Friday, January 6, 2012
Democrats Take Their Lumps in New Redistricting Plans
Posted by Jackson Baker on Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 4:01 PM
Even as the Shelby County Commission heads into Chancellor Arnold Goldin’s court to resolve its redistricting issues, the final shoe has dropped from the point of view of state redistricting responsibilities.
On Friday afternoon, Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey, Speaker of the Senate, released the details of statewide congressional redistricting agreed upon by himself and House Speaker Beth Harwell. Added to their redistricting maps for the state Senate and state House, that puts a full meal on the plate of the legislature, which convenes next week and is expected to approve the arrangements, with possible minor adjustments.
CONGRESSIONAL: From Shelby County’s point of view, there’s a whole new look: The 9th Congressional district, currently served by Democrat Steve Cohen, is still contained wholly within the county’s boundaries but now occupies the entire western two-thirds of the county, from north to south, leaving the eastern third to the 8th congressional District, now held by Republican Stephen Fincher of Frog Jump in Crockett County.
Fincher's 8th District would now extend from the Tipton County line to the Mississippi state line, taking in Shelby County's eastern suburbs. The 7th District, now represented by Republican Marsha Blackburn, formerly reached into those suburbs and even into Memphis itself and has seen its western border advanced all the way over to Hardeman County, with Fayette County also absorbed into the 8th District.
The upshot of all this is that the 9th District remains solidly Democratic, with the same 60 percent African-American majority as before.. The 8th District, meanwhile, becomes so much more a Shelby County affair than before that it may encourage local Republicans to make challenges with real hopes of success.
STATE SENATE: Because its population growth has lagged behind that of other parts of the state, notably Middle Tennessee, Shelby County will see a loss of one of its current six state Senate seats.
In essence, five of the existing districts have been rearranged, while the number of one — District 33 — formerly thar od a Whitehaven/South Memphis district held by Democrat Reginald Tate, has been shifted all the way into middle Tennessee to become a new district there. Tate’s district — or the one where he resides — is now District 31. Presumably the newly numvereed district, substantially the same in its demographic and geographic character, remains Tate's bailiwick without further complication -- though it should be noted that there is confusion on the score in some quarters.
The area of the former District 31 finds itself now, for the most part, within District 28, which contains that remnant of the former District 28 wherein resides incumbent Democrat Jim Kyle&. Kyle thus finds himself matched this year in a hypothetical race against current District 31 incumbent Brian Kelsey, a Republican, who is at mid-term of his four-year term but volunteered to run again in the newly re-numbered district.
District 29, now held by Democrat Ophelia Ford, now stretches from the Tipton County line to the Mississippi state line, while District 30, represented at present by Midtown Democrat Beverly Marrero, though more of an African-American district than before, is still predominantly Democratic. District 32, currently held by Republican Majority Leader Mark Norris, would now stretch from the eastern and northeastern parts of Shelby County upward to include all of Tipton County.
Given the predominance of Republicans in the new District 28, the likelihood is that the loss of one Senator from Shelby County could equate to the loss of a Democratic Senator. At the very least, Senate Democratic leader Kyle will find himself hard pressed.
STATE HOUSE: The number of state representatives apportioned to Shelby County has shrunk from 17 to 15, and the shrinkage has resulted in the combination of four serving Democrats into two newly configured districts. Reps. Antonio Parkinson and Jeanne Richardson, both Democrats, are paired in one, and Reps. Barbara Cooper and G.A. Hardaway, also Democrats, are paired in another.
Net loss to Shelby County: two seats and two Democrats.
ANANLYSIS AND FURTHER DETAILS TO COME. (Note: some modifications have been made in this analysis since it first appeared.
Comments (23)
Showing 1-23 of 23
The Democratic Party in Memphis and Shelby County is suffering because of Democratic office holders endorsing Republicans in local elections.
This is what happens when Democrats give campaign contributions to Republicans. AC Wharton endorses Republicans all the time. Steve Cohen attended a Republican political fundraiser for a U.S Senate candidate.
Democrats are losing political ground to the actions like mentioned above. Democrats need to step it up. Wharton and Cohen are hurting Democrats.
like
dislike
Actually, I'm pretty sure the African-American vote in the 9th District has been steady at 61% since Cohen first ran in 2006. It may have been lower in 2000, but by 2006, it was up to 61%.
Commenter FD is probably correct, and the analysis here has been amended accordingly.
You need a correction for Ophelia's district. It goes from Tipton County to Mississippi.
This is the same thing that I posted about the Shelby County Commission redistricting plans. As you see, the republicans, in Nashville, are not giving democrats any slack, so, why should Shelby Countians give republicans any slack?
