Last night, a helpful post on redistricting went up on DailyKos. askew provides historical context, an overview of the Democratic playing field, and a call to action, all in one little paragraph:

In 2001-2... Because the Republicans controlled so many state houses during the restricting process, they were able to create gerrymandered districts that resulted in historic gains for the Republicans in the 2002 midterms. The Democratic Party is determined to not let that happen again. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) (help elect state Reps/Sens), The National Democratic Redistricting Trust (legal team to fight redistricting) and Foundation for the Future (a 527 funded primarily by unions to provide data to the Democratic Party on how to draw maps to favor Democrats). However, they will need our help to GOTV and raise money for the 2010 midterms.

This morning, Alex Burns’ Morning Score gave us a nice little plug:

COMING SOON – THE DLCC’S MAP: The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, charged with waging state House and Senate campaigns this fall ahead of the next round of redistricting, is preparing to release a memo to Democratic stakeholders outlining the most urgent targets for the party this fall. “Of the legislatures with the power to draw congressional maps, 23 chambers in 17 states are within five seats of changing hands. These 17 states will draw 198 Congressional Districts,” DLCC executive director Michael Sargeant writes. “The bottom line: The results of the 2010 state legislative elections will define how key reforms and policies are decided for the next decade.” The DLCC’s top defensive targets: the Alabama Senate, Colorado Senate, Indiana House, Nevada Senate, New Hampshire Senate, New York Senate, Ohio House, Pennsylvania House and both chambers in Wisconsin. And its picks for offense: the Michigan Senate, Kentucky Senate, Tennessee House and Texas House.

Tune into this space next Monday for the memo to which he refers.

With questions beginning to fly concerning specific states, the DLCC is pleased to present, via RedistrictingFacts.com, a state-by-state breakdown of how redistricting actually works in each.

For example, did you know that an Independent Redistricting Commission administers the redistricting of both state legislative and congressional districts in Arizona? Check out the website to learn how the Commission members are appointed!

Were you aware that Governors have no veto authority over the maps drawn by the state legislatures in Connecticut and North Carolina?

Have you heard about the various states in which state Supreme Courts have some authority over the redistricting process?

Learn about all these things and more at http://redistrictingfacts.com/redistricting-by-state/!

Sum of Change and Five Steps Forward Media provided live streaming coverage of many of the panels and presentations at Netroots Nation last week.

Their coverage includes a complete video of our Redistricting Panel, which featured State Senator Steven Horsford, a DLCC Board Member and the Majority Leader of the Nevada Senate; Executive Director Bill Burke of the Foundation for the Future; and our own Michael Sargeant, Executive Director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

You can watch the video below or at USTREAM:

We'd like to thank all of our participants for generously providing their time, and we'd also like to thank the Netroots community for helping us shine a light on this critically important issue.

You might remember Republican State Sen. Dennis Nolan of Nevada from last week, when he was caught on tape allegedly offering to bribe the witness in a rape trial to change her story. (You can listen to the audio here.)

Well, this story just got much, much uglier. Sen. Nolan has now posted an open letter on his campaign website claiming he feels “compelled to believe the sex was consensual” because the 16-year-old victim had been “very sexually active” prior to the rape, and because (“as a side note,” he says) 42% of Nevada teenagers have been sexually active before age 16.

Just to reiterate, this is a man whose job it is to write laws, including the laws used to prosecute sexual assault. This man has no business serving in any public office – he needs to resign, immediately.

This is the sort of document that eventually gets scrubbed from a campaign website, so we’ll quote from the screen-shots we took:

As a side note in Nevada, approximately 42% of all teens ages 12-16, admit to having had intercourse, about 25% of them admit to having multiple partners.(Council of Chief of State Schools Officers), Is it right? NO! Is it right for adults to engage in sex with minors? NO! But sadly, it is happening, and that’s the fact.

