Expert Warns Of 'Real Festival Of Partisan Gerrymandering' In 2021

In writing his new book, David Daley was looking to shake off a cynicism that had been following him around for years.

The former editor-in-chief of Salon gained attention in 2016, as the man who chronicled a Republican gerrymandering machine.

Daley's book Ratf**ked gave a play-by-play account of REDMAP, the Republican plan to take over state legislatures in the 2010 election cycle, with an eye on drawing state and congressional maps during the following year's redistricting period that would keep Democrats out of power.

It worked.

In 2012, Democratic congressional candidates in Pennsylvania for instance garnered 51% of the overall vote, but that translated to just about a quarter of the congressional seats. It was a similar story in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Ohio.

"If you're a Republican, you look at [2010] and say, boy, this was effective, it was efficient and we won. We played by the rules. We changed the rules, but we still played by the law and the game," Daley told NPR in 2016. "And if the Democrats weren't smart enough to figure this out themselves, well, see you in 2020, boys."

At redistricting conferences, Daley's book is often discussed for shining a light on practices that had long gone on in the shadows.

But covering gerrymandering affected Daley. It's a cynical offshoot