The one consolation I have, living in Memphis, with the demographics here, there is not much the state can do with Memphis.
Tipton it is. Thanks. ('s what happens when you're rushing to catch a plane.)
Just finished watching the republican debate on MSNBC, Meet the Press. Pretty good debate for GOP, however, I can't see any of them becoming president.
They never did answer the questions that was asked of them nor did they explain any of the reasons that they disagree with Barack Obama, and, most importantly, how they would do things differently.
The main reason that none of them will be president is the fact that they are out of the mainstream of the average american. They all call President Obama a socialist. Don't they realize that 53% of the american people voted for Obama in 2008? Don't they realize that , as of today, the aggregate of all of the polls puts his approval rating at 46%? Are they saying that 46% of the american electorate is socialist? You don't win national elections by calling over 40% of the electorate socialists and other vile names. It turns independent voters off.
The demographics and population location trends have backed the GOP in a corner when it comes to redistricting. Redistricting works to their advantage in mostly rural, sparsely populated areas, however, it has little effect on the urban centers of population. The GOP has reached it's brick wall when it come to reapportionment.
Shelby County is a great example. Because of the demographics of the county, particularly Memphis, there is just not much you can politically and/or legally do to gerrymander. Demographis makes all of the difference when talking about national elections. How can a GOP candidate expect to win, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, California with 70% of voters voting democratic> How can they win Va, Pa, Nc, and yes, perhaps fl, when there is a record turnout of african americans, with 95% of those votes going to the democrats?
This is why, when you take sentiment out of it, and look at the cold hard facts, this is the last hurrah for the GOP.
In my earlier post, when referring to the southwestern states, I meant 70% of hispanic voters. Even with saying this, you can't accuse the president of being soft on illegal immigration. It is an undisputed fact that he has deported more illegals than any other president.
His healthcare law, as it kicks in, more and more people that are included like it. There are no death panels. Right now, with your private insurance, before you can have any procedure done, by your physician, the private insurance company has to approve it. Now that is a death panel. The individual mandate being unconstitutional. You are required to have automobile insurance, if you drive. That is an individual mandate. There are many other mandates, compulsory school attendance, compulsory social security, FICA, takes being taken out of your pay, etc. I don't hear the GOP complaining about that. It is a fact of life, that everyone, at one time or another, will need medical care.
Redistribution of wealth, taking from the rich and giving to someone else. Sounds good, however, it is a falsehood. It is precisely the taxes that we pay that helped the rich get rich. FED EX, Fred Smith, didn't build the airports and runways that made his company possible. He did't build the access roads, bridges, etc that allowed him to get his goods to the airport. He didn't hire and train the air traffic controllers that make it possible for his planes to take off and land safely. No, that was money spent by every poor person in the area. If fred Smith had to do it, alone, there would be no FED EX or, for that matter, any large, median, or small business. So, it is only fitting that when the fruits of the taxpayers is used to make one rich, that person should contribute more to the general fund, welfare of the people that made it possible.
The president should ban abortion, defend the marriage rights to say that a marriage should only be between a woman and a man. Again, sounds good, however, the issue of marriage is covered by the 10th amendment, it is soley a states issue. The president has no federal role in the marriage laws of the several states. Abortion, well, under the law, fetus is not considered a living person. Whether to abort or not is also not a function of the presidency. As the supreme court has so ruled, that is a constitutional right of privacy.
Don't you conservatives know that the american people, as a whole, are not going to accept the lies told about this president? Instead of lying about him, the GOP would be better served by telling me their plan for curing the economy.
But telling me to cut taxes for the rich will cure the economy is another falsehood. That has been tried for over ten years and it hasn't worked.
I have followed this bizarre "oldtimeplayer" nonsense for a while.
"Oldtimeplayer" you have single handedly destroyed the online version of the free weekly of Memphis, TN and Shelby County.
I have also learned that you trolled the onlne version of The Commercial Appeal but haven't the means by which to afford to do so no that they have a paywall.
Here is what you used to do over on the online version of the Commercial Appeal...
http://www.commercialappeal.com/users/olld…
Darn shame you had to bring your trolling here, but then again you haven't the fiscal means by which to pay for your own town's newspaper and so you had to come on over to the free weekly.
I do not care about what happens to my little free account here because I am having nothing more to do with the online version of The Memphis Flyer because of what is being allowed here with "oldtimeplayer". The worse that can happen is that my IP will be blocked but I do not care because I have no interest in coming to this site again at all and will be blocking it form my browser.
