There has been some movement on the redistricting issue in Kentucky these past few days.  Here's a quick update to fill in some of the broad details. 

Republican Minority Leader Jeff Hoover filed an injunction in Franklin Circuit Court to push back the filing deadline in light of the possibly illegal and partisan redistricting.  Senator Kathy Stein joined the lawsuit, then Judge Phillip Shepherd heard the case earlier today and said that he will make a decision before the end of the day tomorrow... which is also the (tentative) deadline to file for office.

In other news, Kentucky House an Senate members have still been unable to agree on a plan for Congressional redistricting which will move back the filing deadline, at least for those offices.  In any event, this casts substantial doubt on Governor Steve Beshear's claim that he was only signing the state house and senate redistricting into law because the impending and at the time apparently immovable deadline was hanging over his head. 

In other news, several legislators have filed separate legislation to make the redistricting process less partisan, more transparent, and more reasonable than it has been this year. 

And finally, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Council has stepped forward with a resolution expressing concern with the redistricting and the loss of Lexington senator Kathy Stein.  A resolution has no legal weight, but it matters.  During our first rally in Lexington on this issue, our primary action was to ask people to contact the mayor and city council to do just this, so they deserve our kudos. 

Here are some good quotes from the Herald-Leader article. 

Councilman Jay McChord said he was "sick and tired of Lexington looking weak, acting weak" at the state level. "If they don't like it up there, so be it. Maybe it is time to send somebody else up there," he said.

Councilman Chris Ford said when an action by Frankfort legislators "harms the citizens of Fayette County, we should stand up and speak."

"This is classic gerrymandering," said council member Julian Beard. "I don't think we should duck our head and go quietly into the night."

Council Members K.C. Crosby, Bill Farmer, and  Ed Lane voted against the resolution and Council Member Diane Lawless was not present for the vote.  All 11 other council members voted yes in favor of the resolution. 

If you're a Lexington resident, please contact your city council member and thank them for voting yes if they did, or express concern if they voted no.  Remember that Vice Mayor Linda Gorton, and Council At-Large members Steve Kay and Chuck Ellinger all represent everyone in Lexington.  So they're your council members too.

_________________________________

2/1/12 Update - Judge delays filing deadline for state legislative candidates to Feb 7th.   This creates space for the Franklin Circuit court to take further action by that time, possibly declaring the redistricting to be illegal and asking the legislature to try again or taking some other action to intervene.  We'll know more by the end of the day on Feb 7th.    

2/2/12 Update - House, Senate appear close on congressional redistricting plan.  There has been some movement on the Congressional redistricting plan too.  Note that this is separate from the state legislature plan at issue above.  We're still waiting for the Franklin Circuit Court ruling by Feb 7th on that one.  In the mean time, you can take a moment to write a letter to the editor to let your community know how you feel about these partisan redistricting plans.

2/6/12 Update - Judge says he will rule in a day or two on legislative redistricting.  We might know something tomorrow or the filing deadline might get pushed back a little more. 

Return voting rights to ex-felons

Herald-Leader

The Kentucky House of Representatives is once again acting favorably on a proposal (HB 70) by Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington, to amend the state constitution to automatically restore voting rights to non-violent felons who have paid their assigned debt to society.

Remarkably, each time in recent years this measure has passed out of the House it has stopped dead in the Senate.

This is a good year to change that pattern. We are, after all, witnessing one of the great political processes as the presidential campaign unfolds before our very eyes.

There is a lot of debate these days about the role of government in our lives, but does anyone really think it should be government's task to prevent people from voting?

Kentucky is one of only a handful of states in which a felony conviction carries with it a lifetime loss of voting rights.

Under our constitution, it's up to the governor to restore that right to people who have served their time. With most governors it's fairly routine to restore rights to people who ask after they've finished their time with the Department of Corrections.

But not always.

Former Governor Ernie Fletcher, for example, required people to write an essay and get three letters of recommendation before he'd even consider restoring an individual's voting rights.

Why, you might wonder, is this even an issue? Why not put a proposed amendment on the ballot and let those of us who can vote decide?

