BRAZEN: Secret Mapmaker Called Secret Mapmaking “Dangerous”
North Carolina General Assembly
Senator Warren Daniel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BRAZEN: Secret Mapmaker Called Secret Mapmaking “Dangerous”
NC League of Conservation Voters, a political action group, is asking a court to order into law maps created in secret by their own top litigator
The secret mapmaker previously said secret mapmaking is “dangerous” and “reflects the interests of a small (and often one-sidedly partisan) group of insiders”
Raleigh, N.C. — The N.C. League of Conservation Voters (LCV), a Democratic political organization led in part by the husband of a Democratic state senator, is asking a court to throw out the state legislature’s enacted districts and order into law maps the group created in secret, even though their secret mapmaker previously derided secret mapmaking as “dangerous.”
The political activist organization admitted yesterday that the person who “directed the creation” of the maps they want the court to order into law was their own lead litigator, attorney Sam Hirsch. But how he created those maps, and with whom, remains shrouded in secrecy. LCV said only that he had assistance from unnamed “consulting experts.”
To maintain the shroud of secrecy, LCV asked the court to grant a protective order giving Mr. Hirsch immunity from answering any questions about his work.
But Mr. Hirsch previously derided secret mapmaking as “dangerous” to the legitimacy of government.
He wrote, “When citizens cannot see how their government operates and cannot affect its decision-making, popular control is lost and those governed come to mistrust those who govern in their name. Such loss of confidence is particularly dangerous in the design of basic electoral structures, like districts.”
Mr. Hirsch continued, “This leaves the public to see a process that reflects the interests of a small (and often one-sidedly partisan) group of insiders.”
It’s unclear if Mr. Hirsch still believes secret mapmaking is an affront to democracy. As the LCV’s lead litigator, he’s now asking a court to enact into law maps he and unnamed “consultants” drew in secret while seeking a protective order to hide from public view all of the details of how his maps were drawn.
And there appears to be good reason for Mr. Hirsch’s demand for secrecy.
An outside analysis of LCV’s proposed congressional maps concluded they would result in six Republicans and eight Democrats elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Dr. Jowei Chen, a Democratic expert witness in the very same case, told the court that a congressional map with eight Democratic seats is almost a statistical impossibility, with the result occurring zero times in thousands of simulated maps.
Bottom line: This is more brazen hypocrisy from a political group trying to replace maps drawn in full view of the public with its own maps drawn in secret by a mapmaker who previously wrote secret mapmaking was “dangerous.”
