House Bill 2750 this session in a unanimous vote. This piece of legislation will add the events of the Oklahoma City Bombing to the state’s history curriculum, ensuring that the events of April 19, 1995 are never forgotten.

Today is the 15th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. It is a struggle to recognize anything worth celebrating about this day, but as DLCC Board Member and State Senator Sean Burrage explained in an editorial last week, the people of his great state pulled together in the midst of such a horrendous act:

This horrible event showed us that in the midst of something so terrible, we could see the very best in people. Oklahomans pulled together as they never had before, providing for the families of victims, the injured and those involved in the rescue and recovery at the Murrah Building. The eyes of the world were on us, and we in turn showed them the spirit that defines us—the “Oklahoma Standard,” as it has since been called.

Sen. Burrage and his wife, Carole, are among the many Oklahomans directly affected by the bombing. Carole was working across the street from the federal building and suffered minor injuries from flying glass.

In memory of the victims of this attack and in honor of those who showed great courage in the aftermath, we would like to say “thank-you” to the Oklahoma Legislature, for passing such an important piece of legislation.

Republican State Sen. Roy Ashburn of California, one of the legislature’s most outspoken opponents of equal rights, was arrested last month for drunk driving after leaving a gay nightclub in Sacramento. But things went from bad to worse this week when Sen. Ashburn was sentenced to prison for his offense:

Ashburn was arrested in the early morning of March 3, 2010 on suspicion of DUI after he was seen by a CHP officer driving his state vehicle erratically. He was coming from FACES, a gay nightclub located in midtown Sacramento. Ashburn had a .15% blood alcohol level.

Ashburn has been ordered to serve 48 hours in county jail, three years of probation, pay fines and fees of about $2,000, and attend a mandatory first offender DUI program. His driver's license was suspended for 30 days.

In the days following his arrest, Ashburn announced he was gay on a local radio show. But he’s ruled out moderating his voting record on LGBT issues, which was one of the worst in the State Senate:

According to Project Vote Smart, Ashburn's voting record shows he has voted against every gay rights measure in the State Senate since taking office including Recognizing Out-Of-State Same-Sex Marriages", Harvey Milk Day and Expanding Anti-Discrimination Laws.

Despite the shame he’ll bring to the legislature by continuing to hold office while in jail (and despite his serious lapse in judgment, which could have resulted in tragedy), Ashburn is also refusing to resign.

Montana was one of the first states in the country to determine the membership of its bipartisan redistricting commission when the Montana Supreme Court appointed one of its former justices, Jim Regnier, to chair the state’s Districting and Apportionment Commission.

The Commission has begun holding hearings around the state, and partisan accusations from the Republicans are already flying. They’re insisting that the last commission, in 2000, drew legislative maps that favored Democrats, so the 2010 commission should draw more favorable maps for the GOP.

But the truth is, the current redistricting plan has produced extremely competitive legislative elections in Montana for the entire decade. Voters had a legitimate choice every single election, which is the ultimate purpose of having a bipartisan redistricting commission:

[Democratic Apportionment Commissioner Joe] Lamson and other Democrats say their district maps have restored balance to a map previously heavily skewed toward Republicans. He notes that since the 2000 redistricting took effect, Republicans have won seats in 58 House districts across the state and Democrats have won in 56. In that same period, Democrats have won in 26 Senate districts and Republicans have won in 28. In the 2009 Legislature, Republicans held a majority in the Senate and the House was split 50-50: this following an election that saw voters elect Democrats to every major statewide office.

“If you look at the Legislature, there certainly has not been any shortage of conservatives there,” Lamson said. “From our perspective, it was a particularly fair plan.”

Nor is this competitiveness somehow artificial. Though it leans Republican, Montana is a highly competitive state. In addition to Democrats holding every statewide office in Montana, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and George Bush all won its electoral votes, while President Obama narrowly lost them. The state also elected Democrat John Tester to the U.S. Senate in 2006 and has re-elected Sen. Max Baucus overwhelmingly, in good and bad years for Democrats nationally.

For more background on the Montana redistricting process, visit RedistrictingFacts.com.

