The Department of Justice gave its approval Monday to Florida's new congressional map, while a circuit court rejected Democrats' injunction request — a double whammy for Democrats who argue the new map unfairly favors Republicans.
The Obama administration's pre-clearance was required under the Voting Rights Act, which requires that states with a history of racial discrimination have their maps approved to ensure that minorities are not denied proper representation.
"The Attorney General does not interpose any objection to the specific changes" to the maps, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez wrote Monday in a letter to members of Florida's state government.
Democrats are expected to gain a few seats under the new map, which includes two new districts created after the 2010 U.S. Census as a result of rapid population growth in Florida.
But Republicans will likely maintain the upper hand. Nineteen of the 27 members of the congressional delegation are Republicans in Florida, a state that had 600,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in 2010.
Reps. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) and Mark Critz (D-Pa.) fought to win over Democratic diehards while maintaining their centrist credentials in a Monday night debate, showing the tough position the two are in: running in a hotly-contested Democratic primary in a GOP-leaning district.
Critz slammed Altmire for voting to repeal Democrats' health insurance reform law, and while he's said he would also have voted against it, nevertheless came close to praising its reforms during the debate.
"The system we had was not working. Is the healthcare bill the answer? Does it solve all the issues? Well, no. It needs a lot of work," he said before adding he had "voted every time to support the bill in its current form and worked to improve it."
He also attacked Altmire for voting for the GOP-backed Balanced Budget Amendment.
Altmire hit Critz for voting to defund Planned Parenthood, although he touted his anti-abortion-rights beliefs in arguing to defend the organization. "I am pro-life, but I have voted at every opportunity to provide funding for Planned Parenthood,” he said. "My position is funding for Planned Parenthood helps prevent abortions."
During redistricting, Republicans threw the two men together into one slightly Republican district outside of Pittsburgh that is heavy with blue-collar voters. Both have sought in the primary to highlight votes in line with the district's Democratic base, although their own centrist voting records have constrained them.
Critz has the backing of most of the district's unions, an important ally in the area, while Altmire has a major geographic edge, as many more of his current constituents live in the new district.
They will face off in an April 24 primary, with the winner likely to face Republican attorney Keith Rothfus, whom Altmire narrowly defeated in 2010.
Rep. Tim Holden (D-Pa.) is out with a new ad slamming his primary opponent for donating to corrupt judges.
"Lawyer Matt Cartwright and his firm contributed thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Luzerne County judges who were convicted in the 'Kids for Cash' scandal — judges who took millions in bribes to send juvenile offenders to private jails,” says the ad's narrator.
Holden, a longtime centrist congressman who voted against Democrats' health insurance reform law, is locked in a tough primary against Cartwright, who has run to his left. Cartwright has already been on the air attacking him.
The two will face off in the state's April 24 primary.
The Campaign for Primary Accountability, a super-PAC solely dedicated to defeating longtime incumbents of both parties, will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars against Reps. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and Tim Holden (D-Pa.).
Both are facing tough primary challenges from candidates running as ideological purists: Murphy is facing Tea Party candidate Evan Feinberg while Holden, a centrist Blue Dog Democrat, is facing Matt Cartwright (D), who is running as the more liberal candidate in a revamped district that has been made considerably more liberal.
The group plans to spend approximately $200,000 on each race, about what they've spent on past races against Reps. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) and Don Manzullo (R-Illinois), who lost, and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who won. The group also spent more than $300,000 combined trying to take out Alabama Republican Reps. Spencer Bachus and Jo Bonner, both of whom won their primaries.
While the Manzullo and Kaptur primaries were races against other incumbents, a group spokesman said it would not get involved in the member-on-member race between Reps. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) and Mark Critz (D-Pa.), or any other primaries in Pennsylvania.
"Our general criteria which have some bearing on this are the length of incumbency," said group spokesman Curtis Ellis. "The voting record only figures in as far as our polling... The key determinant in all of our races is if people are happy with their representative we don't engage, I don't care if they've been there for 50 years."
The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO endorsed Rep. Mark Critz (D-Pa.) over Rep.
Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) Monday, making them the latest union to throw
their support to Critz and showing how deeply unhappy organized labor is
with Altmire.
The endorsement comes after the AFL-CIO's three
local branches endorsed Critz. He also has locked up support from the
AFSCME, the Teamsters, United Mine Workers, United Steelworkers and the
Service Employees International Union.
"We're proud to endorse
Congressman Critz in the 12th Congressional
District," said Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Richard Bloomingdale.
"He's the best candidate to represent the over 100,000 union
members in [the district] who are looking for someone to fight for jobs
and an
economy that works for everyone."
Altmire infuriated unions in 2010 when he voted against Democrats'
health insurance overhaul law after reportedly telling them he'd back
it. Critz wasn't in office at the time and said he would have opposed
the law, but hasn't taken heat from unions because he's been consistent
on the issue.
Critz's campaign also released a poll Monday showing him trailing
Altmire by seven points 45 percent to 38 percent. That's closer than the
10-point lead Altmire had in Critz's last internal poll, released one
month ago. Altmire's campaign recently touted an internal poll that had
him with a
24-point lead.
Altmire started off with the advantage in the member-on-member
primary, which was created when Republicans eliminated Critz's district
and threw the two together in one slightly Republican-leaning district.
Altmire has represented about two thirds of the new district, while
Critz has only represented about a quarter of it.
But unions remain very powerful in western Pennsylvania, especially
in Democratic politics. If Critz can catch up to Altmire, the unions
could make a big difference in turnout in the race — and the AFL-CIO
promised that with their endorsement will come a get-out-the-vote
campaign on Critz's behalf.
Rep. Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), who was drawn into a much tougher district by a GOP gerrymander, is circulating a poll conducted for his campaign that shows him leading his opponents by double digits.
While the district now leans strongly Republican, Kissell holds a 10-point lead over GOP front-runner Richard Hudson, 46 percent to 36
percent.
The poll is good news for Kissell, but he's a top Republican target and is in for a tough race. That he's touting a poll showing him under 50 percent shows how vulnerable he is.
Kissell was one of North Carolina Republicans' chief targets in redistricting: his district went from one that would lean 2 percentage points Republican in the average election to one that would leans 12 points towards the GOP, a huge swing. The poll shows that 43 percent of voters would be more likely to vote for an unnamed Republican candidate, while 36 percent would be more likely to vote for an unnamed Democrat, showing Kissell's name helps him in the area.
He's only represented a bit more than half of the new district — something the poll memo argues is a positive, saying he has more room to grow there as he introduces himself to new voters.
The poll of 500 likely voters was conducted March 15 through March 20 for the Kissell campaign by Democratic pollster Anzalone Liszt Research, and has a margin of error of 4.4 percent.
A panel of federal judges put in place a court-drawn map for New York's congressional districts on Monday, blasting state lawmakers as derelicts who have failed to fulfill their obligations.
New York lost two congressional districts after the 2010 census due to slow population growth, forcing the legislature to redraw the maps and eliminate two seats. But the Democratic-controlled state Assembly and GOP-controlled state Senate deadlocked for months, unable to agree on a proposal for where the new lines should sit.
A federal court intervened in early March, urging lawmakers to break through their gridlock while developing a contingency plan of its own. With a June 26 primary rapidly approaching, a panel of three federal judges decided it had waited long enough, and on Monday adopted its own map.
"In prior redistricting challenges, New York has avoided such a wholesale transfer of state legislative power to the federal courts through last-minute enactments of new redistricting plans," the judges wrote in their decision. "In this case, however, New York has been willing to let even the last minute pass and to abdicate the whole of its redistricting power to a reluctant federal court."
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