Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) won't reveal maps, but will say which members are pitted against each other

As stated earlier, Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) would not let members of the public see his redistricting plan this morning, but he did announce which members of the House would be pitted against one another in the next election when responding to a question.  Those members are:

• Kevin Horan (D - Grenada) & Linda Whittington (D - Schlater)
• Bill Denny (R - Jackson) & Cecil Brown (D - Jackson) (I imagine this means Denny swooped in and picked up Cecil's house and not much more of Cecil's district, unless Denny is retiring.)
• Jason White (D - West) & Bennett Malone (D - Carthage)
• Robert Huddleston (D - Sumner) & Tommy Taylor (R - Boyle)
• Bo Eaton (D - Taylorsville) & Johnny Stringer (D - Montrose)

For those keeping score at home, that's 8 Democrats forced to run against a sitting member, while only 2 Republicans will have to do so.

Rep. Bill Denny snatches copy of his map from member of public at hearing

Rankin County Democratic Chairman Ryan Brown just now had Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) snatch a copy of Denny's proposed redistricting plan from his hands.  Only members of the subcommittee are allowed to have a copy of the plan, according to Denny.  That raises the question as to whether or not the subcommittee violated laws concerning open meetings.

Talk about transparency.

***BREAKING*** - REPUBLICAN HOUSE MAP IN COMMITTEE ROOM

The Bill Denny map

The Republican House map is in the committee room this morning, but is under wraps for the moment.  Follow this blog for updates throughout the morning.

***BREAKING (UPDATED) - House releases redistricting committee schedule***

The House of Representatives has released the following redistricting schedule:

9:00 a.m. Wednesday: Meeting of House subcommittee of the Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting (Room 401)

11:00 a.m. Wednesday: Full committee meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting (Room 216)

1:00 p.m. Wednesday: Meeting of House Apportionment and Elections Committee (Room 401)

* If a resolution containing the House plan is adopted by the House Apportionment and Elections Committee it could come before the full House as soon as Thursday.

* Still no word on Senate maps or committee meetings to address the Senate plan

***BREAKING - Reason for delay in redistricting process revealed*** (SATIRE)

(***The following is satire.***)

Conversations with redistricting experts aiding the Legislature in their efforts to draw new maps have uncovered the reason behind the extensive delay in completing the process: Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson), chairman of the House Reapportionment Committee, drew the House maps thinking the 3/5ths Compromise was still in place. Understandably, this caused major alarm when his House map was finally submitted for expert approval.  The practice of placing a large number of minority voters into a small number of districts is known as "packing."  Denny defended himself by saying, "It ain't packing if they're not equal to us."

Sources inside the Capitol say that Denny had relied heavily on Rep. John Moore (R - Brandon) for advice concerning the legality of the proposed lines as he was drafting them. Reached for comment, Moore defended his advice to Denny concerning the 3/5ths Compromise by saying he'd learned that from his friend Richard Barrett.

(Seriously, Rep. Bill Denny doesn't think the 3/5ths Compromise is still in place.  He knows full well it isn't, as he lost several grandsons in the Civil War.  The stuff about Richard Barrett, though, is not satire.  He was an avowed white supremacist.  Also, Barrett didn't leave half of his estate to Rep. Moore because he and Moore didn't get along.)

REDISTRICTING COMING TOMORROW

At least that's what Republicans at the Capitol are saying. (Of course they said that last week, and the week before, and the week before....)

*EMCL* - More on legislation regarding attempted murder

Turns out Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) wasn't the only one who authored an attempted murder bill this year.  Sen. Will Longwitz (R - Madison) also offered one for consideration.  I've written about why Longwitz's is a better approach over on the other blog: Sen. Will Longwitz's attempted murder bill.

***BREAKING - CHARTER SCHOOLS BILL HEADED TO CONFERENCE***

The Mississippi House has voted this afternoon to send the charter schools legislation to conference committee.

EMCL - Why Bill Denny's attempted murder legislation keeps failing

Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) has tried and failed for years to pass legislation "providing for the offense of attempted murder."  Here's my take on what's been going wrong, and a simple way to fix it: Why Rep. Bill Denny's attempted murder legislation keeps failing.

Redistricting 2012: "This is no way to govern"

Last night, I had an opportunity to speak with a person from the Mississippi Gulf Coast who asked how things were going at the Capitol and where things stand on redistricting.  After I explained that Republicans claim to have "drawn" the maps but weren't ready to show their work, he responded, "This is no way to govern."  It think he has a fair point.

As Republicans continue to hide the maps, more and more questions emerge.

1.  Who drew the maps?  There has been some talk of certain individual legislators being brought in to see their districts.  Based on the reports I've received, this exercise involves an indivudal member being shown a proposed map of the district they currently represent.  While this seems to be happening with more and more regularity, particularly in the House, there is very little information regarding who did the actual drawing.  We all know that Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) and Sen. Merle Flowers (R - Southaven) didn't sit down at a computer and put the maps together themselves, so that leaves the question: who drew the maps?

2.  Who paid the cartographer?  Last year, Republicans arranged for a Louisiana consultant to help them draw their redistricting maps.  Did they bring in another consultant to help with the process this time?  If so, who paid for this service?  Were these folks paid with public or private funds?

3.  Whatever happened to the end of the gentleman's agreement?  Last year, then Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant got a lot of press for calling for an end to the "gentleman's agreement," the term applied to that process whereby one chamber accepts the work of another chamber without scrutiny.  It would appear that the gentleman's agreement is back in effect as most members of the legislature have not seen their own chamber's plans much less the maps being proposed in the other chamber.

4.  Transparency anyone?  Transparency was the Republican rallying cry for years, as they fought to gain a stranglehold on state government.  Now that they have it, will they practice what they preached?
If Redistricting 2012 is the measuring stick, we already know the answer is no.