Gerrymandering is not necessarily a bad thing. Elections have consequences.
Posted on 11/02/2005 1:36:02 PM PST by calcowgirl
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters in California and Ohio will decide next week whether to strip state politicians of the right to draw their own legislative district lines, the first public tests of a national effort to increase electoral competition and reduce the power of incumbency.
The two ballot initiatives, California's Proposition 77 and Ohio's Issue 4, would transfer the power to set congressional and legislative boundaries to independent panels, robbing state lawmakers of their traditional ability to twist and shape district lines for political advantage.
Similar initiatives are in the works in Florida and Massachusetts, and at least a dozen states have proposals in their state legislatures to create independent or bipartisan panels to handle the highly political process of redrawing districts every decade to reflect changes in population.
While district lines are supposed to be redrawn fairly based on census figures, the parties in charge often have used the process to "gerrymander" districts to their advantage. Increasingly sophisticated computer software has made a science of identifying and grouping voters.
The result, reform proponents say, is a bankrupt election system that safeguards incumbents, protects the party in power and cuts voters out of the democratic process.
"We're experiencing a slow-motion coup d'etat in California and in the rest of this country," said Bill Mundell, chairman of Californians for Fair Redistricting, which proposed the state's ballot initiative.
"The politicians, aided by significant advances in technology, have rewritten the districts in such a way that they have almost no possibility of losing," he said.
Opponents of both measures call them power grabs designed to reverse the results of past elections and both initiatives trail in public opinion polls after becoming swept up in local politics.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican in a Democratic-controlled state, has led the charge for the referendum there with help from Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
SCHWARZENEGGER DRAG EFFECT?
But analysts said Schwarzenegger's declining popularity has helped drag down the measure, one of four reform proposals he is pushing on the November 8 ballot.
In Republican-controlled Ohio, Democratic-leaning groups have led the fight and hope for help from an ethics scandal consuming Republican Gov. Bob Taft. The Ohio proposal is also part of a broader package of election reforms.
"How you feel about changing the process largely depends on how you came out in the last redistricting cycle and how you will come out in the next one," said Tim Storey, a redistricting analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.
"If it passes in California and Ohio, then it's going to get a great deal of attention in other states," he said. "If they go down it will probably take the air out of things until the next redistricting cycle."
The national push for reform has been fueled by the declining number of competitive state and congressional races, a trend many analysts blame on redistricting. In California, none of the state's 153 congressional and state legislative races resulted in a change of parties in 2004.
Nationally, only five House incumbents lost to challengers in 2004 and more than 80 percent of House races across the country were won by margins of at least 20 percentage points, according to an analysis by FairVote-the Center for Voting and Democracy.
The movement also has been aided by recent events in Texas and Georgia, where the legislatures abandoned the tradition of redrawing lines only once every 10 years.
After Republicans won control of the Texas legislature in 2002, they redrew congressional lines with the help of then-House Republican Leader Tom DeLay and used the new lines to pick up five seats in Congress. Republicans in Georgia also redrew congressional lines after gaining control of the legislature.
"There is a great consensus that the lack of voter choice and competition is a problem," said Robert Richie, executive director of FairVote-the Center for Voting and Democracy. "It is not as easy agreeing on a solution."
ifornia a city in Ohio?
It has been screwed up for a very long time. This will help, but I would like to repeal the 17th Amendment, too.
Don't have a Cal, man !
ROFL! I just requested that the mod fix that. My mistake.
NO on 2,3,4 and 5 in Ohio! They try to dress this crap up and call it reform. It's still Demwit crap!
"After Republicans won control of the Texas legislature in 2002, they redrew congressional lines with the help of then-House Republican Leader Tom DeLay and used the new lines to pick up five seats in Congress. Republicans in Georgia also redrew congressional lines after gaining control of the legislature."
Yup, no bias here. No mention that the TX legislature did NOT draw the lines for the '03-'05 Congress but liberal 'Rat JUDGES did. No mention that the GA 'Rats drew monstrously gerrymandered lines designed to disenfranchise the Republican-voting majority and that this is correcting an injustice to make the lines resemble the ones drawn for the '90s.
