Latest news with #PILF
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Simmons' Middle Finger Filibuster: Tarrant County Meeting Turns Juvenile
Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons gave County Judge Tim O'Hare the middle finger when he cut off her filibuster in a meeting that ultimately resulted in redistricting. 'Sadly, not the least bit surprising,' O'Hare told The Dallas Express. The county commissioners met June 3 to deliberate a redistricting proposal, which ultimately passed, and which, as The Dallas Express reported at the time, gave Republicans an advantage in future elections. Simmons and Commissioner Roderick Miles Jr. voted against the effort, while O'Hare and County Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez voted in favor. Ahead of the vote, Simmons demanded lawyers with the conservative law firm Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) – which helped draw the new map – come out from a back room to face public questioning. O'Hare informed her the lawyers planned to consult with commissioners, but officials did not have subpoena power. Then, Simmons launched a filibuster. 'They're going to bring their butts out here, and stand at that podium, and answer my questions,' she said, as The Dallas Express reported. 'I'm going to continue speaking until they make their way out here.' After Simmons spoke for several minutes – calling the proposed redistricting 'racial gerrymandering' and 'intentional discrimination' and criticizing PILF – O'Hare questioned whether her comments were on topic. He called for a closed session to discuss parliamentary procedure. Then, she flipped him the bird. Keller Mayor Armin Mizani – who supported redistricting – called Simmons '[u]nfit to serve.' 'If you can't have a policy discussion and debate without acting like an entitled 13 year old, then you are unfit to serve in any elected office,' he posted to X. Simmons has a history of obscenity in public forums. Earlier this year, when a speaker used obscenities during a meeting, she defended the actions – using an 'expletive' in an interchange with O'Hare, according to KERA. As The Dallas Express previously reported, Simmons also ran for Texas House District 94 in 2020, when she was caught on tape using vulgar profanities with a voter. The Dallas Express reached out to Simmons' office but did not hear back in time for publication. Simmons said in the meeting she was concerned redistricting would 'put the majority of the communities of color in one precinct' and remove the 'key economic engines,' as The Dallas Express reported at the time. The same day, O'Hare posted on X that redistricting is about taking political ground – citing similar Democrat efforts in Dallas, Harris, Bexar, and Travis counties. 'Far too often Democrats take ground while Republicans cede it,' he posted. 'That is no longer the case in Tarrant County.'
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed Tarrant County commissioner precinct maps favor Republicans
Tarrant County commissioners will consider five maps for redistricting, all of which would benefit Republicans based on recent voting trends. The maps were drawn by Adam Kincaid, executive director and president of National Republican Redistricting Trust, an organization that coordinates 'the GOP's 50-state redistricting effort.' He was hired by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, the Arlington, Virginia-based firm the county tapped April 2 to redraw its commissioner precinct maps. Precinct 2 commissioner Alisa Simmons, a Democrat from Arlington, condemned the law firm representative, Joe Nixon, and the contracted map drawer, Adam Kincaid, for 'intentional racial discrimination,' citing the law firm's work defending Galveston County when it was accused in 2021 of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. Simmons would be at risk of losing her seat in the redistricting — all of the maps break Arlington into three precincts. 'Let's be clear: this is a calculated attempt to strip representation from the very communities that I was elected to represent,' Simmons said in a statement. The county will host four public feedback sessions from May 13 to May 21 in Azle, southwest Fort Worth, Arlington and Hurst. Simmons said the court needs to hear from Kincaid and that he should attend the public feedback sessions. O'Hare would not answer her question about if it would be possible to bring Kincaid in. Broderick Miles, a Democrat from Fort Worth, said there should be more feedback sessions, including ones in Spanish and Vietnamese. 'We need to make it as accessible and open and transparent to every resident in Tarrant County as we possibly can, and if that means extending the timeline so be it,' Miles said. 'We are not elected to represent just the people that we agree with. We were elected to hear from the people. The people should have an opportunity to let their voices be heard.' Roderick Miles Jr., the Tarrant County Commissioner of Precinct 1, addresses his concern regarding the proposed redistricting of the county during a Commissioners Court Meeting at the Tarrant County Administration Building in Fort Worth on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. The last feedback session takes place two weeks before the commissioners are set to vote on the new map on June 6. Many of the speakers signed up for public comment questioned if the meetings were just a farce. 'That doesn't feel to me like a long enough time to consider meaningfully any feedback that's to be obtained during these sessions,' Diana Cason said. 'So are these meaningful sessions for input, or are they dog and pony shows?' PILF under fire from Simmons The nonprofit Public Interest Legal Foundation focuses on election integrity and fighting voter fraud, according to its website. The firm successfully defended Galveston County in federal litigation over allegations it unconstitutionally used racial gerrymandering in a 2021 commissioners redistricting. Simmons said the firm was chosen by Republican County Judge Tim O'Hare because of its political history. 'PILF is not a traditional law firm,' Simmons said in a statement. 