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Redistricting News Round Up

By Murshed Zaheed
Posted on Tue Mar 01, 2005 at 02:26:27 PM EST

Looks like Georgia Republicans have gotten into the redistricting action - Tom DeLay style:
Republicans in the Georgia Legislature have reached consensus on new congressional district boundaries, Roll Call reported Monday. The proposed map shores up Republian Phil Gingrey's district and potentially complicates the re-election efforts of Democrats John Barrow and Jim Marshall. The state House and Senate redistricting committees passed the same version of a new congressional map Friday, bringing an end to a week of behind-the-scenes wrangling over how to reconcile the chambers' two competing plans.

The Georgia redistricting may have ripple effects in states like New Mexico.  We told you last week about the possibility of Democrats pursuing DeLay type of redistricting in New Mexico.  Governor Richardson (D-NM) is now saying he is keeping his options open.  Whatever that means. 

This is exactly what we are trying to avert in California - taking the redistricting process our of the hands of partisan politicians and put it in the hands of non-partisan, independent redistricting commissions. And it looks like majority of us are in agreement with that sentiment. The LA Times ran an editorial yesterday on the business of both parties in California teaming up to draw crooked redistricting lines:

Drawing crooked district lines, a long-standing political tradition, has become more sophisticated in recent years, thanks to the availability of computer mapping software. What was particularly unusual about California's 2001 redistricting was that Republicans and Democrats teamed up to protect virtually all the seats of both parties. Usually, the majority party — the Democrats in this state — uses its power to its own advantage, crafting as many majority-party seats as possible and leaving only a few truly competitive seats.

The effort worked so well that neither party lost a seat in the 2004 election. In a universe of 153 districts (80 Assembly, 20 state Senate and 53 congressional), Republicans won all the seats previously held by the GOP and Democrats retained all of their seats at stake. Experts say they are not aware of that ever happening before in California.


Well this has to stop. It has to stop in California, Georgia and everywhere else.  I wrote yesterday about Chellie joining Professor Lani Guinier in Cambridge to talk about redistricting.  She is going to post her thoughts from that forum later this week.  By the way, Harvard's school newspaper ran a great opinion piece previewing the forum yesterday arguing how control of congressional redistricting should be shifted into the hands of a nopartisan commission independent from the state legislatures.  Sounds like the same idea we have on how this whole redistricting business is suppose to work.


Tags: Redistricting (all tags)


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Redistricting News Round Up :: 12 Comments

Speaking of Delay

Common Cause members should support the petition that Public Campaign's action fund has going
http://ga3.org/campaign/speakercraddick

"to stop Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick from passing legislation designed to cover up the investigation into Tom DeLay, DeLay's state political action committee, and illegal corporate fundraising in Texas. But the bill is still pending, and we need your help to prevent it from seeing the light of day.

...

Yesterday, a civil trial got underway in Texas that promises to expose more details regarding just why a criminal investigation must take place. Indeed, as one attorney declared yesterday, this trial "is about basic laws protecting the integrity of the political process."

The attorney for DeLay's PAC doth protested too much: "This case is not about Tom DeLay."

But the most interesting development came on Friday when Speaker Craddick reached a deal in which he, through his attorneys, acknowledged that he distributed $152,000 to state candidates for DeLay's PAC, and that he might have shredded documents pertaining to the matter. In return, Craddick won't be required to take the stand to testify under oath.

But it's clear that Tom "The Shredder" Craddick and Tom "The Hammer" DeLay want the criminal investigation stopped dead in its tracks.

We can't let that happen..."
http://ga3.org/campaign/speakercraddick

by Blagfly on Tue Mar 01, 2005 at 05:12:57 PM EST


Common Cause position on ballot initiative

Does Common Cause plan to support Schwartzenegger's initiative on redistricting reform?
If not, will it get behind another initiative and launch signature-gathering?
Not that much time to spare on this!

by jimw on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 03:38:24 PM EST


Re: Common Cause position on ballot initiative

CC has not taken a position on the California ballot initiative for which Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday began collecting signatures.

by Murshed Zaheed on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 03:46:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Re: Common Cause position on ballot initiative

You said "CC has not taken a position on the California ballot initiative" are wrong. I recieve the email quoted below from CC one week ago. The CC national organization can not distance itself from the state CC's. The Schwartzenegger plan is an obvious move to first, disenfranchise minorities who tend to vote Demorcat, and second to dilute the liberal urban vote by combining urban neighborhoods with nearby agricutural areas that are primarily Republican. The whole idea of a priciple of creating district intentionally to make them competative will merely increase the recent trend of bitter divisiveness in the political process.

*****begin quoted CC email****
I am Kathay Feng, the incoming Executive Director of California Common Cause.  I start officially on April 4th, but as you can tell from the recent buzz on redistricting reform we generated in California last week, time (and political reform) waits for no one.  I want to let you know that we are moving forward quickly in the next two weeks to reform our state's redistricting process.  Let me share with you what is happening.

