How a dark-money scam created Alabama's hard-right legislature -- and the abortion ban

[Celerity]

Mike Hubbard’s money-laundering scheme turned Alabama deep red in 2010. He may go to prison, but the damage is done

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/how-a-dark-money-scam-created-alabamas-hard-right-legislature-and-the-abortion-ban/

As the 2010 elections neared, Mike Hubbard had a huge dream and an even bigger dilemma. The chairman of Alabama’s Republican Party wanted to end the Democrats’ 136-year hammerlock over the state legislature. If Hubbard could surf an anti-Barack Obama wave and capture control of Montgomery, he thought, it would be the most “monumental public achievement” in Alabama’s modern political history.

But erasing a 60-43 Democratic edge in Alabama’s House of Representatives and a 20-15 advantage in the state Senate would cost millions. All that cash would not be easy to raise in a poor state, let alone one that wasn’t high on the national party’s list of midterm elections priorities. Unless, that is, he found some way to evade Alabama’s campaign finance laws. Not unexpectedly, Hubbard found his loophole.

When Alabama joined Ohio, Georgia and other states this month in enacting the most restrictive new abortion bans in decades, many political observers mentioned the crucial role that partisan gerrymandering played in creating legislatures — and entrenching legislators — that are much more conservative than the state’s citizens. And like so much in our politics, Alabama’s abortion law does have its roots in redistricting.

Alabama’s story, however, might be more sordid and corrupt than any other state. That fall, Alabama Republicans captured those historic supermajorities in the state legislature, thanks to ads that proclaimed: “After 136 years, the Democrats have brought us Obama, Pelosi, government health care, liberal policies, higher taxes, and wasteful spending.” Hubbard became speaker of the house and immediately pushed the state’s politics hard right.

Much of the necessary funding, however — more than $1 million — arrived through an unconventional arrangement of questionable legality with the Republican State Leadership Committee. The RSLC was home to the GOP’s national redistricting strategy. These were the operatives behind a plan called REDMAP — short for the Redistricting Majority Project — that dropped $30 million into a handful of state legislative races that fall, seeking to ensure GOP control of the 2011 redistricting cycle in as many states as possible.

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[Bluepinky]

1. Doesn't surprise me, they had to cheat to win.

I didn’t realize Alabama was predominantly Democratic in the recent past. What a tragedy that the corrupt bullies have taken over to deny the will of the majority of the people.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. This partially explains why the AL republicans asked Karl Rove to help get rid of Gov.

Don Siegelman. He would decidedly be in the way of their plan.