The Flip Side: Twist and Shout
Legislators twisting the rules, and people shouting for change.


Gerrymandering proposals from Democrats. GOP power grabs. Cuts to voter-approved policies. Across the map, state legislators are circumventing democratic norms — but people are organizing and protesting in response. Get caught up with the latest Flip Side:
Win: New Jersey activists stop partisan gerrymandering in its tracks; Governor Phil Murphy calls for easier voting
And this time it was Democratic legislators leading the charge for unfair district lines. Their proposal called for overhauling the makeup of a redistricting committee to give more power to legislative leaders, which would have given Democrats a permanent majority in the legislature.
An analysis by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project estimated that the proposed electoral maps would allow Democrats to capture 70% of legislative seats with just 57% of the vote. But, faced with strong opposition (more than 100 activists and academics testified against the amendment), New Jersey legislators canceled the vote on the controversial redistricting plan.
Also in the Garden State, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy announced his plan to push in-person early voting, same-day voter registration, and online voter registration in the Democrat-led legislature’s 2019 session. These policies would expand on the state’s automatic voter registration, which passed last April.
…but on the flip side, GOP legislators in Michigan and Wisconsin churned out undemocratic bills in lame-duck* sessions
In Wisconsin, it’s bills that strip power from incoming Governor Tony Evers (a Democrat) and Attorney General Josh Kaul (also a Democrat). Unlike outgoing GOP Governor Scott Walker, Gov.-elect Evers will not be able to re-nominate officials without the legislature’s approval, which is majority Republican. And Attorney General-elect Kaul won’t be able to withdraw Wisconsin from a multi-state lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act — a promise made by top Democrats on the campaign trail.
In Michigan, it’s more of the same. The GOP’s supermajority in the state legislature approved bills limiting the power of the incoming attorney general, governor, and secretary of state — all of whom are Democrats. (And it’s the first time since 1990 that all three of these posts have been held by Democrats.)

Michigan legislators also used their lame-duck session to pass harmful environmental policy and water down potentially progressive workers’ rights legislation. Going against voter-approved measures, the GOP exempted businesses with fewer than 50 employees from providing paid sick leave and pushed back the planned minimum wage hike of $12 by 2022 to the year 2030.
Win: Three moderate Republicans in the Kansas state legislature flip their seats by switching to the Democratic party
Following state Senator Barbara Bollier, who left the Kansas GOP earlier in December, Senator. Dinah Sykes and Representative. Stephanie Clayton announced that they will also be joining the Democratic party, after running — and winning — as Republicans in the midterms. Plot twist!
“My Republican Party, then, seems to no longer represent or serve the interests of the 19th District, Johnson County, or the State of Kansas,” Representative Clayton said.

…but on the flip side, it’s business as usual for North Carolina’s GOP legislators
In an effort to keep the state’s gerrymandered maps intact, the North Carolina GOP is stalling a hearing with the state Supreme court — which has a 5–2 progressive majority after the recent election of Anita Earls, a civil rights attorney. To do so, lawyers for the General Assembly are trying to take the case back to federal court, which has no authority to hear the case.
North Carolina’s GOP legislators want to prevent the implementation of new maps before 2020. The current maps were redrawn in 2016 and 2017 after the Supreme Court ruled that both the congressional and legislative maps were unconstitutional as a result of racial gerrymandering.
(And you should see this video from Anita Earls’s campaign for the North Carolina Supreme Court if you haven’t already.)

Last but not least: a “Christmas Crisis” unfolds around Kentucky’s pension program
Kentucky Republican lawmakers’ efforts to cut pension benefits for public employees and retirees began with an amendment to a bill about sewer system regulations, which passed in March. The “Sewer Bill” was thrown out in a unanimous decision by the Kentucky Supreme Court on December 13th, on the basis of a constitutional provision that says lawmakers and the public need sufficient time to read and consider a law before it's passed.
Just four days later, Republican Governor Mike Bevin called for another legislative session (with four hours’ notice), and the GOP-controlled legislature set two new pension bills in motion.
“Despite the hysteria [Governor] Bevin has been trying to whip up around the pension issue, this is not an emergency that demands a quick fix but a complex set of problems that need thoughtful solutions.” — Marcus Dorsey, The Lexington Herald
With the pensions of 365,000 teachers, police officers, firefighters, government employees and retirees on the line, protestors showed up at the state capitol to sing modified Christmas carols that criticized lawmakers’ latest legislative stunt.
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*Lame-duck sessions refer to legislative sessions held between November, when elections take place, and January, when newly elected legislators take office. Right now, these sessions are of particular interest to Republicans in Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina because it’s their last opportunity to push through conservative policies as they please — via their “supermajorities” (just what it sounds like) in the state legislature — before newly-elected Democrats join and lessen the GOP’s voting margins.