'It is an extreme, ideologically motivated organization with a documented history of undermining voting rights, particularly for communities of color. Their involvement in this process was no accident. It was a deliberate choice by the county judge to bring in a group whose mission is to weaken the power of minority voters.' Lawyer Joe Nixon remains present after addressing the questions regarding the proposed redistricting of the county during a Commissioners Court Meeting at the Tarrant County Administration Building in Fort Worth on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Simmons asked Nixon, a litigator with the law firm, about his involvement in various cases of alleged unconstitutional racial gerrymandering and if he had ever broken the Voting Rights Act. Nixon denied ever doing so, and explained the court sided with his firm in the Galveston County case. 'I've been practicing law 42 years,' Nixon said. 'I have never once had anyone say anything that you just said to me publicly. I am embarrassed for you.' Nixon said the five maps represent the wants of each of the commissioners. Simmons said the only map that represented hers and Miles' wants was the current precinct map. Redrawn precinct maps The four commissioners each represent a precinct and the county judge represents the county as a whole. The proposed maps divide Precinct 4 and Precinct 3 along Interstate 35W. They also each break Arlington into three precincts, when it is now completely in Precinct 2. According to county election data, Precincts 1 and 2 vote Democratic and Precincts 3 and 4 vote Republican. In the new maps, only Precinct 1 has voted Democratic in the presidential and midterm elections going back to 2016. Democrats have consistently held Miles' Precinct 1 seat. Republicans represented Precinct 2 for 34 years until Democrat Devan Allen took the seat in 2019. Simmons won the seat in the 2022 election. The 26 people who spoke during public comment opposed the proposed maps and said they prefer the current one. One speaker condemned the commissioners court for the lack of representation in the proposed maps. Arlington resident Jackee Cox speaks during the public comment portion during a Commissioners Court Meeting at the Tarrant County Administration Building in Fort Worth on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. 'I really would like map drawers, people with the expertise to draw maps that will come out to be fair to everyone, because this county is not 100% Republican,' Jackee Cox, a retired civil rights attorney, said. 'If you draw lines to give us only Republican representation, those people who need mental health services and public health services and JPS services and road services and all kinds of services will be not only underrepresented, but will be unrepresented.' Simmons told the Star-Telegram that she and Miles will determine whether to sue the county for pursuing 'a redistricting process that is an attack on voters based on the color of their skin and the electoral decisions they make as minority citizens.'
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Out-of-state group can't sue for Pa. voter registration records, federal appeals court rules
An election worker hands a sticker to a voter after she dropped off a mail-in ballot outside the Chester County Government Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Capital-Star/Peter Hall) An out-of-state group that sued the commonwealth for records it claimed would show 'non-U.S. citizens have been registering and voting in Pennsylvania for decades' lost an appeal in federal court. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Virginia-based Public Integrity Law Foundation has no standing to sue the Pennsylvania Department of State for voter registration records under a federal law intended to increase participation in elections. 'While a statute may authorize private suits to compel compliance with the law, private citizens are not deputized as private attorneys general empowered to enforce any and all violations of a statute without regard to their personal stake in the matter,' Circuit Judge Marjorie O. Rendell wrote in an opinion for the court. A spokesperson said the Department of State is pleased with the decision. A PILF spokesperson said it is considering the court's opinion and 'will be moving forward from there.' PILF sued the department in 2017 after then-Philadelphia Election Commissioner Al Schmidt said a glitch in Pennsylvania's electronic driver's licensing system could allow noncitizens to register to vote, citing 168 such instances in the city. Schmidt is now secretary of the commonwealth. The Department of State confirmed that it was working to fix the problem but was not aware of the issue before Schmidt alerted them, the Associated Press reported at the time. The lawsuit claimed the department was required to provide records under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), commonly known as the Motor Voter Law that, among other voting access provisions, required states to provide an opportunity to register to vote when applying for a driver's license and other state services. A U.S. District Court judge ultimately ruled partly in favor of PILF and ordered the Department of State to pay attorney fees and costs to the organization. Both PILF and the department of state appealed. The 3rd Circuit decision noted while the act provides for public inspection of records concerning programs to ensure the accuracy of voter rolls and remedial right to sue, a recent U.S. Supreme Court case raised the bar for a plaintiff in such a suit to show they have actually been harmed. In support of its claim of injury and standing to sue under the NVRA, PILF argued that without the records, it could not analyze the department's activities to maintain voter lists and was unable to carry out its mission of promoting what it calls election integrity and compliance with state and federal election laws. The organization also claimed the denial hampered its production and dissemination of educational materials and that it had expended considerable time and money seeking the records. The 3rd Circuit said there is not a sufficient connection between the consequences PILF identified and Congress' goals in enacting the NVRA. As an out-of-state public interest law firm that failed to show evidence of concrete harm caused by the secretary of the commonwealth's refusal to provide the records it requested, PILF has no standing to sue, Rendell wrote. 'PILF does not represent any Pennsylvania citizens who have been affected by the Secretary's purported violation of the NVRA,' Rendell's opinion says. 'It has no direct ties to Pennsylvania voters and has not alleged how access to the records it seeks would 'directly lead to action' or that its 'direct participation in the electoral process [has been] hindered.''