Some Republican legislators in Oklahoma have decided to mark next week’s 15th anniversary of the infamous Oklahoma City bombing… by teaming up with local Tea Party extremists to form a right-wing paramilitary militia to guard Oklahoma “from an overreaching federal government."

No, really:

Thus far, the discussions have been exploratory. Even the proponents say they don't know how an armed force would be organized nor how a state-based militia could block federal mandates. Critics also asserted that the force could inflame extremism, and that the National Guard already provides for the state's military needs.

"Have they heard of the Oklahoma City bombing?" said Joseph Thai, a constitutional law professor at the University of Oklahoma. The state observes the 15th anniversary of the anti-government attack on Monday. Such actions could "throw fuel in the fire of radicals," he said.

Militia organizers are sending out promotional materials with headlines like “Buy more guns, more bullets,” but they insist that their militia would not plot to attack (i.e. murder) police officers or federal employees. Left unsaid, of course, is how exactly they plan to use guns to defend against the federal government.

Amazingly, Republican legislators like State Sen. Randy Brogdon and State Rep. Charles Key are backing the anti-government militias and even offering to promote them through the legislature.

The President’s health reform law is going to save thousands of lives and make coverage more affordable for millions of Americans. It also left some good, progressive ideas on the table. But with the reform bill now law, Democratic state legislators are already stepping up to put those ideas into action.

Colorado, Maine, and Maryland have all passed bills to reinforce or speed up key planks of the federal reform plan, like the prohibition on charging higher premiums for women or the ban on lifetime caps on benefits. Meanwhile Oregon, which created the Oregon Health Authority last year to study ways to improve the affordability of health care, is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the federal reform plan.

But states like Connecticut and Vermont are preparing to go even further. Connecticut will be continuing its SustiNet project, a state-administrated health plan overseen by a board of experts reporting directly to the Legislature. The Vermont Senate has given preliminary approval for a bill requiring the Legislature’s Health Care Reform Commission to develop three separate plans for implementing universal health care, including one plan that creates a state-run public insurance option.

Even before the President’s plan passed, Democratic state legislators were at the forefront of health care reform in America. But now that we have health care reform on a national scale, expect states to continue pushing the envelope – finding new ideas and offering bold solutions.

And expect Democrats to continue leading the way.

With hiring only now beginning to pick up across the country, it’s worth looking back at the American unemployment insurance system to figure out how it can be more effective in the future. Seventeen mostly Democratic states have turned to a more proactive approach – one that uses unemployment dollars to keep people employed:

Called work sharing, or short-time compensation, the program has helped thousands of companies avoid layoffs in New York and 16 other states. This year, lawmakers in seven more states are considering bills that would authorize the widely praised approach to saving jobs.

Here’s how it works. When a business enters a slump and needs to cut payroll, it can seek state approval for a plan to reduce employees’ hours instead of cutting jobs. For example, a 20 percent reduction in the workforce could translate to a 20 percent reduction in hours, or a four-day workweek. To help employees stay afloat, the state would pay workers about half of their lost wages through the federal-state unemployment insurance program, which temporarily provides laid-off workers with a portion of their paychecks.

“Every day, workers tell me they’d rather work at least part of their regular week instead of face a layoff,” says New York Labor Commissioner Colleen Gardner. At no additional cost to states, the program helps businesses retain skilled employees, allows workers to stay on the job and keep their benefits and boosts the local economy.

Twelve of the seventeen states that offer this kind of program have Democratic-controlled legislatures. And that’s no surprise – Democratic legislators across the country have been proactive about protecting jobs ever since the recession began.

CBS News recently published an in-depth report on reapportionment following the 2010 Census, including which states might gain, which might lose, and how that will impact political power in America.

Congressional reapportionment and redistricting are closely related, but it’s important to understand their separate impacts. Any state with more than one congressional district can be redistricted to favor one party or another. But in states that gain or lose seats, political control in the state legislatures will be crucial in determining which party the extra districts favor or, in states that lose seats, which party’s congressperson loses his or her district.

