Mulcare: Commissioner Resorted to Groundless Racial Pandering

Mike Mulcare today released the following statement regarding approval of Douglas County's commission district map.

I never had any doubt that the new county district map would receive preclearance from the Department of Justice. That’s why four commissioners very prudently proceeded with qualifying under the new district map to avoid delays in qualifying and getting voting information sent to citizens.

The voting population “numbers” in the map, the respect for minority representation, the validity of the reasons for the map and the overall positive ways it will serve all Douglas County citizens have been validated by the Voting Rights Division of the DOJ when they gave their approval on Tuesday. They would not have hesitated to disapprove the new map had any aspect of the map not met voting rights requirements.

I am repeatedly asked this question: Why six months after a 42 day public input period (from September 20 to November 1, in 2011) has Commissioner Robinson challenged the map? I will refrain from speculation on his motives but simply state that if this map really had such glaring faults as he says, he failed his constituents in not “packing” Citizens’ Hall for the public hearing on November 1, 2011. He did not do so and not a single citizen attended the public hearing on the map which was advertised in numerous ways for over a month.

It has pained me and many Douglas County citizens to have a sitting county commissioner resort to groundless racial pandering that had absolutely no basis in reality. The fact is our county has gone from one “minority district” to two in the new map. This map fairly represents our demographic make-up, and no intelligent and honest person would say otherwise.

This commissioner will now face very viable opposition in Freddie Ashmon in the primary, something he would have avoided had he prevailed in his cynical challenge to the county’s lawful, equitable and fair district map. Because of the need to retain legal representation with the DOJ in Washington, D.C., what remains now is for all of us taxpayers in the county to pay these additional legal fees, caused by his and others’ political self-interests.

Commissioner Mike Mulcare

Other Douglasville Patch articles on this matter:

Robinson Files Lawsuit Against Commission's Redistricting Map

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