This is obviously a scam intended to keep the RATS in power. Who would compose these "independent" commissions? And how would they be appointed.
It is interesting that they have proposed this only after Texas was properly redistricted.
Yes, the deck will be stacked according to the people who get to appoint the "independent" commissioners.
Don't be so quick to dismiss the idea that voting districts should be drawn without trying to predetermine the makeup as to which party will end up with a safe district.
Safe districts mean no turnover for years. Whether the guy in a safe seat is a Dem or Rep, the longer they are there the less responsive to the district they become.
If the commission was truly impartial and the districts followed logical lines like rivers, town boundaries, etc, we would get better districts.
I am not signed up for the LA Times to put up a link but if someone else can, please feel free.
This is an excerpt from the article and the governor's quote.
"He cited Proposition 77, which would strip the Legislature of the power to draw voting districts and give it instead to a panel of retired judges. Schwarzenegger conceded that some Republicans are upset with that, worried that it could diminish the party's clout depending on how the new boundaries are drawn. 'What do I care? It doesn't make any difference to me if there are more Republicans getting a seat or more Democrats getting a seat,' the governor said."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-forum29oct29,1,1822725.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
(snip)
Schwarzenegger sought to demonstrate his sincerity in striving to fix what he calls a "broken system" by stressing that he doesn't care if his own party is upset with him.
He cited Proposition 77, which would strip the Legislature of the power to draw voting districts and give it instead to a panel of retired judges. Schwarzenegger conceded that some Republicans are upset with that, worried that it could diminish the party's clout depending on how the new boundaries are drawn.
"What do I care? It doesn't make any difference to me if there are more Republicans getting a seat or more Democrats getting a seat," the governor said.
And that's the right attitude to have. This isn't about advancing or hindering some faction's political fortunes. It's about doing away with a conflict-of-interests that's been poisoning our political system for a long time now.
Oops, sorry. I meant that to be posted to calcowgirl in post #1. I'm getting sloppy. :-)
Why would you want a redistricting plan that put even more Republicn seats in jeopardy? Do you really want DeLay to come back to work as the minority leader?
You aren't the only one that thinks that.
Ballot item creates GOP split
Doolittle opposes proposition on redistricting, but activists, other Republicans back it.
Sacramento Bee, September 11, 2005
"I think people know I am a pretty strong and loyal Republican," the 54-year-old, eight-term congressman said. "This proposition is bad for the Republican Party."With only nine of the 20 members of the California Republican congressional delegation lined up behind Schwarzenegger's redistricting initiative, Doolittle represents the majority view but feels a bit lonely on the front lines.
It may come as a big surprise to California Republicans backing Schwarzenegger's initiative, but Doolittle is convinced that the California measure has unwittingly become part of a nationwide Democratic plot.
"Democrats are doing this because they think this is a way they are going to take away our majority in Congress," he said.
Grass-roots redistricting initiatives are also under way in Illinois, Michigan and Florida, he said. If the California initiative isn't nipped in the bud, Doolittle forecasts a flowering national movement.
"The speaker of the House, the entire House leadership, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the chairman of the Republican National Committee all think (Proposition 77) is a disastrous idea," Doolittle said.
The Ohio measure, which recently qualified for the November ballot, is being pushed by Democrats and labor unions [and endorsed by Schwarzenegger]. According to Ohio Republicans, they could lose six of their 12 seats in Congress.
McCain is now running an advertisement on TV stressing that Voters will get to approve the districts. What he doesn't tell you is that the new districts will be used before the voters approve them. If they are disapproved, those elected with the (disapproved) district lines will remain in office and the judges go back to the drawing board. After that, newly drawn districts will again be used before they are approved, and, if disapproved, resulting election results will stand. Theoretically, these new districts could be used in multiple elections, never being approved by voters (in fact, being disapproved!).
Gerrymandering is not necessarily a bad thing. Elections have consequences.
So how do you expect it to be any worse than what the legislature draws up?
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