TALLAHASSEE — Among the dozens of pages of redistricting testimony from political consultant Pat Bainter unsealed by the Supreme Court last week, there were plenty of inside details about how Bainter and his allies tried to influence the process of redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative districts after the 2010 Census.
There are also a few incidents of Bainter parsing words and airing complaints during his examination by David King, an attorney for voting-rights organizations, including the League of Women Voters, who sued to overturn a congressional map approved by lawmakers. For example, Bainter took exception to the use of the term “political operatives.”
“Mr. King, I don’t know, with all due respect, what a political operative is,” Bainter said. “That’s a new term for me.”
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When King ticked off the names of a few political — um, people — Bainter answered that he had “never referred to those folks as a political operative.”
“We’ll call — would you be comfortable if I called them political consultants?” King asked.
“I think that would be more accurate and respectful ... yes,” Bainter replied.
King did slip up once more and use “operatives” during his questioning of Bainter, but the attorney was quick to correct himself.
In his testimony, Bainter also recounted how he thought that the “Fair Districts” amendments, the anti-gerrymandering standards approved by voters in 2010, had trampled on his ability to be involved in the redistricting process in the ways that every other citizen was involved. The Fair Districts amendments are the heart of the challenges to the congressional map and a separate case involving the Senate districts.
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“Once again, the amendments themselves created a — a second class of citizen, including myself,” Bainter testified. “They basically made it impossible for someone like me, that was interested in the process, to … participate in that process without fear of some retribution, such as this.”
At another point, Bainter said: “It’s very obvious that, if I had submitted a map under my name, that … I would be damned if I did and damned if I didn’t, because we would be sitting here today, and you would be claiming that I was trying to influence that process. So, no, I didn’t feel as though I had that same level of opportunity.”
Bainter didn’t submit a map under his own name but was condemned anyway.