Photo by Victoria Pickering. Used under creative commons license.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate-backed legislative group, is to host two redistricting-focussed sessions with state legislators during its States and Nation Policy Summit, which takes place in Scottsdale, Arizona from December 4-6, 2019.
ALEC previously held two other sessions on redistricting during its August 2019 Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas. A recording of those sessions was leaked to reporter David Daley, who published it at Slate.
According to Daley:
"During the session, the legislators were advised to treat redistricting as “political adult blood sport,” trash potential evidence before it can be discovered through litigation, avoid the word gerrymander, and make deals with black and Latino legislators that guarantee them easy reelections by packing as many minority voters as possible into their districts, thereby making the rest of the map whiter and more conservative."
Few details are provided about the December sessions on the ALEC website.
In fact only the session titles appear:
LEGAL CHALLENGES FOR THE NEXT REDISTRICTING IN 2021
ENGAGING WITH THE PUBLIC ON REDISTRICTING
A little more detail is provided in an email sent by ALEC to members on November 26th, a copy of which was obtained by Documented.
Most things at ALEC conferences come with a price tag, and this includes workshops like the redistricting sessions. In 2013, according to an ALEC sponsorship list, workshops at the ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit cost $25,000 that year. According to the document, the "sponsor gets to assist in choosing the speakers and topic(s)."
No details on the redistricting sessions, sponsors, or speakers were provided by ALEC.
Photo of a rally to end gerrymandering held outside the Supreme Court on March 26, 2019. Photo by Victoria Pickering. Used under creative commons license.