According to projections, those states will likely be:

Discounting states that redistrict though non-partisan commissions, Democrats currently hold majorities in many of the states set to gain or lose seats, while many of the Republican-held states in the South may have to create additional majority-minority districts to satisfy the Voting Rights Act.

But CBS also looked at the impact of reapportionment on future Presidential elections, in which the South and West are likely to gain electoral votes while the Northeast and Midwest lose them:

Electoral votes are shifted, too. Unlike the House, where district lines could determine which party gains advantage from a new apportionment, the presidential maps' winner-take-all formulas go directly to the totals. This means new electoral math, and perhaps a revised list of battlegrounds.

Voting differences by region are well-known even to casual political watchers: the Northeast is now solidly Democrat and often liberal (in fact, there are no GOP House members in New England at all) while the deep South and much of the Midwest remain strong Republican territory.

Of course, all such projections depend on an accurate Census count with full participation. We’ve already discussed what a challenge this is. And with participation rates in the Midwest running noticeably ahead of the South, the final congressional allocation could include some surprises.

For Democratic state legislators, “supporting the troops” is more than just a political slogan – it’s a call to action. The Department of Defense has identified ten key areas where state policies can meaningfully improve quality of life for military families. And this year, Iowa became the first state to address all ten:

“We’re 10 for 10,” Sen. Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City, said Wednesday. He is a colonel in the Iowa National Guard who plans to retire as a lawmaker when his term expires later this year.

“In some manner, shape or form, we address all 10 of the issues that the Department of Defense has requested states to take action on,” Warnstadt said.

Senators voted 50-0 on Wednesday to send Senate File 2297 to Gov. Chet Culver with new protections dealing with utility shutoffs, weapons permits and other issues that might arise during or after a military deployment.

The list of soldier-friendly bills approved by lawmakers or already signed by Culver deal with jobless compensation for trailing spouses, child custody and visitation matters during deployment separations, absentee voting, access to child care for military families, and certain support benefits for National Guard and reserve members and their families.

Congratulations to Iowa Democrats for taking up this important cause and finding a way to thank our men and women in uniform for their service and sacrifice.

This week, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal both analyzed the importance of state legislative races this year in the context of the redistricting fight to come.

USA Today does an excellent job explaining the big picture of what’s at stake in 2010:

Democrats are ramping up for a historic fundraising effort. "With the Census and the health care agenda, people are focusing on what these state races mean," says Michael Sargeant, executive director of the Democratic effort.

Republicans are playing catch-up in the redistricting fight. Before congressional boundaries were redrawn in 2001, the GOP controlled governorships and both chambers of state legislatures in 13 states, compared with eight for Democrats.

Since then, Democrats have made steady gains in state legislative races and reversed the equation. Today, Democrats control the governor's office, the state House and the state Senate in 16 states. Republicans have total control in nine states.

But for all the numbers, the reality of what could happen on a district and state level is best explained by looking at the key states, as the Wall Street Journal does in its analysis of Indiana (subscription only):

In Indiana, for example, Democrats controlled redistricting after the 2000 elections and picked up three additional congressional seats over the past decade. Now, Republicans are trying to reverse those gains. If the GOP picks up just three seats in the state House, the party will control both chambers of the legislature and strengthen its hand in the redistricting process.

The federal health care reform bill, you may remember, passed with only three votes to spare – exactly the number of congressional seats picked up by Indiana Democrats in the last decade. If Republicans pick up just a handful of State House seats this year, they can gerrymander all three of those Democratic congresspersons out of office.

The Census is a much more complicated undertaking than a simple roll call. Because of language, cultural, and geographic barriers, some communities are orders of magnitude more difficult to survey than others. And because a 1999 Supreme Court ruling prohibits the use of statistical sampling to correct the results, Census officials have to get it right the first time.

The New York Times recently examined three communities to illustrate the unique challenges Census-takers face, starting with Wolford, North Dakota (population 50), which already boasts a 100% participation rate in the mail survey:

“Why wouldn’t you send it right back?” asked Jim Wolf, who has been mayor here so long that he cannot recall what year he took office. “It’s a rural community,” said Mr. Wolf, who is also the volunteer fire squad chief, “and I guess we go by the rules.”

