Gerrymandering expert was paid $2 mil US for census citizenship question

[deminks]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/gop-paid-millions-to-gerrymandering-expert-behind-census-citizenship-question/

Last week brought a bombshell revelation in the fight over a controversial question about citizenship status on the 2020 census: Despite the Trump administration’s insistence that it wants to add the question for better voting rights enforcement rather than political gain, key wording in its legal rationale matches memos written by Tom Hofeller, a Republican gerrymandering expert. Hofeller, who died last summer, wrote that if the 2020 census asked about the citizenship status of respondents, it “would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” and “advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.”

Republican Party financial filings with federal regulators add a twist to this backstory: The party’s main political apparatus paid Hofeller more than $2 million for his work. That suggests that Hofeller’s memos weren’t simply independent advocacy for a pet issue, but that he and his work were deeply embedded in the heart of the GOP’s strategic operations.

According to Republican National Committee filings with the Federal Election Commission, from June 2009 until just weeks before his death last August, the GOP’s main political apparatus paid Hofeller just over $2 million for “legal and compliance” work. In fact, from Trump’s inauguration until July 2018, Hofeller was paid $422,000, in what appear to be regular monthly payments of $22,247.

(snip)

Regular payments to Hofeller’s consulting company are listed on RNC records dating back to 2011, showing exactly how much the Republican Party was investing in his expertise. From 2009 to 2011, additional payments to Hofeller personally are listed. According to Hofeller’s own resume, included as an exhibit in a separate lawsuit, he was a redistricting consultant for the RNC from 2003 to 2011, and he was on staff at the RNC from 1982 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2003. Not counting the years Hofeller was directly on the payroll, the grand total for the GOP’s investment in Hofeller is $2,027,000. That doesn’t indicate that he was just a private citizen who happened to be working on issues that were simultaneously being pushed by top GOP operatives.

(end snip)

[Empowerer]

1. They got themselves a bargain