Gerrymandering & Reverse Gerrymandering - Time to get honest with ourselves.
"Melt Down Chat"
As I begin this journey with you - a little about myself. Prior to entering the political space, I worked in the corporate world. One of the companies I worked for was lululemon. I spent close to nine years immersed in a corporate culture like no other. In my opinion, yes, there are companies out there that demonstrate a level of corporate responsibility both to their customers, community, employees - something we need much more of.
Looking back at my time working for lululemon & ivivva (lululemon’s young girls line), the personal and professional growth I experienced surpassed all my expectations. Lululemon’s culture is centered around leadership development. Their values are grounded in community and connection. Honestly, this is one of the main reasons why lululemon surpassed expectations emerging from Covid compared to other similar companies. When other brands were struggling to make connections with their communities and customers to survive, lululemon’s business model was and is centered around community. They only needed to bolster those relationships.
Stay with me here…lululemon, emerged from the struggles of Covid, and other ups and downs because of their strong brand, strong leadership both at the corporate level and in the stores, connections in community and their strong company culture and values. Do you see what potentially we need to build in Indiana regarding the Indiana Democratic party? Do we have a strong brand? Do we have strong leadership in every seat of the bus? Now, don’t get me wrong, we have many great leaders in the state and democrats are delivering on many great policies, but we also have many gaps. Is the democratic party strongly rooted in communities across the state? What is the culture of the Indiana Democratic party? Is the democratic messaging being delivered across the state? What are the values of the democratic party? Many folks would say based on recent actions centered around sexual harassment, we are not living up to our values as democrats.
I will be breaking many of these pieces down but today let’s talk about the value of “authentic conversations” In lululemon after any planned event, new store opening, or holiday season everyone, not just corporate leaders, we would have what we called, “meltdown calls” - A "meltdown call" refers to a structured and culturally accepted way to debrief; celebrate successes but also address opportunities for learnings and a need to challenge ourselves to do better. These were judgement free zones. A place to express yourself so change was possible. While the Central Committee does have their monthly meetings to discuss issues, there is a need for a larger Indiana Democratic Party’s “Meltdown Call” throughout the state. I would suggest “town hall style in each congressional district - Zoom if necessary after the new party leadership is elected to hear from democrats across the state, rural, suburban and urban areas.
Over the next few weeks, I will be having my own “Meltdown Call" here with you. For you to be an active part of the 92 County Plan you need to know what happened this past election, how the political ecosystem works, and where the areas of opportunity lie because the more you know then you will be better equipped to find your place to contribute. And, we collectively need to hear from each other. - feel free to jump in - respectfully in the comments section - be advised only constructive comments are welcome - this is not about pointing fingers. As I mentioned prior, it's time to look under the hood and this is what I will do for you. Essentially, a “meltdown” serves as a tool for fostering emotional resilience, team cohesion, and a culture of care and accountability. Remember, this is a judgement free zone - we can not move forward unless we truly understand what happened.
I will start…Gerrymandering & Reserved Gerrymandering.
We all know Indiana is an extremely gerrymandered state - or what I like to call - a “rigged state.”
If the concept of gerrymandering and the modern day architects - Carl Rove and Tom Hofeller - are new to you, I highly recommend reading the book - Rat Fu*ked by David Daley. For a quick overview check out this article by Vox….
Fast forward, as a result of "rigged" district maps, community members have stopped stepping up to run for office. (More on this topic will be covered in the next issue of Blue Indiana). In the most recent election cycle, Indiana Democrats left 10 out of 25 Indiana Senate seats uncontested and 30 Indiana House Seats also went uncontested. Similarly, in 2022, the numbers were almost identical. Essentially, we handed these seats over to the Indiana GOP without any accountability. Approximately 2.9 million voters across the state of Indiana were not given a choice on their ballot.
Indiana ranks 50th in voter turnout, but this is not because we have a voter turnout problem; rather, it's because we are not providing voters with a choice on the ballot to select Democrats. Most voters feel they lack control over political outcomes, believing their vote won't make a difference, especially in an extremely "rigged" state. To empower Hoosiers, and take back control we need to give voters a choice on the ballot.
Do you recall GOP Senator Susan Glick, who authored the abortion ban bill, presented it, and argued for its passage? Yet, no one challenged her in 2020 or 2024. It was not a coincidence that Senator Glick "authored SB1.
Besides lack of choice and accountability, the larger impact - when you don’t run candidates in “every seat of the bus” you can not win the top of the ticket - it's a numbers game - FULL STOP. Let’s face it. Indiana Democrats had amazing candidates at the top of the ticket - in our gubernatorial candidate - Jennifer McCormick was able to bring national attention to this race, raise national dollars, yet we did not come close. While, yes there are a few other factors that played into this outcome but I will argue until I am 🔵 BLUE 🔵 in the face - (play on words here 😉 ) - we can not win statewide races until we run candidates in every seat of the bus.
