Nevada Democrats Gamble on Remap Pay-Off: Ballots & Boundaries

Nevada Democrats will learn Tuesday the November players in their calculated wager of redrawn congressional districts, a move that one GOP operative calls a “dummymander.”

Nevada’s primary Tuesday will determine the Nov. 8 general election candidates in House districts drawn by Democratic legislators that created three mild Democratic districts, all that went for President Joe Biden by single digits.

The map shifted Democratic voters out of Rep. Dina Titus’ heavily Democratic 1st District to shore up the more vulnerable Democratic Reps. Susie Lee in the 3rd District and Steven Horsford in the 4th District.

Republicans are salivating, expecting to pick up seats in a favorable political environment for the GOP. “I really think that Nevada could be the dummymander of the cycle,” said Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust.

Kelly Burton, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and a Las Vegas native, embraced the gamble. Republicans are “fighting on our turf,” she said. The new Nevada districts have a good Democratic “DNA.”

She also views the new map as a long game. “Even if they win them, we can get them right back,” she said.

Here’s a detailed rundown of today’s key primaries. — Greg Giroux

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LOUISIANA: MORE MAP DRAWING
The Louisiana map still isn’t final. Louisiana lawmakers are set to meet again Wednesday to draw another congressional map for the state’s six-seat US House delegation.

A judge’s order upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit gave lawmakers until June 20 to come up with a plan for two majority-Black districts. Republican legislative leaders are asking for more time, at least until June 30, according to court filings. — Jennifer Kay

Read more: Louisiana Special Redistricting Session Is a Go With Court Order

RHODE ISLAND: EASIER VOTING
Mail ballots for anyone who asks, one ballot drop per community, and a permanent absentee list are among provisions of the new Let Rhode Island Vote Act.

Gov. Dan McKee (D) signed the League of Women Voters-backed legislation (H.B. 7100/S.B. 2007) that also requires the secretary of state to check and update voter rolls four times a year.

Many provisions in the legislation were implemented during the 2020 election, “and it resulted in a record number of Rhode Islanders casting votes securely,” McKee said at a June 8 signing ceremony. — Joyce E. Cutler

MICHIGAN: INDICTMENT
An already-decimated list of Michigan Republican primary candidates for governor received another blow with front-runner Ryan Kelley’s arrest and indictment on misdemeanor charges related to the real estate agent’s actions in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

Seeing a field of 10 would-be GOP candidates shrink to five because of signature fraud, and then having a surviving top candidate in handcuffs is “unprecedented” in Michigan history, Bill Ballenger, a longtime conservative political commentator and former Republican state representative and senator, said in an email.

In addition, a judge denied a request June 13 from GOP challenger Perry Johnson, who was excluded from the ballot because the state Board of Elections found he submitted thousands of fraudulent signatures. He asked a federal court to either return him to the ballot or stop the printing of Aug. 2 primary ballots. — Alex Ebert

MICHIGAN: RECORDS ARE PUBLIC
The private texts, emails, and other messages of two Detroit GOP election officials who temporarily blocked the certification of presidential votes are public records subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a Michigan Court of Appeals ruled.

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers must provide liberal activists with responses that board members Monica Palmer and William Hartmann—who has since died—received from Republican officials, consultants, or members since November 2020, the court ordered. On Nov. 23, 2020, GOP board members initially voted to block certification of Detroit’s results, a move they reversed hours later. — Alex Ebert

FLORIDA: MAP ARGUMENTS
Florida officials have asked state and federal courts to dismiss lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a congressional redistricting plan drawn up by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ staff.

An amended federal complaint “is long on rhetoric but short on facts,” according to a motion filed with the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida. At a minimum, the filing says, a stay should be issued pending the case’s outcome in state court or pending a US Supreme Court ruling in an Alabama redistricting case.

The high court will hear arguments in the Alabama case in October. — Jennifer Kay

Congressional district map by the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

PENNSYLVANIA: TRUMP ATTORNEY

An attorney who helped promote former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in 2020 has joined the campaign of Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano as a “senior legal adviser.”

Jenna Ellis said the governor’s race in the swing state is “the most important in the country,” according to a statement from the campaign. Mastriano also pushed Trump’s version of the 2020 election results, and both Ellis and he have been subpoenaed by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. — Jennifer Kay

Caught Our Eye

• True the Vote raised millions to combat voter fraud. Where did the money go? (Revealnews.org)
• Ginni Thomas pressed 29 Arizona lawmakers to help overturn Trump’s defeat, emails show. (The Washington Post)
• The Washington state attorney general filed a bar complaint against a lawyer over a “frivolous” election fraud case. (The Seattle Times)
• How the US House landscape changed. (Center for Politics)

All But One Now Done

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More Resources

• Our past coverage: B&B archive on BGOV
• Princeton Gerrymandering Project
• Litigation Trackers: Loyola Law School Brennan Center
• Redistricting Trackers: fivethirtyeight.com, The Washington Post, redistrictingonline.org

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To contact the reporters on this story: Greg Giroux in Washington at ggiroux@bgov.com; Joyce E. Cutler in San Francisco at jcutler@bloomberglaw.com; Alex Ebert in Madison, Wisconsin at aebert@bloomberglaw.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tina May at tmay@bloomberglaw.com