It's really basic political math. A 2006 Kentucky League of Women Voters study found that one in four Kentucky black adults is banned from the polls by this policy. Blacks are much more likely to vote for Democratic candidates and so the Republican-controlled Senate (and the former Republican governor) are not motivated to increase their numbers at the polls.

That's just wrong. Released felons are set free to participate in society, including paying taxes, and so they should be able to participate in one of the most fundamental of our citizenship rights — voting.

It's that simple.

KFTC appreciates the support of HB 70 in this editorial, but we also point out that many strong supporters of HB 70 are Republicans - including former felon spokespeople, co-sponsoring legislators, and legislators in both chambers who support the bill.  The people preventing it from being voted on are just a handful of Senate leaders like Sen David Williams and Sen Damon Thayer.  

And in other Voting Rights news, we've had a good continuous presence in Frankfort talking to legislators, plus field events like this presentation to UK NAACP earlier this week.  KFTC leader and former felon Tayna Fogle talked to almost 40 students, inviting them to take action by phone or by joining us in Frankfort.  We look forward to working with the UK NAACP more soon

KFTC member Greg Capillo captured some reactions from attendees at yesterday's redistricting rally. What do you think about the redistricting plan?

Today, KFTC members, Occupy Lexington activists, and many others gathered in downtown Lexington to speak out against the irrational and undemocratic redistricting process that leaves them without a duly elected Senator until 2014.

Despite only having about 48 hours to organize the event, it was a great success, with 125 enthusiastic people attending. 

Whereas the rally was focused on this particular Senate district, participants broadly recognized that the redistricting plans out of both the Democrat-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate were unjust, hopelessly partisan and against the ideals we expect legislators to hold themselves to in the redistricting process.

Even Sen Dorsey Ridley, Lexington's new Senator, came 200 miles to attend, letting everyone know that the same process that has left us without a duly elected senator has stolen him from his former constituents in Western KY.

There were a lot of TV news cameras and reporters at the event, so expect to see more updates on this blog and elsewhere over the next few days.

Action Steps

Next up, we plan on taking this rally to Frankfort! - on Tuesday, Jan 24th

Who: You, Lexington Residents, Supporters of Democracy
What: Protest the disenfranchisement of Lexington
Where: Frankfort, KY Capitol Building and Annex
When: Tuesday January 24th
Why: Because your right to vote on who represents you is a fundamental part of American Democracy!

There will be a hearing at 8:30am in the Capital Annex for a bill to restore voting rights for former felons who have served their debt to society.  It's a separate issue, but would be good to come out in solidarity with them. 

After that, we'll be a physical presence in Frankfort throughout the day with small signs, stickers, etc. putting pressure on all the legislators who sacrificed Lexington. 

Rally at 2pm on the Capitol Steps!


At the rally, we also asked people to call upon Mayor Jim Gray to come out in support of our city and condemn this redistricting.

Contact-Office of the Mayor
200 E. Main Street
Lexington, KY 40507
Office: (859) 258-3100
Fax: (859) 258-3194
mayor@lexingtonky.gov

    

Tayna Fogle just finished speaking about Voting Rights and the General Assembly on Key Conversations, WGVN 1580AM, in Lexington.

A lot of the focus of the conversation was on letting people know that they can influence the General Assembly by joining us in Frankfort, calling the legislative message line (1800-372-7181), or wrigint their legislators.

We also invited everyone to join us on the Voting Rights Lobby Day on March 8th. 

The program will air at 10a.m. this morning on WGVN 1580AM and will re-air next Sunday, Jan. 29th at 6 a.m.

We also got to talk to the hosts about this afternoon's rally against the insane redistricting plan at 4pm.

We heard before the legislative session started on January 4 that the re-districting debate would be nasty. It's been worse.

The House, Senate, and Gov Beshear have passed re-districting plans that are vindictive against specific lawmakers, leave at least one incumbent lawmaker without a district to run for re-election, give constituents in another district a new senator who lives halfway across the state from the district he will now represent, and creates very oddly shaped districts that unnecessarily divide coherent communities and constituencies.