Knowing this young lady, reading the case and observing her behavior before and after the incident, I am compelled to believe the sex was consensual. She was very sexually active and, according to court records, had an abortion just two weeks prior to the alleged sexual assault (this is now public record). Was it right? NO!

Nolan also lashes out against the victim’s father, accusing him of being a pedophile:

My call to the “alleged” victim’s sister, Mr. Lawes' ex-wife, who is an acquaintance, was made only after I received information that both young women were abused as children by their father and that he may be continuing to “control them” as abusers often do. The possibility that the very person publicly accusing me of “defending a SEX OFFENDER, being FRIENDS with a RAPIST “ may himself have been or may be an abuser, is maddening.

And as for the answering machine message – the one where he tells a witness from the case that it would be “very financially beneficial" to change her story? Nolan has an explanation for that too:

I made two calls to the woman pleading with her to talk to me and offering to assist in getting the help she needed to stand up to her father and regain custody of her children. They went unanswered, I left a third message implying “someone” could compensate her if she would tell the truth “about what was going on”. The Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau Legal Division issued a written legal opinion which stated clearly, this did not constitute “attempted bribery”! These allegations are just plain lies!

Clearly. Nolan’s logic is that he offered someone else’s money, therefore it couldn’t have been a bribe. Just like this girl could not have been raped because some other teenage girls are sexually active. And just like being sexually active even once means that all future sexual activity is consensual.

This kind of disgusting rhetoric – especially coming from an elected official – is exactly why sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes in the country. Victims have to worry about whether they’ll be believed at all and whether their reputations will be dragged through the mud by people like Dennis Nolan.

We already thought Nolan had gone too far, but now we’re convinced. He needs to resign - click here to add your name to our petition.

CHECK THE FACTS – read Sen. Nolan’s letter for yourself:

Nolan Letter page 1 – 06-04-2010
Nolan Letter page 2 – 06-04-2010

Something in the water must be affecting Republican primaries in Nevada. Hot on the heels of the “chickens for checkups” incident roiling the U.S. Senate race, an incumbent State Senator has been caught on tape allegedly offering to bribe the parents of a rape victim in an effort to protect the man who was convicted in the case:

A Las Vegas woman said Thursday that state Sen. Dennis Nolan showed signs of "complete insanity" by offering her money if she would tell the truth about a rape involving her ex-husband and sister. (…)

In the message, he talks about making it "very financially beneficial" if Lawes would tell the truth about the 2008 court case in which her then-husband, Gordon Lawes, now 29, was convicted of raping her then 16-year-old sister. Gordon Lawes received a prison sentence of at least 10 years.

Amazingly, the audio recording of Nolan allegedly offering the bribe and engaging in possible witness tampering was not obtained through any special efforts. Nolan left the message himself on the Lawes family’s answering machine. And, so there’s no doubt about the content and context of that message, you can listen for yourself below:

Nolan served as a character witness at the defendant’s trial, and Nolan still makes the argument today that the 16-year-old girl was not raped at all because (he claims) she consented and then failed to tell the truth at trial (16 is the age of consent in Nevada). The girl’s family was understandably outraged by the claim:

[Tim] Anderson said that his daughter "was passed out drunk when Gordon raped her. She couldn't consent to anything."

Jaime Lawes said Thursday that Nolan's allegations are ridiculous.

"I stated the truth on the witness stand," Lawes said. "My ex-husband Gordon confessed to the rape. I stand by my story because in fact a rape took place."

Amazingly, despite a flood of calls from Republican voters angry about Nolan's conduct, the Republican Party of Nevada is refusing to call for his resignation or withdrawal from his re-election bid. Chairman Mark Amodei would only go so far as to say "Dennis Nolan needs to do some soul searching."

We think he needs to do more than soul-searching. We think he needs to resign, immediately. If you agree, click here to add your voice to the call.

By most measures, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons -- a Republican -- is one of the least popular elected officials in the country. Only one in ten voters in his state approve of his job performance. That's a reputation he's earned through shocking displays of personal and professional incompetence.

