New Jersey Democrats' proposed constitutional amendment to solidify their party’s hold is prompting outraged objections among redistricting reformers who see the measure as a blatant power grab.This is evil. Voters understand that this is evil. Which is why in state after stat, where referendums are permitted, voters have approved referendums to take the power to redistrict their states away from state legislators and given it to bipartisan commissions.
Legislators meeting in Trenton hold their first hearing Thursday on the proposed amendment, which would hand the state legislature new power to control the makeup of a bipartisan redistricting board that draws new boundaries every 10 years.
Gerrymandering is anti-democratic. It is done by weasels in suits protecting their political power.
It is fundamentally unfair. elections should be contests of ideas, of policies. They should not be the anointing of a younger sleazeball to replace a retiring sleazeball of the same party.
The good news is that the voters in NJ have to approve this. We'll see, next year, if they are wise to the shenanigans of their legislature.
2 comments:
A prime reason that redistributing commissions should be mandated, and that the results should be directed to be based upon a clear demographic or geographic standard to avoid such fuckery.
As we just demonstrated here in California, Democrats can still win elections when districts are drawn by independent commissions. In fact, I don't know whether our sweep of Orange County could have happened without it.
-Doug in Oakland
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