We now have a genuine opportunity to undo all the backroom dealings on redistricting from the past.  The door is open for us to reclaim power for the voters.  But we must act now.  We can reclaim our power by supporting legislation that would make an independent redistricting commission a reality.  Call the following key leaders in Sacramento today and urge them to hold public hearings, and to take concrete steps to enact responsible, open, and fair redistricting reform:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles): (916) 319-2046
Senate President Pro-tem Don Perata (D-Oakland): (916) 445-6577
Asm. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield): (916) 319-2032
Senator Dick Ackerman (R-Tustin): (916) 445-4264

For the first time, we are seeing real movement on both sides of the aisle to support an independent redistricting commission.

California Common Cause has endorsed both SCA 3  (Lowenthal, D) and ACAX1 3  (McCarthy, R) as two bills that take the power to redraw congressional and legislative districts out of the hands of the legislature and put it into the hands of a truly independent commission.

Both bills meet important Common Cause redistricting principles, including:

    *
      Fair criteria for drawing congressional and legislative districts
    *
      Public participation and transparency

Our allies, like the League of Women Voters of California and Asian Pacific American Legal Center agree with our principles on redistricting. There is still room for improvements to both bills, like strengthening provisions for diversity on the commission, and taking out mid-decade redistricting from ACAX1 3.  The key is that our elected leaders should be talking.

Let us know how your calls went by posting on our blog.  We will keep you updated as further developments unfold in our redistricting campaign.

Thank you again for all you do for Common Cause in California.

Sincerely,

Kathay Feng
Executive Director, Common Cause California

Support Common Cause California:
www.commoncause.org/supportyourstate  

by tscharf on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 05:09:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Re: Common Cause position on ballot initiative

The email doesn't say anywhere whether CC has endorsed Governor's intiative.

by Murshed Zaheed on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 05:12:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Re: Common Cause position on ballot initiative

Sophistry is unbecoming.

by c1ferrari on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 05:27:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Missing Distinctions - Ballot Initiative v. Law

C1Ferrari and Tscharf,

If I am not mistaken, Schwarzenegger's ballot initiative cannot possibly be the same legal effort as the bills mentioned in CC CA's email.

A ballot initiative is a distinct legal process from the legislative drafting by CA state representatives and represntatives.  One's is a ballot initiative to be voted on, the other is the normal method of passing law.  

Therefore, unless the language of the initiative and the proposed ballot initiative are identical, CC CA is not endorsing Schwarzenegger's petition initiative.

I however would like to hear what Arnold is selling and why it is not the same thing that was being discussed during the CC/Arnold press conference.  So whats the story Murshed?

by Blagfly on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 08:50:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]


redistricting

I see many references to "independent commissions" being used to handle redistricting. With todays technology couldn't we write a simple computer program that would divide states into geographically logical districts and let the chips fall where they may?

by mlemanek on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 08:30:09 PM EST


Black Box Democracy

I've seen a few comments making this basic point.

I can't imagine a worse way to go about redistricting.

Using a computer program to redistrict would introduce all the problems of unverified electronic voting into the redistricting process.

Who would write this program?  What criteria would it be based on?  How would transparency in the program's determination of the districts be achieved and insured?

How would legislators who know less than bupkis about computer programming choose between worthless and worthy computer redistricting methods.

Finally, even if all of these issues could be resolved - the idea seems to require that the computer's redistricting would be final.  That means that a black box would have the final say and that no human imput or opportunity for human evaluation would determine the process.

If the result was badly suited to factors not accounted for in "the program" there would be no opportunity to correct for the problem.  That is a huge problem in my view.  Redistricting must be more flexible than that.

by Blagfly on Wed Mar 02, 2005 at 09:01:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Congressional redistricting

The move to have "non-partisan" districting in selected states may well have the result of increasing the aggressive, bad-government majority in Congress.  If ALL states used a "fair" method, the results would likely be an improvement.  But if only the fairer-minded electorate do it, while the aggressive, special-interest states (like Texas) continue to pervert the process to increase the dominance of right-wing, special-interest Congressmen, the Common Cause efforts will make things worse, not better.

Common Cause is moving recklessly ahead on a dangerous course without analysis of the outcomes which it is promoting.

Neal Potter

by Anonymous Citizen on Fri Apr 08, 2005 at 10:14:52 AM EST


How many times do I have to file a user account?

I have already filed my user account (this morning), but when I post a comment I'm told I'm "not logged in".  How do I get through the barrier?

Neal Potter

by Anonymous Citizen on Fri Apr 08, 2005 at 10:18:21 AM EST


Comon Cause Websie not working

On 5/17/05 .I tried to sign NPR petition but could not send any  email or access the mainweb page.  Is there a hacker attack or just a bug?

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue May 17, 2005 at 01:11:35 PM EST


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