Redistricting Circus & FL Legislature

Every 10 years we take the census which gathers information about population growth or decline and is used for a variety of things from funding to voting patterns to statistical data

Political Theatre

Erie County Legislators Betty Jean Grant and Barbara Miller-Williams presented competing maps that were to be voted on by the legislature. Betty Jean’s map had 40% of the landmass of Erie County in one district while Barbara Miller-Williams had more even districts but they cracked up communities to help Republicans—something she denies to this day. However, it ended up in court in 2011 and Judge William Skretny ended up drawing the map which I believe County Legislators are running on today.

Every 10 years, for astute political observers, we are always looking out for this and how it’ll play out in court. AZ’s Governor wanted to fire a woman who headed the Independent Redistricting Commission because Brewer felt that the maps provided to the Legislature advantaged Democrats by making districts more competetive. In CA, the same happened in 2010 and FL voters passed a constitutional amendment to say that the districts can’t employ odd shapes and favor one party over the other. Fair enough, but when you put Legislators in charge of the districts they’ll do exactly that. An example in NY Congressional race, NY-26 was represented by Kathy Hochul and redrawn to elect Chris Collins—or ANY Republican that ran for that seat. Do you get a sense now that the Census is more important than just gathering population data?  Also, NY lost 2 seats and not only did the County Legislature have to downsize from 15 to 11, but our Delegation went from 31 to 29 (Show US Census Map)

Voters trying to make redistricting fair aren’t something that’s new; voters’ trying to have a better handle on their government is exactly why recalls and initiatives were enacted by progressives. But even when the people stepped in and tried to give direction to the FL Legislature, we saw these 2 districts.

Judge Terry Lewis voided those 2 districts one represented by Corrine Brown and one by Dan Webster, Brown is a Democrat and Webster is a Republican who hold those two congressional districts. Judge Lewis’s ruling EVISCERATED the FL legislature and told us how the Republicans used operatives in town halls around the state to validate their maps and say it’s the best one for the state and the scariest thing about this whole thing? If the League of Women Voters never brought this lawsuit, the Republicans would’ve hidden this away from public view. They used Republican consultants who either drew up maps or gave approval for the map to be voted on to advantage Republicans there. The methods they used were sneaky and underhanded, and I’m not going to pretend MD3 or IL 4 isn’t as bad as FL 5, but the Legislature is bound by the constitutional amendments passed by voters in 2010 when they elected Rick Scott

But let’s take a look at some of these districts and how gerrymandered they are. 

FL 

FL 

MD 3

 MI 14

NC 6

 OH 9

PA 7

Judge Terry Lewis 

NY 26 

 Kathy Hochul who won NY 26 and lost NY 27 in 2012 when it was redrawn

MI-14 looks like a sausage grinder and the pate that will be sausage.

OH 9 looks like diarrhea—I guess that’s what they mean by mistake by the lake

NC 12 looks just as bad as FL 5, and here’s NC 4 and NC 6..that legislature was busy too

TX 30 looks like a Rorschach blot,

PA 7 on the left side looks like a rabbit and the right side is a monstrosity and these 4 pictured here….You should give THOSE to kids and ask them what they see. I think THAT will be better than the Rorschach tests for them

Also take a look at another FL district 22

AZ is not immune with it’s 2^nd District

Just do a google search for more examples of Gerrymandering, there are too many examples thanI have time for

In 2012 Issue 2 was on the ballot and I feel Republicans decided to give it that title because of the anti-union measure SB5 that was reversed through Issue 2 in 2011. I pointed out that it was a different topic: Independent redistricting measure, which is necessary for voter reform as well as fair elections, I bundle the two because if you get the money out of politics and take the power from the Legislature, you can get a government that works for the people and not the special interests that bought Mitt Romney

Redistricting is always a political theater, but at least with an independent redistricting commission, we could downplay some of it because the Legislature’s hands will be tied. Even if they take it to court, some of the partisan edge can be taken out of redistricting