The Rose Report’s first comment, received last week, is from Steve Maviglio, deputy chief of staff for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and writer over at the California Majority Report, in response to Wednesday’s post. Asking the Rose Institute about redistricting is like asking the Tobacco Institute about smoking. Sure, Steve . . . let’s see… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Archive
Douglas Johnson in the Whittier Daily News
From an article by Tania Chatila in the Whittier Daily News: If passed, The Homeowners Protection Act would restrict city agencies from taking residential property through eminent domain and turning it over to private developers, said Kathy Fairbanks, a spokeswoman for Eminent Domain Reform Now, a California advocacy group. The California Property Owners and Farmland… Continue Reading
Dr. Pitney on Fact-Checking Election Websites
Yesterday’s article by Emily Yahr in the American Journalism Review says: In addition to changing readers’ views, these Web sites could also have an impact on the candidates themselves, says Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. A campaign is never going to provide impartial information, he says, but… Continue Reading
GovTrack-ing
I’m loving certain, simple aspects of the GovTrack site. The Open Planning Project gives the website a wee bit of assistance. See their GeoServer Project. Continue Reading
Not Coming Soon: The Redistricting Amendment
The ThinkSouth blog mentions that a recent New York Times book review of Larry Sabato’s A More Perfect Constitution reveals that Sabato says: The Constitution itself must call for universal nonpartisan redistricting. The states should be given a choice of methods, including redistricting by a panel of retired judges or an independent citizens commission. Of… Continue Reading
Modern Art Masterpieces, Pennsylvania Edition
From C. Briem of the Null Space blog From the Rose Report’s modern art masterpiece series, this lovely piece is entitled “Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District.” Note the religious, trinitarian overtones, as the three unique open spaces hold bizarre, corridor-like hands to celebrate unity in the midst of asymmetric diversity. See also the same district overlaid… Continue Reading
Redistricting: Geography, Chance, and Algorithms
A recent letter-to-the-editor in The Appeal-Democrat suggested we just draw district lines according to latitude across the state to create the areas our legislators represent. Many people say such things, not unreasonably, because they are ignorant of the fact that such districts would inevitably be unconstitutional. A more complicated suggestion that in some ways amounts… Continue Reading
Frost on Redistricting 2011: “The Ultimate Political Contest”
An op-ed by former Democratic Congressman Martin Frost on the FOX News website says: Every so often an important political issue flies “under the radar screen.” In other words, it’s not considered important enough for the national press to spend any time covering it. A perfect example is the next round of redistricting scheduled for… Continue Reading
Interview with the New Chairman Of the Rose Board
The following article is from our Fall, 2007 newsletter: Darryl Wold served as a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (1998-2002), including terms as chairman (2000) and vice chairman (1999). Mr. Wold has served as counsel to Reed & Davidson since 1988. He has been an assistant to the speaker of the California State Assembly,… Continue Reading
Maviglio v. Diaz on Redistricting
In his Sunday column John Diaz of the San Francisco Chronicle remarked that “against all odds, the Bay Area is looking at the possibility of two extremely competitive primaries against incumbents next June,” referring to former state Sen. Jackie Speier taking on Rep. Tom Lantos and Assemblyman Mark Leno (and possibly former Assemblymember Joe Nation)… Continue Reading