For example, Lexington's own Sen. Kathy Stein (a sponsor of KFTC’s Stream Saver Bill in the Senate), who has represented her constituents in either the House or Senate since 1997, will have the Lexington district she now represents moved to northern Kentucky. The western Kentucky district now represented by Sen. Dorsey Ridley – 200 miles away – will be moved to Lexington.

This leaves many in Lexington without an effective Senator who understands this community for the next 2 years. 

The House and the Senate, the Republicans and Democrats, are equally responsible for creating this subversion of democracy. The end-goal seemed to be building partisan power and forcing popular legislators to have to run against one another (or forcing them out altogether) at the expense of a stronger and truly representative democracy.

ACTION:

Please join us for a rally against this insane redistricting
Tomorrow (Sunday, January 22nd)
4 p.m.
Lexington, In front of the Courthouse at the corner of Main and N. Limestone

Facebook Event

Please also consider writing a letter to the editor to the Herald-Leader or other newspaper to let them know how you feel about this.

We're also considering a broader rally in Frankfort on Tuesday.  More information on this as it comes together. 

For more information:

Watch a video of Reps. Kelly Flood and Jeff Hoover speaking out against this redistricting plan and the redistricting process in general. Representative Flood’s speech begins at the 34:50 mark and Representative Hoover’s speech begins at 43:15.

See: “House approves redistricting plan with oddly shaped boundaries” - Lexington Herald Leader

Kentucky has something else to be proud of today:  Occupy Lexington, the longest running Occupy site in the nation (wow, right?!), is celebrating its 100th day today! And in true Occupy Lexington fashion, the celebration is all about inviting people into the space, and into the movement. 

Occupy Lexington is impressive not only for its longevity but also for how participants have been facilitating community learning and engagement. There's a study group working for a People's Budget for Lexington/Fayette County (meeting tonight, and a couple of folks will be talking about the campaign at the Jan 19 KFTC CKY meeting), and Occupy Lexington has launched a campaign called Invest in Kentucky, which seeks to move our state funds back to a local financial institution.

This weekend, an estimated 25,000 people took to the streets of New York city  to challenge a host of laws pushed in 34 states to keep people from voting.

Felony disenfranchisement laws, mandatory photo ID laws for voting, and other changes have taken the right to vote away from over 5 million people across the nation since the 2008 election.

You can learn more about the national event on Democracy Now, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian. 

In Kentucky, we've managed to hold the line on this issue and have worked hard to make our democracy stronger and deeper instead or weaker and shallower - through our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.

In solidarity with the national event, we held a rally and march in downtown Lexington in support of voting rights.  A little over thirty people made it out to the event, and several former felons took the microphone to tell their stories.

Thanks to April Browning, Tayna Fogle, Janet Tucker, Richard Mitchell and our other speakers.  

We also passed out resources to help people engage in citizen lobbying starting on January 3rd, where we'll be pushing for HB 70 - legislation that would restore voting rights to most former felons in KY after they've served their debt to society.    

Groups organizing the national demonstration included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Locally, the groups that came together included Occupy Lexington, Steppin to a New Beat, and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. 

KFTC members from the Central Kentucky plugged away tonight calling folks whose KFTC memberships needed to be renewed. Many great conversations were had about the work over 2011 and several folks committed to donating and/or becoming sustaining givers.

There's still time for you to renew your membership and to continue supporting all of our amazing work! Just visit us online at www.kftc.org/donate.

Last night's Kentucky Tonight program about Voting Rights is already up online on KET's website.  Here's a link to the full program.

Many KFTC members and allies called and emailed in and we've had a good response from people across the state who saw the program. 

We also now have a Voting Rights Rally scheduled for this Saturday, December 10th at 2pm in the park across from the Kentucky Theater in Lexington.   This action is in solidarity with Human Rights Day and a large NAACP / union voting rights rally in New York that same day.  We're also working with friends at Occupy Lexington and they've graciously agreed to allow the rally to take place in the space that they've been camped out in for the last few months.