Get Ready For The Redistricting Wars

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

The Battle Begins

The Census Bureau will release its redistricting data today, kicking off the inevitable fight over partisan gerrymandering ahead of the 2022 elections.

• States will draw and formally set their district maps at different paces (and you better believe that there’ll be legal battles galore), so we won’t know the new overall partisan makeup of the country’s districts for a while.
• What we do know is that most of the states that gained House seats in this decade’s reapportionment process were in the south and west. Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon each gained one new seat while Texas won two.
• We also know that California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia each lost a seat.

Texas Democrats Under Arrest

The Texas House sergeant-at-arms on Wednesday delivered civil arrest warrants to the legislative offices of the 52 Democrats who ran from the state to stall Republicans’ anti-voting legislation. House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) had signed the warrants the day before.

House sergeant at arms just delivered a warrant for Ina Minjarez at her Capitol office. They’re walking around to the offices of all 52 House Dems with warrants delivering them now. #txlege pic.twitter.com/cYtF6CDO60

— Morgan O'Hanlon (@mcohanlon) August 11, 2021

This is them serving that arrest warrant at Houston @RepThierry146’s office at the Capitol. @KHOU pic.twitter.com/plabRDxxHR

— Janelle Bludau (@JanelleKHOU) August 11, 2021

TODAY: The House Sergeant-at-Arms is delivering the civil arrest warrants to the offices of House Democrats still breaking quorum. This is when he walked into Rep. @Senfronia4Texas’ office. She wasn’t there, but one of her staffers was. @KXAN_News #txlege pic.twitter.com/tmXJmDO0BZ

— Maggie Glynn (@maggie_glynn1) August 11, 2021

A Subtle Insurrection

This Washington Post story gets into how an onslaught of threats sparked by Trump’s lies about the election has election workers scared for their safety, and many are thinking about quitting before 2024.

Scoundrels Of The Day

• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), one of the most outspoken Republicans against COVID-19 mitigation efforts, belatedly disclosed on Wednesday that his wife bought stock in Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company that makes an antiviral drug that treats COVID-19, early in the pandemic in February last year.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) patted himself on the back for his borderline fanatical attacks on school mask mandates even as his state holds the highest child hospitalization rates in the country.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL): "People are gonna look back and they say, 'You know what, Florida stood by its kids.'"

(Florida currently has the highest rate of children hospitalized with COVID in the U.S.) pic.twitter.com/Jntq3uUr3z

— The Recount (@therecount) August 11, 2021

A New Page?

New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who’s gearing up to take the reins once accused sexual harasser Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) leaves office in less than two weeks, promises that “no one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment” and that she would get rid of any “unethical” Cuomo staffers.

“At the end of my term, whenever it ends, no one will ever describe my administration as a ‘toxic’ work environment,” New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul says regarding AG report against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. https://t.co/070yJ4GKze pic.twitter.com/PNhfxC9d1X

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 11, 2021

By the way, Times Union editor Casey Seiler in Albany notes that there’s a dam ready to break now that the governor’s on his way out:

Do you people have any idea how many stories about @NYGovCuomo are going to come out once he loses the vast retaliatory powers of the Executive Chamber?

— Casey Seiler (@CaseySeiler) August 11, 2021

Kissing Trump’s Ring

More than 45 candidates have crawled to Trump’s properties in the months after he left office, according to analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group.

Must-Read

“The Insurrectionists in the Boardroom” – Insider

Trump Ghoul Rehabilitation Watch

Ex-Human Health and Services secretary Alex Azar has been given a plum adjunct professor gig at the University of Miami.

• Former Rep. Donna Shalala (D-FL), who was the president of UM and currently works as a professor there, praised Azar’s hiring and said she was “​​very much looking forward to having him join me in the classroom.” No comment.

Rudy Straight-Up Admits He’s A Liar

During a 2018 interview, Rudy Giuliani told investigators from the Justice Department inspector general’s office that it’s normal to lie in electoral politics, saying twice that “you could throw a fake.” The interview was part of the inspector general’s investigation into whether Giuliani had been getting leaks from the FBI on James Comey’s Clinton email probe.

• But Giuliani got a little too honest with investigators at some points during the interview; he told them that the last time he remembered talking to an FBI agent was when he received some kind of an “agent” award, “which my wife liked because it came with handcuffs” (“Strike that from the record,” the investigator responded, according to the transcript).

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