Nevada has been hard hit by the national recession, and Gibbons has done little as governor to improve things for his constituents. The state is set to receive $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money, and that has legislators worried how Gibbons would manage the funds.

For that reason, this week, lawmakers led an effort to put oversight of the money into more responsible hands:

During a meeting of the Interim Finance Committee — which exists so changes in the budget can be made when the Legislature is not in session — lawmakers rejected a plan by Gov. Jim Gibbons’ administration for how to spend some of the federal stimulus money and stripped from his office a newly created position to oversee spending of Nevada’s $1.5 billion allotment.

Legislators -- led by Senate Majority Leader and DLCC Board Member Steven Horsford proposed changes to the governors plan that would reduce the number of individuals responsible for overseeing the administration of the funds from 10 to 3; place the overall stimulus fund coordinator position in the office of the state controller; and make the coordinator position classified -- which would force candidates through the state personnel process rather than having them be appointed by the governor.

Elections in Nevada are more than a year away, but that hasn't stopped many in their preparations for 2010.

Lawmakers in the state are limited to 12 years of service by a constitutional amendment passed by referendum in 1996. That means that 17 legislative seats will be left open across the state next year.

Complicating matters further is a new law that pushes primaries in the state from August to June. To run in the primary, candidates must file paperwork with the state by the end of May mid-March, and that has many would-be candidates laying the ground work for a run now.

These early preparations are giving us a picture of the themes that might emerge in next year's contests, and for the GOP, 2010 might shape up to be a battle for the soul of their party:

A tug-of-war within the Republican Party will likely pit moderate candidates against those with a more rigid conservative ideology. Political observers see a stronger potential that conservative Republicans could replace more moderate legislators in the Senate, tilting the GOP there to the right.

After a series of losses -- including control of the state senate -- it is somewhat surprising that Republicans would continue down the road of narrowing their appeal with most voters.

But to be honest, that's a decision we at the DLCC can't complain about.

Nevada lawmakers have passed an important piece of legislation to protect children from abduction when parents are locked in custody battles.

Nevada law already recognizes prior abductions of children as a risk factor for future abductions, but this recognition has not been included in the child custody provisions in the laws regulating the dissolution of marriage.

The new law will keep child abductors from receiving custody or unsupervised visits, except under certain, special circumstances.

Nearly half of all kidnappings in the state involve a prior abduction or serious case of custody interference from a parent.

Over the weekend, legislators in Nevada overturned a veto by Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons of an important piece of equal rights legislation:

The bill provides that domestic partners have the same rights as married couples in matters such as community property and responsibility for debts. It also prohibits discrimination against domestic partners.

The House approved the override by a 28-14 on Sunday, while the Senate approved the measure a day earlier.

This week, lawmakers in Nevada voted to accept $35 million in federal stimulus funds for education. The money will go to K-12 schools that have a high percentage of students from low-income families.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, a DLCC board member, stressed the importance of making wise decisions with the new funds in talks with school officials:

If these dollars don't get used right, it's a huge missed opportunity for our children. I recognize the pressure that you all are under to meet your budget cuts. I would hope that pressure wouldn't cause you to keep these dollars, and use them in a way that wouldn't be in the best possible way for those schools.

The legislature has asked to receive updates on how the money will be used and regular reports on improved student performance.

In Nevada, Democratic victories in November have helped to swing the balance of away from the GOP in the state. Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons has specifically seen his power wane.

Instead, the Las Vegas Sun reports:

[T]he real action will involve a troika of Democrats who are not only the future of the party in Nevada, but also occasional rivals whose various aspirations will make it difficult at times for them to pull together. For that reason, they bear close watching after the Legislature opens on Feb. 2.

As one of these leaders, Sen. Steven Horsford, who heads the upper chamber and serves as a board member at the DLCC, is focused on advancing a Democratic agenda in the state.

He and other Democrats are all committed to solving the budget crisis in Nevada without cutting essential services at a time when citizens of the state need them the most.