Reapportionment

The conservative American Future Fund group is questioning Sen. Charles Schumer's (D-N.Y.) decision to back former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) for secretary of Defense.

The group, which launched a media campaign earlier in the week, released a new ad Friday focusing on Schumer's decision to back Hagel. 

On Tuesday, after meeting privately with Hagel a day earlier, Schumer said he supported Hagel for secretary of Defense. Schumer had previously refrained from saying whether he would support or oppose Hagel's nomination.

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Reps. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) and Mark Critz (D-Pa.) are up with dueling ads in their House primary battle.

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A Texas court has ordered the state's primaries to be moved from April 25 to May 29, making it less likely its Republican presidential contest will impact who the GOP nominee is.

This is the second time Texas has had to move its primaries back: It was initially slotted for March 6, Super Tuesday, and would have played a major role in the Republican nomination process.

Both moves were forced because of repeated delays in the redistricting process and complicated candidate filings for local and congressional races — filing isn't allowed in districts with borders still in flux.

The date change comes on the heels of a drawn-out battle over redistricting that has yet to conclude, though the court has put out an interim map that is likely to be used this election.

Neither party got what they wanted out of the maps, which endanger one GOP lawmaker and one Dem lawmaker

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Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) confirmed Saturday he wil move from Flagstaff to Prescott to stand for re-election in Arizona's new fourth Congressional District, according to a report from Prescottenews.com.

By moving Gosar avoids a tough rematch with former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D), who he defeated in 2010. According to the Arizona Capitol Times the new fourth district is overwhelmingly Republican.

However, Gosar will likely face a tough three-way primary battle against Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and state Sen. Ron Gould, who is expected to enter the race next week.

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Ohio Democrats plan to take advantage of the Black Friday rush by shopping for anti-gerrymandering signatures.

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A new proposal by the governor of Pennsylvania that would dramatically change how the state awards its Electoral College votes could have a major impact on the 2012 election — and President Obama's reelection chances.

Gov. Tom Corbett and state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, both Republicans, are trying to gather a support for a plan that would award electoral votes based on which candidate wins each of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts, with the final two votes going to the contender with the most votes statewide.

The plan would be similar to the configurations in Nebraska and Maine, which divide their votes rather than adopting the "winner-take-all" system in place in the remaining states plus the District of Columbia. But while Nebraska and Maine have a relatively small impact on the race, due to their size, Pennsylvania's adoption of the system would have a dramatic effect on the presidential process.

Under the expected redistricting of Pennsylvania, Democrats would have six safe seats, versus 12 for the GOP. This means that even if President Obama were to win the state overall, he would likely net just eight electoral votes — while the Republican candidate would win 12. In 2008, Obama won the state's entire slate of 21 votes (Pennsylvania lost an elector after the 2010 census), meaning that if the plan was adopted, he could lose 13 electoral votes without the statewide results changing in any way. Those 13 votes are equivalent to the entire state of Virginia's apportionment for the 2012 election.

State Democrats have blasted the idea, arguing that it would erode Pennsylvania's influence in the presidential election. State Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the plan was "a disturbing effort to put their self-interests and party interests ahead of the people."

"Will we now be looking at state gerrymandering that serves a larger, national agenda?" Costa said.

But Democrats might not be able to prevent the measure; Republicans control both chambers of the State Legislature, along with the governor's mansion. Still, it is unclear whether Republicans will be able to gain enough support to push the measure through.

As redistricting lines are drawn, four sets of Congress members could end up battling each other in freshly combined districts.

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Georgia Democrats are crying foul over what they perceive as a Republican takeover of the redistricting process.

State GOP lawmakers on Thursday shifted responsibility for the details of redistricting from the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government, which is nonpartisan, to a Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office that will be advised by a Republican lawyer.

Anne W. Lewis, a partner in the firm Strickland Brockington Lewis, will advise the legislative office, according to The Associated Press. Lewis currently serves as general counsel to the Georgia Republican Party.

Democrats from both chambers of the state legislature questioned the move.

"That they did not include Democrats in this decision raises some serious questions about transparency and accountability," state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams (D) told the AP.

Georgia Senate Democratic Leader Robert Brown scoffed at the notion of a nonpartisan office advised by a GOP lawyer.

"It's obviously not nonpartisan," said Brown. "I don't know what this is. I've heard rumor after rumor about redistricting. We're not a part of this process."

Georgia gained a House seat from reapportionment resulting from the 2010 Census.

An inexperienced crop of public officials are managing the intricate congressional redistricting process, which could open the door to more court challenges. 

The Census Bureau has already released the reapportionment numbers for House seats and states are beginning the process of redrawing their congressional boundaries.

But the majority of officials tasked with making those calls are new to the process, according to Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a bipartisan firm that specializes in Census data and redistricting for state and local governments. 

Brace noted that only half the participants at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ redistricting seminar over the weekend at National Harbor, Md. had been through the process before.

"In a lot of states, you have a lot of newbies who are managing the process," Brace said at a redistricting briefing Tuesday. "You'll have people having to learn the hard way.

"They're so new they may not realize how far behind they are."

A scramble to complete the process ahead of the 2012 elections could result in congressional districts hastily drawn to favor one party or another, which inevitably leads to court challenges.

Only a handful of states actually have permanent redistricting committees. "The state of Texas has probably the most elaborate process that there is," said Brace. "They keep their operation in place."

New York also maintains some form of a standing redistricting commission, he said. "That is not the case in the vast majority of states."

Mark Braden, a Washington attorney who specializes in redistricting litigation, said that brutal court battles of the past have pushed many experienced officials out of the process.

"It's the damn lawyers," he said. Those who left, "were sick of the process."