Welcome to this week’s edition of REDMAP Rundown, a synopsis of redistricting news brought to you by the RSLC’s REDistricting MAjority Project (REDMAP). This weekly update gives you the latest on what those in the Beltway, and across the country, are saying about the impending reapportionment and redistricting process.

In this week’s REDMAP Rundown: The real fight of 2010, a “double win” for Republicans, complete control, eyeing the Great Lakes, spotlighting Indiana, gaining the advantage in Pennsylvania, Koch keeps fighting in NY and Mississippi wants to hear it.

“Forget Congress,” writes Gannett’s Chuck Raasch.  “The real political fight in 2010, one with consequences for the next five elections to follow, is the battle for state legislatures and governorships all across the country.  Key 2010 battlegrounds are in Michigan, among other Great Lakes states; and in states with growing populations in the South and Southwest.  ‘Political signs point to a Republican year in state legislative races this fall, and that could spell trouble for Democrats in Washington for years to come,’ said Tim Storey, an analyst with the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.  Storey said 27 state houses or senate chambers could change control to the other party. … If Nov. 2 is a big Republican wave election, it could give the GOP sole redistricting authority in the drawing of more than 160 House districts — nearly six times more than their Democratic counterparts.’”

Susan Milligan reports in the Boston Globe, “Adding to the potential bonanza for Republicans is that this is also a US census year, meaning congressional districts across the nation will be redrawn based on the 2010 population statistics. The better the performance by Republicans at the local level, the more influence they will have in reshaping the political boundaries for the following election.  ‘It looks like a double win for the Republicans in the 2010 elections,’’ said Jeffrey M. Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University. ‘They’ll not only gain seats this time, but they’ll plant the seeds for gaining seats in 2012.’”

The Hill’s Shane D’Aprile writes, “Republicans could hold complete control over the redistricting process in several key states after the 2010 elections.  If the party’s gubernatorial candidates were to emerge with wins in Texas, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan — all states where Republicans either lead or are tied in recent polls — and the GOP holds or wins control of legislative chambers in those same states, Republicans could monopolize the post-2010 redraw.  ‘If Republicans do really well on Election Day, they could swing a lot more seats that they would have control over,’ said analyst Kimball Brace, who heads Election Data Services, a bipartisan firm that specializes in the census and redistricting. ‘A shift of 10 to 15 [state legislative] chambers is enough to swing [the process] dramatically toward the Republicans.’”

“While attention once again is focused on the debilitating political and policy fights in Washington,” Jerry Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal, “the most important political story of 2010 may lie in a series of gubernatorial and state legislative races in the same Great Lakes region of the upper Midwest. … In their quest for these prizes, Republicans are bringing significant resources to the table. Ed Gillespie, a former national party chairman, this year is running the RSLC, an organization devoted to electing state officials. He says the committee has assembled 85,000 individual donors and will bring $18 million to state-level battles, including many in the upper Midwest.”

“Republicans currently control the Indiana Governor’s mansion and the state Senate (by a wide margin), and if they can capture a majority in the state House, the GOP can effectively reshape Hoosier State politics for the next decade. With the Democrats holding a narrow 52-48 lead in the House, the 2010 elections could be a game changer for the Indiana GOP. According to House Republican Leader Brian Bosma, ‘This is the year that we will predetermine state legislative and congressional leadership for the next decade through the maps.’”

“Pennsylvania is in a column of states where Republicans could have complete control over the redrawing of boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts to meet population shifts, according to The Hill.” The Daily Review reports, “Tom Corbett, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, holds a solid lead over Democratic candidate Dan Onorato, while Republicans have unbroken control of the state Senate and are within shot of taking away control of the state House from Democrats if things break their way. The current House breakdown is 104 Democrats to 98 Republicans with one vacancy.  A GOP sweep would give the party a decided advantage in drawing districts that favor party candidates, strategists suggest.”

“Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch is in Rochester today to support his effort to convince the State Legislature to reform the process that establishes district boundaries.  Koch is here to salute the ‘heros of reform’ — those candidates and incumbents who have signed his pledge, — and to call out those who haven’t.”

“A series of 12 open meetings will be held by Mississippi’s Standing Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting to gather citizen input before they begin the process of creating new legislative and congressional districts.  Mississippians are asked to attend the meetings and voice their opinions before redistricting begins in early 2011. By that time, the state will have received federal census data to be used in the process of creating new districts based upon population shifts.”

The RSLC is the only national organization whose mission is to elect down ballot state-level Republican office-holders. To sign up for the REDMAP Rundown, or for more information or media inquiries, please contact Adam Temple at 571.480.4891.