When you have candidates running in every district you are giving voters a choice, you are bringing the democratic message to voters, you are holding the GOP candidates accountable, you are clearing up the data, and you are forcing the GOP to spend GOP dollars in all districts. It is time to reframe and redefine what winning looks like. It is not just about winning and losing - it is about maximizing voter turnout - it's about rebuilding our infrastructure and building a strong bench of experienced candidates. We only have to look to Georgia and now North Carolina! North Carolina ran in every district except two and look what they accomplished this cycle. They won the governor's seat, attorney general, their top educational official against an extreme MAGA Moms for Liberty candidate. And yes they broke their Super Majority in the State House. Congratulations North Caroline and Anderson Clayton, state party chair NC. And by the way, Anderson Clayton was elected to serve as state party chair in 2023 at the age of 25!
Now, let’s look at the other impact of gerrymandering - what I like to call reverse gerrymandering. Remember, we need to be in authentic conversations with ourselves in order to move forward. The impact of Indiana’s “rigged” situation has had an impact on elected Democrats. Because of the way the electoral maps are drawn in Indiana many Indiana House and Senate Democrats also do not have GOP challengers. As a result they are in “safe seats”. There is a reversed gerrymandering impact - now the data does not lie. At the beginning of the 2024 election cycle - Field Team six provided me with some numbers to better understand where our potential unregistered democrats could be found. This data is a combination of data from TargetSmart, catalyst, and mover data. This is what I call data driven voter registration - much more effective than just randomly registering voters - more to come on our 2024 Civitech Voter Registration program later. The initial examination of the numbers was quite alarming.
Take a look at the numbers below- you will notice that in House districts where we have “safe” democratic seats, they have the highest number of potential unregistered democratic voters. Keep in mind that the voter file changes by 25% every four years. All county party chairs, candidates, and elected officials need to do their part to keep our voter file up to date so we can stay connected to the votes. It’s a collective effort. Unfortunately, this is not happening in many of our counties or “safe democratic seats” ~ we are losing our connection to voters - as we mentioned prior- voter turnout in Marion county for example was the lowest it has been in years - 55%.
This is not to point fingers, the goal here is to point out the gaps, and demonstrate areas that need support and collective efforts.
An important point to keep in mind - our elected officials in the state legislature are prohibited from raising campaign funds or participating in any electioneering while in session. This restriction significantly hinders their ability to connect with new voters, effectively cutting their outreach capacity in half. Moreover, considering the limited number of Democrats in our state legislature, they bear a substantial burden in safeguarding our democratic values against the relentless onslaught by the GOP and advancing productive legislation towards passage. We need to ask ourselves, what proactive steps can we take to bridge these gaps and provide support to our Democratic representatives?
Getting folks registered is our entry, our starting point to begin engaging with all voters, if they are not in the voter file we can not communicate with them and share the democratic message. Going up the food chain, one could argue that CD7 is also a “safe seat” While there was an increase in votes compared to 2022 - it is a false positive if that increase did not impact the county. We have some work to do.
After the 2020 Election, echoing across many political conversations - “you just need to do what Georgia did - follow their playbook”. Well, Georgia has at least 5 -6 data driven voter registration programs and a voter protection program led by election lawyers. - Power the Vote - that helped to rebuild their political power and we just witnessed again - that same playbook in NC. This is not rocket science - the playbook is there. Building political power takes a multiple of various efforts across the state and within various communities. A strong coalition throughout the state is needed. And no one organization, candidate, elected official, or county party can carry the torch. It is a collective effort.
Right now I am sure many of you are feeling overwhelmed, perhaps a bit paralyzed. This is what the MAGA GOP wants. Don’t give in. I have HOPE. Why, Indiana is actually already in this work to build back our political power. Stay tuned for the next issue to learn about how Every State Blue is making an impact in “rigged” states like Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee. Georgia and North Caroline built back their political power and so can Indiana.
⏭️ Up coming Issue - “We Need to Build a Strong Infrastructure”, but what does that truly mean. We dive in!
📰 IN THE NEWS
The Legislative Session is on break this week - Join the Indiana Coalition of Public Education for an Educational Legislative Update.
Considering only the main text, there are over 1900 words here. Too many to be read except by idle nerds, like me. You don't have to tell me everything all at once and then tell me you'll also discuss that same thing next week or next month.
What can I do now? is the question to be answered. Am I to sit and wait for a call to action later? Let me suggest: every subscriber (paid or not) needs to find out who represents him/her in the city, county, state house, state senate, federal Congress and send that information to 92 (do you have staff to assemble the information? if not it's useless.) Perhaps you could publish a form to be filled in.? No personal identification required. Just for tabulation purposes, if you don't know where your subscribers reside. MJM