In fact, some who have yet to receive their forms here (the census does not mail the questionnaires to post office boxes) have raised a bit of a stink among the farmers who gather for morning coffee at the farm supply business Mr. Wolf manages and at the one-room post office where Lynn Walsh hands out the mail.

But things aren’t so easy for the Census Bureau in other small towns. Officials are working overtime to try and boost participation in rural and heavily African-American Issaquena County in the Mississippi Delta region, where there’s only one person for them to count for every 116 acres:

Issaquena County and the entire Delta is plagued by poverty and illiteracy. People mistrust census takers for a variety of reasons, including a belief that the government is trying to catch them doing something illegal like misrepresenting the number of people in their household, which could affect benefits like food stamps, said Calvin Stewart, a Rolling Fork alderman, teacher, high school sports referee and spokesman for the town’s new antilitter campaign. (…)

Community groups in the area have done their best to calm fears and increase participation. They have recorded radio broadcasts and arranged P.T.A. presentations, enlisted pastors and formed Complete Count Committees. They have given practice tests to help local residents get census jobs, believing they will be less skittish about approaching houses and will be less likely to evoke a hostile response.

Issaquena’s participation in the mail survey is currently only 28% so far, compared to 53% in Hinds County (containing Jackson, MS) and 60% nationally.

Meanwhile, confusion is running rampant in immigrant communities in New York City, which probably poses the Census Bureau’s biggest test in terms of language:

At Masjid Aqsa, a Harlem mosque, Imam Soulemaine Konaté said that many of his congregants, French-speaking African immigrants who know very little English, threw away their census forms. He said they thought the envelopes addressed to “resident” were meant for someone else.

In Jackson Heights, Queens, volunteers for New Immigrant Community Empowerment who talked to day laborers on street corners often heard them say, “Eso no es para mí,” or “This is not for me,” dismissing the census as something important only for citizens and legal immigrants, said Valeria Treves, the group’s executive director.

In Flushing, which has the largest concentration of Asian immigrants in the city, the participation rate in some areas was as low as 25 percent, and after a few hours with the MinKwon volunteers, it was easy to see why. Aside from the linguistic isolation and fear of deportation, many people had no idea of the census’s purpose, why it matters or who should fill it out.

The reason the Census matters, of course, is that political representation and billions in federal funding at stake – something Census officials and community volunteers are still trying to drive home.

Legislators and state budget officials got some good news recently. According to reports last week, average state and local tax revenues rose last quarter, reversing the downward trend caused by the financial crisis and recession:

State and local tax revenues rose last quarter for the first time in five quarters, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That means state money managers could be getting some much-needed breathing room — a conclusion supported by a separate Bloomberg News account showing that the 15 most populous states are predicting a 3.9-percent increase in their tax revenues in the coming fiscal year.

The revenue increases reported by the Census Bureau on Tuesday (March 30) were driven by property and corporate income tax collections, which rose 5.8 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, in the last three months of 2009, compared with the same period a year ago. The other two primary sources of state and local revenue, individual income and sales tax collections, declined by 4.7 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

The increased revenue, while extremely welcome, doesn’t mean states are out of the woods yet. Most states relied heavily on federal funds in the economic stimulus program to maintain essential services like health, education, police, and fire protection. As that one-time funding runs out, states will face higher deficits. It’s still unclear whether additional federal help will be made available soon.

California legislators may be the highest-paid in the nation (even after a self-imposed 18% pay cut this year), but that obviously didn’t stop the GOP's current Senate Minority Leader and former Assembly leader from taking more, more, more – in the form of unreported gifts from organizations with business before the legislature.

California’s ethics commission is considering fines against both Leaders, as well as a third Republican, State Sen. Tony Strickland, who negotiated a $3,000 penalty for concealing the source of an attack ad he ran against his 2008 opponent:

In recommending the fine, the commission staff said the mass mailing "deprived the public of the knowledge of the true source of the negative campaign piece and thus, appears to be at worst intentional and at best negligent, particularly given the sophistication of Respondent Strickland as a current member of the California State Legislature, and a former Member of the Legislature at the time of the campaign activity in question."

