From WeeklyStandard.com:

For Republicans, campaign finance reform was a nightmare from which they are only now awakening. After the campaign law, better known as McCain-Feingold, was enacted in 2002, Republicans largely ignored the new possibilities it created for affecting the outcome of elections. When the Supreme Court in 2003 upheld most of the provisions of the law, their apathy continued.

Democrats weren’t so passive. They immediately reacted to the new campaign spending rules by setting up a cluster of organizations outside the party that played an enormous role in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 campaigns. Republicans suffered through the three election cycles without countering the onslaught by the Democratic outfits. The 2006 and 2008 elections produced Democratic landslides.

But 2010 should be different. Spurred by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, Republicans have matched the Democratic infrastructure with organizations of their own. These groups expect to raise and spend tens of millions in this year’s midterm elections and probably even more in 2012, when President Obama is likely to be running for a second term.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of “Redistricting Rundown,” a synopsis of redistricting news brought to you by the RSLC’s Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP).  For those that are new, this weekly update gives you the latest on what those in the beltway, and across the country, are saying about the impending reapportionment and redistricting process.

While Census workers will soon be going door-to-door to account for the country’s immigration, migration and reproductive trends, the RSLC is getting ready for the end result – reapportionment and the legislative races that can determine the political landscape for the next 10 years.

In this week’s “Redistricting Rundown” we get more insights on exactly which states’ legislatures will play a crucial role in the redrawing of congressional lines, who the Democrats are trying to make into “boogeymen,” and what actions are being taken by individual states.

From Salon.com:

The e-mail that went out from New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson a few weeks ago was specifically designed to stir panic among the Democratic faithful. “With a historic 37 governorships up for election in 2010, the GOP has crafted a scheme to win statehouses and put a Scott Brown in each of these states to gerrymander their party back into power,” it read. “You see, governors have the power to influence the redrawing of congressional and state legislative districts. And the Republican Party has a blueprint to manipulate this process to their electoral advantage, courtesy of Tom DeLay and Karl Rove.”

Tom DeLay! Karl Rove! The boogeymen of the last 10 years were back, front and center and still up to no good. Fortunately, recipients could banish them again very easily. “We can’t let them get away with it,” Richardson continued. “Please contribute $25 or more to the [Democratic Governors Association] today — and help us turn back the ‘Republican Comeback.'”

As Census forms hit mailboxes around the country this month, solicitations like that one are also on the rise. Republicans and Democrats are using the Census, and the once-a-decade chance to redraw the boundaries of House districts that it produces, to corral people who wouldn’t ordinarily care much about what goes on in a statehouse far from their own state to give money to help down-ballot races. Spending on state races this year by national party committees run out of Washington could soar past $100 million, setting new records.

The theory is that whoever controls the statehouse controls the map in redistricting. In a handful of states expected to gain or lose House seats once the Census is done, control of the statehouse could tip one way or the other pretty easily this fall. Republicans have historically done a better job of focusing on how the district maps are drawn. This time, both parties have put big names on their efforts — one-time Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie and former House campaign committee chairman Tom Reynolds for the GOP, which has given its program the intimidating-sounding name REDMAP. (It stands for Redistricting Majority Project.) Ex-Hillary Clinton confidant Harold Ickes is doing similar work for the Democrats.

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From Newsmax.com:

Unlike most politicians, President Obama is an ideologue who sees his presidency as a way to extend government control over Americans’ lives, Ed Gillespie, former counselor to President George W. Bush, tells Newsmax.

“I believe that he and the people around him see this as an opportunity to seize control of one sixth of the economy, that if they can do that, they can seize control of our healthcare, then our energy sector won’t be far behind in addition to the banks and the auto companies,” says Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

“They’re looking for ways to maybe take control of the Internet,” he says. “They’re looking for every avenue they can to extend and exert federal government control of our lives and our economy.”

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From Rove.com and as seen in the Wall Street Journal:

Nationally, the GOP’s effort will be spearheaded by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). Funded by 80,000 donors, it spent more than $20 million in the last election cycle on legislative races and for attorney general, lieutenant governor and secretary of state campaigns.

The group recently announced that former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie will serve as its chairman and former New York Rep. Tom Reynolds will serve as both the group’s vice chairman and chair of a special redistricting effort.

Democrats already have a galaxy of at least six national groups coordinating on state legislative races. Among them are the union-based Foundation for the Future, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, and the Democracy Alliance. The last group has distributed $110 million for down-ballot races in recent years.

Over the past year and a half, Republicans have picked up six seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and one seat in the New Jersey Assembly and won 48 state legislative special elections, for a net gain nationally of 19 seats.

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