CBS News
02-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Tarrant County commissioners vote to redraw precinct boundaries amid heated debate
After a heated debate, Tarrant County commissioners voted to move forward with plans to potentially redraw precinct boundaries before the 2026 election. This process doesn't usually happen in the middle of a decade before official census data is released. Nearly 80 people signed up to speak about this issue at the commissioners' meeting on Wednesday. "Tarrant County needs responsible leadership for its future survival as a leader in Texas, and redistricting is needed to ensure that survival," one community member told commissioners. Republicans said the maps need to be redrawn to better reflect the county's population growth and have also acknowledged redistricting could help conservative candidates. Critics call it a waste of taxpayer money at best, and racial gerrymandering at worst. "What you're proposing here today is not redistricting," said one resident who spoke during public comment. "It's calculated rigging. It's an attempt to gerrymander the voice of the people." Commissioners agreed in a 3-2 vote along party lines to hire a Virginia-based law firm for consulting services for the purpose of redistricting. The Public Interest Legal Foundation is a conservative group that says it's dedicated to election integrity and has sued several states to gain access to voter rolls. Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons, who voted in opposition, said the firm has a well-documented history of hostility to minority voting rights. "We should know if there's going to be new data, where it will come from, and the reason why because it seems like it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to look into this," said one of several community members who also questioned using this particular foundation for the process. "Staff did not choose the firm," said Judge Tim O'Hare. "These were people that I researched and found myself." O'Hare told the court he did not discuss hiring the Public Interest Legal Foundation with any staff or commissioners. He did not answer questions as to why the court should engage in redistricting now. Four years ago, in 2021, Tarrant County commissioners found the precincts were balanced based on a review of 2020 census data and declined to redraw boundary lines. "Had I been on the court at that time, I think I would have voted to say let's go ahead and redistrict with the growth in Tarrant County," said Commissioner Matt Krause. "I didn't get to make that decision for other board members, but with the information before us, I think we can do that now." Redistricting isn't normally done mid-decade. "Besides this glaringly not being the right time to redistrict, PILF is just not the right firm," Commissioner Simmons said. "The track record is poor… The fact that you guys are trying to hire this firm, that in itself is an act of intentional discrimination." Commissioner Manny Ramirez said it was shameful to accuse someone of being racist for "wanting to explore population balance." "Just because you disagree with somebody on policy, does not make them a racist," he told the court. In a statement, Ramirez said: "…There is one distinct responsibility of this job that is, in my opinion, very political and that is redistricting. Conservative policies and values continue to make Tarrant County the greatest and most successful county in the nation. I believe that I have a moral obligation to do everything legally permissible to ensure that our county continues to enjoy responsible conservative leadership." O'Hare expects the firm to evaluate the current precincts and then present any potential maps with new boundary lines at a later meeting. He said there will be opportunity for the public and for other commissioners to weigh in before a vote is taken. "We're hiring a firm and then a process will come out and things will come up," he said. "I get some of you don't want it to happen, and you can vote that way." When Simmons pressed the judge for more details on the work the firm will do, the exchange got heated. "So that contract said the $30,000 is for the initial phase - how many phases do you expect?" she asked him directly. "I don't know, but I don't answer to you," the judge replied. "Vote the way you want." "I will, but you put something on the agenda, so you ought to be able to speak to it," Simmons said. Democratic Commissioner Roderick Miles Jr. also voted against hiring the firm and criticized the way the plan was presented to the public and to the commissioners. "There are so many questions and challenges associated with this proposal for me," he said. "Due to the gravity of this situation and its impact on our constituents, it's imperative to maximize transparency." He pushed for an open call for proposals instead. "If we will spend money for an RFP for sprinkler systems, the least we can do is put out an RFP for something that will impact everyone in this room and in this county who we are called to represent," said Commissioner Miles Jr. According to the contract that was approved, the county can spend up to $30,000 for the Public Interest Legal Foundation to provide legal advice, map renderings, and other consulting services related to redistricting.
