Fighting to overcome gerrymandering

And DeSantis gets the green light for his latest fascist plot

Welcome to a Wednesday evening edition of Progress Report.

We begin tonight with some disappointing but not unexpected news: The Florida Board of Education voted today to approve the new rule that makes teachers liable to be fired and even stripped over their licenses for violating the state’s “Don’t Say LGBTQ” and anti-CRT laws. The rule was one of several bigoted new guidelines approved by the school board, which is comprised almost entirely of fiercely right-wing Ron DeSantis appointees.

The board voted unanimously to adopt the rule, which belies its unpopularity amongst a majority of parents and teachers all across the state. During today’s public hearing, held in Orlando, the DeSantis administration’s disinterest in hearing opposing views was on full display when board members had a teacher forcibly removed by armed security guards while she was giving comment on the rule.

That anyone was at the meeting at all was a testament to the power of organizers to cut through the noise and keep their activists focused on an issue that was entirely omitted from just about any mainstream news coverage. The DeSantis administration was banking on slipping this new rule under the radar, and had it not been for our work here Progress Report, the rule would have gone entirely under the public radar.

That’s not just me saying that — take it from the Washington Post, which credited our reporting in a piece published late last week:

The Florida Department of Education has done little to publicize its rule on teachers’ licenses. The rule appeared online around the same time that the state was taking damage from Hurricane Ian, which has left more than 100 dead. News of the rule was first reported Tuesday by the newsletter the Progress Report.

This is exactly the sort of work that we want to keep doing here at Progress Report, putting the spotlight on the stories that go ignored in the national press and championing the work of grassroots organizers (including the activists that flagged the Florida rule for us). Your support makes all of this possible, and every new donation and upgraded premium member helps us build up the newsletter even further.

On that note, tonight we have a great story from Natalie Meltzer about a troubling trend in state legislative elections and how activists are seeking to address the issue in the absence of Congressional action.

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by Natalie Meltzer

We have covered how extreme gerrymandering; unlimited spending by dark money groups; and Republican legislation to roll back voting rights have decreased the number of competitive elections over time. All of these efforts contribute to a sense of apathy and defeatism around the political process, which becomes a very vicious cycle.

One effect of the rigged system is that down ballot races go uncontested. Of the 6,278 state legislature seats up for election this year, 2,656 (42%) have no major party competition—the highest rate since 2016 and up from 35% in 2020.