Democratic lawyer Marc Elias, who has been filing and threatening lawsuits around the country accusing Republican-led legislatures of drawing grotesquely gerrymandered political maps, is facing charges of hypocrisy after he filed a legal motion last week in Maryland that would allow him to defend similarly gerrymandered maps approved by Democrats in that state.
Elias, a prominent gun-for-hire representing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, filed a motion on January 20 to intervene in a partisan gerrymandering case in Maryland. If the motion is granted, the DCCC would become a defendant in the case, which was filed in December by the nonpartisan Fair Maps Maryland.
The Fair Maps Maryland lawsuit claims that Maryland's new political maps, approved by Democratic lawmakers, are unconstitutional and based on extreme partisan gerrymandering. It is one of two lawsuits targeting the maps. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project has given Maryland's congressional map an "F" grade for offering a "significant Democratic advantage."
In his motion, Elias wrote that the DCCC's purpose for intervening is "to defend its interests in congressional districts in Maryland" and to "allow Democratic candidates to be competitive" in the deep-blue state. The new congressional map keeps seven safe Democratic seats, and makes the lone Republican district more competitive for Democrats.
Elias has been a harsh critic of alleged partisan gerrymandering in Republican-led states and has filed several lawsuits challenging their new political maps. In November, he filed a legal challenge to North Carolina's Republican-approved congressional map, calling it a "grotesque partisan gerrymander," "indefensible," and proof the Republican Party "has lost all shame."
Fair Maps Maryland called Elias's motion to intervene "an appalling display of hypocrisy."
"If hypocrisy has a face and a name, this is it," Fair Maps Maryland spokesman Doug Mayer said in a prepared statement. "Nothing screams you don't have a legal leg to stand on than bringing in high-powered, partisan attorneys to defend the indefensible."
Attempts to reach Elias via email and on the phone were unsuccessful Tuesday.
Maryland's new political maps are based on its 2010 maps, which critics have called the most gerrymandered in the nation. The Washington Post has called Maryland's third congressional district "the nation's most bizarrely gerrymandered district." In 2017, former Democratic governor Martin O'Malley acknowledged that he had engaged in manipulating maps for political purposes, a practice he said he no longer supports.
"As a governor, I held that redistricting pen in my own Democratic hand," he said in a speech documented by the Washington Post. "I was convinced that we should use our political power to pass a map that was more favorable for the election of Democratic candidates."
Maryland Democrats argue that the 2010 redistricting maps largely survived legal challenges, and since the new maps are cleaned-up versions of the old maps, the new maps likely will too.
Elias is best known as Hillary Clinton's campaign lawyer who paid for the salacious Steele dossier in 2016, and for leading the still-controversial 2008 Minnesota Senate recount that ended with Al Franken overtaking Republican Norm Coleman — giving Democrats the 60-seat majority they needed to pass the Affordable Care Act. In recent years, he has been the primary mastermind behind the Democrats' election-lawsuit machine. He documents his cases and others on his so-called "Democracy Docket."
Republican lawyers who have faced off against Elias describe an opponent who is smart, sophisticated, and hyper-aggressive with his litigation strategy, and willing to go scorched earth if there's a prayer of overturning an election result in his client's favor. But they also describe a lawyer prone to puffery, inflating the importance of his victories in the press and on social media, and then falling silent when those victories are overturned by higher courts. He paints himself as a crusader for voters, they say, but is at heart a partisan Democrat motivated to help Democrats win at any cost.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sanctioned Elias and other attorneys with his former firm, Perkins Coie, for violating ethical rules in a Texas voting case. Elias launched his own firm last summer.
Despite his open partisanship and his history of misleading reporters, Elias is often feted by the mainstream media and treated as a hero of democracy.
"I'm committed and my team is committed to litigating, wherever, as often as necessary to protect democracy," Elias told CNN host Jim Acosta in a fawning interview on Monday night. "There is no higher calling as a lawyer or as a citizen."
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