Here is a sampling of what "oldtimeplayer"does....
http://www.commercialappeal.com/users/olld…
That is what I thought. Generalizations is all you got. What was those 22k suspensions? In memphis schools, you will get a suspension if caught with a cell phone, if you are late and your parent don' come in. There are a multitude pf trivial, very minor that you can get suspended for, while, at the county schools, a lot of these type things are overlooked. So, just using generalizations without digging into the offenses that caused the suspensions is not fair, it is downright misleading. A lot of those suspensions are one day suspensions, not fro school, but when a student is late and the parent doesn't come with the student, at the end of the school day, the student is given an over-night suspension, so that their parents can come in the next day. That situation doesn't seem to me to be a serious discipline problem. If a student wears the wrong color shirt, shoes, etc, that is a one day, overnight, no class time is missed, suspension.
Esau, that just goes to show your racist, bigoted feelings about black people, kids. If you do your research, you can get a breakdown on what the suspensions were for. I have done so, that is why I know that what you and others spout is a bunch of racist crap.
As far as every county school having AP classes, this is true, but misleading. Your AP classes have a limited amount of seats available each year. So you go by the highest scores to fill those vacancies, whereas, in memphis, every child that meets the minimum qualifications can get into an optional program. They might not get the school that they want, but no qualified child that wants to go to optional programs are turned away.
You and others have constantly castigated our schools and, worse, denigrated our kids. That is what causes all of the acrimony. That is why a lot of parents are willing to fight, tooth and nail, to delay, to keep the muni's from getting their own school districts.
Like I say, eventually, you might get your own MSD's., but you won't get the property and schools; You will have to pay through the nose and the delay will be quite a while. I predict that none of the children in your schools now, from the fifth grade own will set foot in a municipal school building.
It is like Moses, a good man, but, even he, was not allowed to set foot in the promise land, nor was any of his generation.
Call me a fool, liar, racist or whatever, but you will have a fight on your hands. We will not give up nor in.
Part 2
Just 2 weeks ago, my son was 30 minutes late and I accompanied him to school and signed him in. There were about 10 other students, in the office, whose parents were not there, the children were allowed to go to class, however they were given over night suspensions, so that their parents could come in the next morning to sign them in. The paperwork was done, and by mcs rules, those paper become a part of the statistics. Multiply that by over 100 shcools and you can see where a lot of that 22% suspension rate came from. Any infraction, regardless how trivial, in mcs, must be reported to the board daily.
So, like I say, those statistics are mis-leading, just like the stuff that you and others spout.
...BYE! YOU GUYS CAN HAVE IT!
...NICE KNOWING YOU FOLKS!
Those posts, attributed to me is correct. You don't have to like or agree with them, however, I have the right to post them. They are also true. It is just a matter of how you interpret data.
To say that MCS had a 22% suspension rate, without breaking it down into offenses, is, on its face unfair.
I am totally against MSD's for the suburban cities; what am I supposed to say? Citizens of Memphis paid taxes to the SCS for years and still do. Money is fungible, you can't separate out what was specifically spent from where to build the suburban schools. Those schools were built for the express purpose of educating the kids of the SCS. They were not built for the exclusive use of the municipalities that they were built in. If the SCS wants to sell those schools to the municipalities, they should get the maximum amount possible. If the SCS does not want to sell them, they should not be compelled to do so. That is a fact.
Yes, it is an established fact that legal fights have always ensured when a municipality tries to break away from the parent school district. Yes, it takes anywhere from 4 to 10 years to finally settle it, one way or another. If, that being the case, the present kids attending junior and senior high will not see MSD's finally instituted.
It was not I that castigated the children of the MCS, it was suburban posters led by the likes of ESAU and others. When you talk about someones kids, expect them to be pissed off.
CA, for the love of God, please take that paywall down......
philbertwormly,
I certainly understand your frustration, but saying the on-line version of the Flyer has been destroyed is a bit strong don't you think? The person you complained of still posts of course but, for the most part, has been reduced to talking to himself, and is now generally ignored. Stick around, skip the posts you referred too, and enjoy the Flyer. Most of the folks on here seem to be intelligent and best of all they have a sense of humor, somewhat twisted at times, but still funny as hell.
Drift Boat
One of the things you have to know about OTP on the CA, when talking about the schools, is that he has been 100% wrong so far. First he said the courts would rule Norris-Todd unconstitutional. Didn't happen. Then he said that the proposed 25 member school board would take control of both systems immediately. Didn't happen.
