2011 Toner Prize Honorable Mention for ProPublica
The Stories: With a combination of computer mapping and shoe-leather reporting, the ProPublica team of reporters draw a clear and alarming picture of how powerful forces shape voting districts in states across the county. The entry description: “As states across the country began the once-in-ten-year reapportionment, we decided to take a closer look at how powerful interests were manipulating the process. We paired two of our most technically savvy journalists, Olga Pierce and Jeff Larson, to report and build software tools that could analyze draft maps and detect gerrymandering that might otherwise escape scrutiny. They were well-suited to the task. Pierce is an investigative reporter with a background in computer-assisted reporting and Larson is an accomplished coder on ProPublica’s news applications team. Later, they were joined by reporter Lois Beckett. They combined their technical acumen with shoe-leather reporting, interviewing political insiders from Massachusetts to California. Taken together, their series turned up a remarkable array of front groups and shadowy PACs whose partisan intent was cloaked in the gauzy clichés of good government and fair districts. To demystify the technical aspects of the subject, we created a music video and accompanying ‘Devil’s Dictionary’ glossary to help readers understand the arcane and sometimes cynical terminology used by redistricting insiders. Words like ‘packing’ and ‘cracking’ are helpfully illustrated in the video through a song and cartoon. Our first piece, ‘The Hidden Hands in Redistricting,’ looked at how corporations were secretly funding groups like ‘Fair Districts Mass’ and ‘Protect Your Vote.’ We looked at three states – Massachusetts, Florida and California – where corporate and union money could be donated without limits. We found that the key weapons in redistricting – sophisticated voter data, mapping consultants and lobbyists to influence legislators – were frequently paid for by special interests. Among them was a group that called itself Minnesotans for a Fair Redistricting. Our reporting showed that it shared leadership with the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, an organization with close ties to the Koch Brothers. The head of the Freedom Foundation said she had ‘no involvement’ with Fair Redistricting. But the organizations’ tax filings show the same business address: the home of Freedom Foundation’s founder and CEO, Annette Meeks, a one-time Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Another story, ‘How Democrats Fooled the California Redistricting Commission,’ documented an effort by members of California’s Congressional delegation to influence the work of a citizen’s commission created to draw non-partisan maps. California had long been notorious for a redistricting process dominated by a few political insiders in the state capital of Sacramento. In a series of referendums, voters set up an independent commission whose deliberations were to be transparent and insulated from partisan politics. A close look at the process, informed by confidential e-mails, showed that senior Democrats had set out to surreptitiously manipulate the board. Democrats sent party operatives and family members to testify on behalf of ersatz community groups. In several cases, they prevailed against maps proposed by genuine groups. Politico, among others, called it ‘probably the single best piece of redistricting reporting all year.’ Redistricting is a hidden war, fought by powerful interests behind closed doors, fueled by millions of dollars whose sources are typically not disclosed. Our coverage has given readers and voters a new understanding of this process.”
The Reporters:
Olga Pierce: writes about foreclosure, redistricting and unemployment insurance issues for ProPublica. She is a graduate of the Stabile Investigative Journalism Seminar at Columbia University, where she won a Horton Prize for health reporting. Before Columbia, she covered health policy for United Press International in Washington where, in addition to writing stories about Medicare Part D, uninsured Americans and AIDS vaccine, she appeared as a commentator on C-SPAN and went to Camp David as a White House pool reporter. Her stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Hindustan Times, Lincoln Journal-Star and other newspapers. Olga is fluent in Czech and has a bachelor’s in international economics from Georgetown University.
Jeff Larson: is a news application developer. He was the online director at The Nation where he coordinated the magazine’s editorial and business activities on the web during the 2009 political season. Previously, he worked at W.W. Norton and as a film and video editor at an Emmy award winning production company.
Lois Beckett: has reported on changes in the news industry for the Nieman Journalism Lab. She was a 2010 Village Voice Media Fellow at the SF Weekly. She has written for the Times of India, the Accra Daily Mail and the Reading Eagle, among others. She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in social studies.
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