Doesn't anyone else think it's time the public found out who funded the coalition of groups suing the Legislature over its redistricting maps? Who paid plaintiff attorney David King?God knows, it wasn't the League of Women Voters of Florida. The Capitol Press Corps had more money in its scholarship fund during 2012 and than the League had. Check out the LWV's tax returns in the attachment below.
So, how does a group with such a tiny budget wrangle a team of high-priced, Gucci-shoed lawyers, arguing every one of the redistricting lawsuits in court?
The people of Florida deserve to know. District lines are in effect for 10 years, until another census is performed. As Matt Dixon reported in Politico Florida Oct. 9, after Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled: "Lewis' order means it’s increasingly likely the congressional lines that will be in place for the 2016 election will be drawn by unelected plaintiffs and the outside consultants they hired (The emphasis is mine)."
Meanwhile, attorney King -- partner in the Orlando firm King, Blackwell, Zehnder & Wermuth PA -- sits atop, and benefits from, a shady, well financed litigation juggernaut that's taken in $4 million in the last two years. Yet, he plays the victim card. Politico quotes him as saying, “These folks have unlimited funding and ability to fight us until the cows come in.”
The "folks" he speaks of are the duly elected legislators defending against litigation he initiated and is being paid millions to direct.
The plaintiffs' maps Judge Lewis recommended were drawn by John O’Neill, an analyst hired through Strategic Telemetry, a Washington-based Democratic consulting firm. O’Neill testified during the trial that he drew the maps in Los Angeles and was not in contact with any Democratic operatives. The judge apparently had no problem with that.
Nevertheless, I ask this: If the Legislature's Republican political consultants "made a mockery" of the redistricting process, tainting it with "partisan intent," as Judge Lewis wrote in July, then who or what is now influencing the political tailoring of Florida's voting districts for the next decade? Who hired O'Neill? What were his instructions?
And why are the plaintiffs' maps any less tainted than any one of the maps produced by the House, Senate or Sen. Bill Galvano and submitted to Judge Lewis?
Someone is footing the bill. Is it the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee? Some other shadowy group?
Much of the money behind the recommended plaintiffs' maps came from a soft-money haven called the National Democratic Redistricting Trust.
Once again it was Politico who told us why the Trust was established and how it works.
"To help combat any GOP redistricting gains," the story explained, "the National Democratic Redistricting Trust was created to fund 'pre-litigation and litigation costs that arise following the next legislative redistricting process,' including Voting Rights Act challenges to contested districts."
California Congressman Mike Thompson spearheaded the effort on behalf of House Democrats in 2011, telling his Democratic colleagues "the goal was to raise at least $12.5 million in soft money, funds that would be funneled -- with the donors remaining anonymous -- to an organization called the National Democratic Redistricting Trust."
The Republicans then followed the Democrats' lead. And before you know it, party leaders were cutting six- and seven-figure checks to the Democratic and GOP redistricting programs.
There's nothing fair or righteous about this hijacked process, though you'd never know it, listening to the media's superlatives swirling around the plaintiffs' maps.
The National Democratic Redistricting Trust is the group apparently funding much of the lawsuit for the Democrats under the shady veneer of “white hat” groups like the LWV. Have a look at the Open Secrets listing of Trust donations for 2012 in particular. Note the $10,000 donations from the Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutch campaigns. And the American Association for Justice, aka trial lawyers, are in for $100,000.
In 2013, money funneled through the Trust exceeded $500,000 just in union money:
- Carpenters Union -- $250,000
- Engineers Political Education Committee -- $100,000
- American Postal Workers -- $75,000
- Machinists -- $70,000
- (International) Painters and Allied Trades -- $25,000
Are there individual major donors besides these? Who are they and how many? As previously stated, they don't have to disclose -- and aren't. But you know the legal bill has to be in the millions of dollars.
Most of the media have made their minds up: David King and his team saved the day. Legislature's maps, drawn by surrogates, bad and tainted; Democratic maps, drawn by surrogates, so good they preserve democracy.
Tom O'Hara, former Palm Beach Post managing editor, regales the whole plotted, Democratic redistricting-map story. Even lipsticking it up as O'Hara tries, for me it's still a study in hypocrisy in the latest edition of the commentary website, Context Florida.
In his headline he calls it "an inspiring tale."
O'Hara said he sat in on "two attorneys who have been at the heart of the redistricting fight tell a riveting tale that has a happy ending."
Happy ending if you're a Democrat, I guess.
O'Hara describes the subjects in his story and their accomplishment: "Dan Gelber, a prominent Florida Democrat, and Ellen Freidin, the woman who is primarily responsible for the state constitutional amendments that guarantee fair districts, told a story about how determined citizens can overcome brute political power."
Read his commentary. It's an escorted victory lap for the plaintiffs. From the Democrats' creation of Fair Districts Florida more than three years ago to legal fight over congressional maps.
"Both attorneys credited the media for aggressively covering the wrongdoing," wrote O'Hara. "The result, Gelber said, 'is that shame was reborn in Tallahassee.'"
But how much better it would have spoken for Florida journalism had there been as much attention given to the Democrats' deliberate efforts, including shadowy money paid, to gerrymandering voting districts for themselves.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