The commission is scheduled to consider the agreement with Stickland[sic] at its April 8 meeting, at which time it will also consider imposing fines of $200 each against Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) and former Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines (R-Clovis) for failing to disclose gifts from sources that lobby the Legislature.

Hollingsworth, you might remember, led a temper tantrum this past September in which Senate Republicans forced the closure of several domestic violence shelters across the state. Democrats, in cleaning up yet another GOP injustice, later appropriated money to keep the shelters open.

As for the ethics investigation, well, let's just say it probably wouldn't have happened to a nicer group of people.

Congressional Quarterly and Stateline.org both wrote this week about the impact the 2010 state legislative elections will have on redistricting, and they both drew the same conclusion we’ve been arguing here: this is a big deal.

From Stateline:

Democrats currently control 60 state legislative chambers, most of which will draw maps for 383 congressional and 5,074 state legislative seats, the party says. But 21 of those chambers in 17 states are within five seats of changing hands politically. These 17 states will shape 198 congressional districts during redistricting.

How important is it to keep as much of that ground as possible in Democratic hands? Considering that 15 of the 17 congressional seats that changed hands in 2002 did so because of redistricting, it’s very important. Add in the 5 seats Republicans gained through their mid-decade gerrymander of Texas -- in a year when Republicans only saw a net gain of 3 seats nationwide -- and the picture is even clearer.

CQ Politics, meanwhile, went a little bit deeper in examining some of the Party organizations forming to take on the redistricting task. Of particular importance is the National Democratic Redistricting Trust, formed to help advise Democratic legislators on how to draw legally-acceptable districts and to fund Democratic legal efforts to defend or challenge particular plans:

The parties are forced to use hard dollars or rely on outside groups without member involvement. But the trust asked the Federal Election Commission for an advisory opinion to clarify members’ roles in certain redistricting activities.

“The Trust seeks to confirm that members of Congress may solicit funds for the Trust outside the limits and source restrictions prescribed by the Federal Election Campaign Act,” according to the Feb. 19 letter signed by Marc Elias of Perkins Coie on behalf of the trust. “[S]uch solicitations are not intended to influence any federal or non-federal election and will not advocate the election or defeat of any candidate for office.”

“An advisory opinion is a shield, not a sword,” Elias explained in an interview about potential FEC complaints filed by opponents in the future.

Even though redistricting is an inherently political task, Democrats want the FEC to continue to differentiate between legal activity and electioneering.

Elias, you might remember, was the legal guru and public face of Al Franken’s masterful recount and legal defense operation in the disputed Minnesota Senate election. Any Democrat who followed those proceedings should rest easier knowing he’ll be involved in our redistricting effort.

While the Republican Party’s big donors get fêted at bondage-themed strip clubs, its smaller donors have to make do with the number to a phone-sex hotline, graciously provided on the fake “Census” forms the GOP’s been mailing out in an effort to “dupe” people into contributing.

Where would we be without Republican family values?

The Republican National Committee sent a fundraising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone-sex line offering "live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl who will do anything you want for just $2.99 per minute."

At the bottom of a piece designed to resemble a census form, a toll-free number is listed next to the national party's address.

A voter in Minnesota received the mailer and called the number intending to complain about the attempt to raise money with a form that looks like a government document.

But the Minnesotan was instead directed to a second toll-free number that greets callers as "sexy guy" before offering them the chance to talk with "real local students, housewives and working girls from all over the country."

Last time we reported on this story, we explicitly reminded our readers:

Your official U.S. Census questionnaire will NEVER ask you to send money, pin numbers, or credit card information with your completed survey.

But since Republicans are involved in this scandal, I suppose we have to add something else to keep in mind when that Census form arrives in the mail:

Your official U.S. Census questionnaire will NEVER include the number to a phone-sex line.

Yesterday, Michael Sargeant sat down with David Chalian and Rick Klein of ABC New's Top Line to discuss redistricting and our effort for 2010.