Dear fellow Georgian,

Redistricting is heating up and now Georgia Republicans have entered the fray. Common Cause has been fighting for non-partisan independent commissions, to draw the district lines, rather than partisan officials often with their own jobs at stake. Common Cause is working in nearly a dozen states, including Texas, Florida and California, and now we turn our attention to Georgia.

We need your help to reign in the partisan mess that is our redistricting process in Georgia. After gaining a majority in the General Assembly in last November's elections, the Republicans in Georgia are attempting to redraw the congressional maps laid out in 2001. A federal court upheld those same congressional maps when Republicans attempted to challenge them. Now as they try once again to gerrymander our congressional maps, we need to stand up against this process filled with blatant partisan motivations:

www.commoncause.org/stopgeorgiagerrymandering

The latest set of maps, likely to pass both houses in the next few days, is an obvious strategy to tilt the Georgia districts to give Republicans two to three more seats in the 2006 election. We need to let our elected officials know that it is we the people, not they the elected, who own the electoral process . They may benefit from districts that are virtually homogenous with respect to party affiliation, but we lose. It is time for this archaic process to go:

www.commoncause.org/stopgeorgiagerrymandering

We believe the right way to proceed in Georgia is not to continue the partisan dogfight that has defined our redistricting efforts in the past. The solution we are seeking is to take the job of redrawing the district lines out of the hands of the highly partisan legislature. Currently, ten states have already created independent commissions with party neutrality to draw their district lines every ten years. That's where Georgia needs to go.

You can help us in our effort to restore the power of electoral process into the hands of Georgians, by signing our petition today. Ask Governor Sonny Perdue to veto the current redistricting bill, and instead set up a blue ribbon study team to come up with recommendations for an independent redistricting commission based on models from other states where citizens have already taken back their redistricting process.

With your help we can set Georgia on the right track to establish compact, contiguous, and competitive districts, free of incumbent protection.

Thank you for all you do to protect democracy in Georgia.

Sincerely,

Bill Bozarth
Executive Director

Support Common Cause in Georgia:
www.commoncause.org/SupportYourState