Guv jumps into fight for control of governorships

Gov. Bill Richardson is jumping into the fight over how redistricting will reshape the nation’s political landscape in the next few years.

Richardson sent an e-mail to supporters of his unsuccessful presidential campaign on Wednesday asking them to contribute to the Democratic Governors Association and help stop the GOP from taking control of the executive branches in a number of states and grabbing greater influencing over redistricting in 2011.

“Right now, the GOP is executing a plan to take 38 governorships over the next three years. If they accomplish this, they will have the power to shrewdly alter election district borders and steal back Congress,” Richardson, a former chairman of the association, wrote in the e-mail. “Why governors? Governors influence redistricting — the redrawing of congressional district lines, and all states redistrict in 2011 to make our government more representative.”

“But like Texan Tom DeLay, who led the underhanded, but legal, effort to create six new Republican congressional districts in Texas in 2003, the GOP wants to make government non-representative — to win by making it impossible for Republicans to lose,” he wrote.

Democrats control 28 governorships, but 47 are up for grabs in the next three years, starting with 11 this year. Republicans have raised close to $30 million to spend on those gubernatorial races.

“Their plan is to use this massive war chest to pick up 16 new governorships and gerrymander their way to a new congressional majority,” Richardson wrote.

He quoted a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association, who told the Huffington Post in July that redistricting could lead to 25 to 30 seats currently held by Democrats being taken by Republicans.

“The 2010 elections are almost as important or equally important as the elections this year,” Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association, told the Huffington Post.

“Republican governors = manipulated districts = 25 to 30 more congressional seats in GOP hands!” Richardson wrote. “This is old-school, back-room politics at its worst, and if they succeed, our democracy will suffer for years to come. One thing is clear — the Republicans expect to lose at the ballot box for a long time to come, unless they get their 38 governors and give themselves an unbeatable edge. So let’s give them the defeat they expect and deserve starting with this year’s races.”