Now he claims that Memphians paid for the county schools. What actually happened was that Shelby County issued bonds to build the schools, gave MCS two thirds of the money, and built the schools. Money flowed from SC outside Memphis to MCS. No money flowed from Memphis to SCS. Money may be fungible, but the tax rolls tell the tale.
OTP will be wrong about school disposition as well.
HellenicLad, this is the untruth that is told all of the time. Yes, bonds were issued to build the schools, but the bonds were issued by the Shelby County School Board and the county commissioners. The SCS is all of Shelby County, including Memphis. As a part of Shelby County, residents of Memphis were and are just as liable for repayment of the bonds as the suburban cities of Shelby County. Please look up the issuing authority that issued the bonds.
This is why the Shelby County Assessor list the ownership of the property and schools in the suburbs as The Shelby County Board of Education, not each individual municipality where the schools and property are located. This is why the ruling in the surrender case was so important. By saying that the old SCS Board was unconstitutional, as it stood, solidified that the old MCS was a part of SCS and had to have representation that included the city of Memphis. That is why, in victory, David Pickler, et al really lost. From that ruling, all property and schools belong to the Shelby County Schools, as it is instituted now and in the future, with apportioned representation for all, including the city of Memphis. Don't fault me, I didn't make the ruling.
The way I see it, as long as the SCS has use of these schools for the purpose in which they were built, to educate the children of Shelby County, Memphis included, the schools belong to all of the residents of Shelby County, including Memphis. It is just that simple.
As for the reader that say, just ignore me, that is fine, however, the demographics of the readers that read these posts are pretty well, even. So, there are other readers that read my posts. Instead of shunning them, you should want to read what your adversaries are saying, I certainly do.
I forgot to respond to the snide remark about the tax rolls tells the story. This is true, however, the tax rolls show that Memphians pay into the Shelby County School System and always have.
The money given to MCS was the portion of the money that MCS paid for schools that it got no use for. The money that you are talking about is the same as me, buying a car, and letting you drive it exclusively, as long as you paid for its use. I demand my car back; I don't owe you any money or the car, because, what you paid was for the use of the car, in which you received; You don't own the car.
The crux of the matter of who owns the suburban schools can be summed up simply. Why aren't the municipalities where said schools are located listed on the deed? My name is on the deed to my house, the same as yours. Why does the official government agency list the owner as the Shelby County School Board? Show me any proof that says the city of Germantown own any public school within it's boundaries? Likewise, Collierville, Arlington, Bartlett, Millington, etc? You can't, because there is none.
Even if you eventually get your own MSD's, you will technically, still own the suburban schools, as residents of Shelby County. The schools will still be there for their purpose, providing, you want to remain in the Shelby County School District. You see, MSD's don't have to exist, under the state constitution, but, county school districts have to, because it is they that have the ultimate responsibility to educate all of the children, residing in the county.
Why can't you and others take off your blinders and wants and see how plain and simple this equation is? The schools, in Memphis, belonged to the MCS, however, upon surrender of it's charter, the judge ruled that all property, schools and equipment be turned over to the SCS. He didn't say that the city of Memphis could keep their schools or had to be reimbursed for them. Now, do you see how silly your arguement is?
As far as Memphis being consulted and agreeing to build the suburban schools; that is because, until 2008, SCS was under a federal school desegregation order. No new schools could be built without the approval of the presiding judge in the desegregation case. Shelby County was finally released from the court order in 2009.
People, please do your research. Stop leading with your heart and use your head!
A Google Maps mashup with these maps sure would be nice. Come on TN legislature, catch up to 2012 please!
My reference to the tax rolls was simply to point out that prior to the surrender, 70% of county school funding went to MCS, but only 63% of that funding was collected in the City of Memphis.
Nevertheless, in the only case ever to go to court in Shelby County where an area withdrew from the existing district and formed its own district, the court ruled that the schools follow the children.
With history on my side I predict that every one of your predictions will be wrong. You're batting .000 right now, and I see no reason to think that your average will get any better.
I'd like to see the actual boundary lines of the Congressional districts, too. Want to know if I'm back in Steve's district or Frog Jump's.
OTP: Couldn't you pretend you're on Twitter, just for a little while?
So is Germantown going to be represented by Steve, or by Frog Jump?
GA HArdaway would be smart to move to District 93 and run against Mike Kernell. Kernell hasn't worked his district in years and is very vulnerable to a primary challenge.
http://www.comptroller1.state.tn.us/reposi…
This is a link to a map that might answer some of the questions about congressional district lines. It's a little hard to read, but if you can zoom in you should be able to figure it out.
Top Commenters
THIS WEEK'S ISSUE
SPECIAL ISSUES
