The California Progress Report has a letter by Joanne McKray, a State Board Member of Common Cause and active in the California League of Women Voters. Part of the message is here, the rest below the fold. Gerrymandering is a long-standing tradition in US political history. It is not a time-honored one, because it makes… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Redistricting
Utah Reform Effort Blocked By GOP
The Salt Lake Tribune’s Jennifer Francis has an article focusing on a rookie legislator, Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, and her attempt to reform the Utah redistricting process: The other bill smothered in Rules would have created an independent redistricting commission to replace the highly partisan fight that now occurs in the Legislature every 10 years. The… Continue Reading
Spitzer Scandal and Redistricting
Spitzer was a strong supporter of redistricting reform in New York. A press release from the Governor’s office in April includes Spitzer and the Lt. Governor at the time, David Paterson, supporting “A constitutional amendment creating an independent redistricting commission to determine congressional and legislative apportionment. Members of the eleven-member commission will be appointed by… Continue Reading
Dan Walters’ Reform Critique
Dan Walters has a piece in the SacBee about the current reform initiative. He clearly sees the need for reform but doesn’t believe the commission is the right way to go about it. The two problems he highlights are 1) the absence of congressional districts and 2) that random commissioners may not have the expertise… Continue Reading
National Redistricting News
The Washington Post has an editorial in which they talked to President Bush on the polarization of Congress. The entire story is a good read, but here are a few key points: …members of Congress are ‘worried about taking a rational position’ because they fear being punished in primaries by challengers questioning their ideological purity.… Continue Reading
Arizona’s Rose-like Institute
I noticed this article on a new bill in the Arizona legislature that would create an Arizona institute “to provide access to election information, redistricting and state demographics.” Continue Reading
Republicans Donate to Reform Initiative
The San Jose Mercury News has a story by Steven Harmon on the massive donations by Republican donors to the Voters First initiative campaign: “If they don’t fix that, they’re in trouble,” said Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University-Sacramento, who has served on… Continue Reading
City of Pasadena Working to Endorse Reform
The Pasadena Star-News reports that the Pasadena city council is working towards a resolution in support of the Voters First initiative: The City Council is aiming to be the first in the state to endorse a plan to change the way state assembly and senate districts are drawn up. The council, at the prompting of… Continue Reading
Douglas M. Johnson on Voters First
From Fred Ortega’s article in the Pasadena Star News: But Common Cause’s approach may have a better chance at becoming law than past proposals, said Douglas Johnson of the Rose Institute for State and Local Government at Claremont-McKenna College. “This is a complicated issue, so when the powers that be throw in millions of dollars… Continue Reading
More on Governor and Redistricting
KQED’s John Myers has a very detailed report of Schwarzenegger and Westly working together supporting the Voters First redistricting measure: This morning, Schwarzenegger went back to Natomas … to launch another initiative campaign to reform redistricting. Working the early lunch/late breakfast crowd at a Mimi’s Cafe, the governor promoted a new redistricting initiative, this one… Continue Reading