TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! LATINO AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN GROUP LED BY CONGRESSMAN CLEAVER SHAPES KANSAS CITY REDISTRICTING!!!

Today Kansas City Attorney Clinton Adams told the Kansas City Redistricting Special Committee about a group of Latinos and African-Americans helped shape this redistricting process under the leadership of Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.

Mr. Adams expressed his gratitude to the Congressman for moving the redistricting process forward  and past Latinos & African-American simply fighting each other for position during the redistricting discussion. Old School Politico Paul Rojas and a few others were also members of the group formed by Congressman Cleaver. TKC FUN FACT: One of their meetings was at an Earth, Wind & Fire Concert!!! Nice.

True, this panel was influential . . . However, behind the scenes I think credit also goes to some of the veteran KC Politicos on the Special Committee who didn't let this process get as contentious as it was last time.



As usual, Clinton Adams kept everyone on their toes with his comments.

Adams commended Former City Council Dude John Fairfield for listening to the concerns of the African-American Community.

Interestingly, he criticized the two African-American members of the panel and the map that Mr. Shomari Benton had devised.

Paraphrasing here but he basically said . . .

"We must have at least two districts that meet a 60% ratio of an African-American population. African-American's comprise 30% of the City's population. We have two districts that elect our African-American elected officials. We don't want more than that but we can't take less."

Stacy Daniels-Young chaired the meeting also noted problems with Mr. Benton's map.

"You're sacrificing our population numbers 3 & 5th District for the hope that we might be able to elect African-Americans in the 6th someday," she said.

For his part, Mr. Benton noted that it wasn't his intention to disenfranchise anyone. He reminded the room that he resides in the 3rd. And he noted the population differences in his maps were minimal. 



Still . . . It was surprising when Mr. Adams recognized that Former Councilman Fairfield's map was by far the most equitable.



Look closely . . . What you'll see is a 4th District that swings into Northeast . . . For old school Kansas City residents, that's basically what the "Bobby Hernandez District" looked like so many years ago . . . He was the last Latino KC Council Dude to win more than one election . . . AND NOT have problems with the Feds.

An Interesting footnote: At the end of this process, Council Dude Russ Johnson will actually reside in the 4th . . .

The macro trend that is important to everybody . . . THERE'S SIMPLY NO DENYING THAT NORTHLAND POPULATION GROWTH IS OUTPACING EVERY OTHER PART OF KANSAS CITY!!!

There's a lot of talk about when or if the economy turns around . . . I doubt much is going to change and it's really clear that KC is simply becoming more centered in the Northland every day. Natch.