Former Florida Republican Rep. David Jolly is a vocal critic of the Trump administration and the direction he sees the Republican party heading.
Jolly will be in Louisville this week to interview conservative writer David Frum at the Kentucky Author Forum. I spoke with him about Trump, special counsel Robert Mueller and how to bridge the partisan divide.
You can listen to our conversation in the player above.
Interview Highlights
On bipartisanship in Washington:
"Unfortunately, being bipartisan in Washington means you score at least 10 percent of the time working across the aisle. But I think there are some fundamental flaws within our system, our electoral system, that have happened very deliberately over time. Particularly starting in the '90s under Newt Gingrich when he created an almost state by state campaign.
"I always speak to three issues that created where we are: gerrymandering, a closed primary system, and campaign finance laws. And each one of those served to insulate partisanship and reward those who only look to their own party โ Democrat or Republican. And so, look, I've been on the campaign suggesting let's create electorally competitive districts, let's open primaries and let's fix campaign finance."
On addressing gerrymandering:
"States are starting to change how they draw lines and the Supreme Court has largely said if voters lead a state constitutional initiative within their state, as long as it doesn't violate certain heightened classes of civil rights and race and gender, it would be permissible. So you're seeing independent commissions that take legislators out of the process.
"In Florida we saw them pass fair districts, a voter-led initiative that said they want geographically compact districts. I've made the case let's keep the momentum going, but importantly let's look at electoral competitiveness."
Former GOP Congressman David Jolly will interview conservative author David Frum Wednesday, January 31 at the Kentucky Center. There's more information about the Kentucky Author Forum here.
