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November 08, 2004

The First Step

Now that we're in the minority party in Georgia, things kind of suck. Naturally. But some things improve. Democrats no longer have to be the party of pork or any other thing that is done solely for political power, and not ideals.

The first step I think we should take is to offer, in both the House and Senate, bills to establish that redistricting will be done on a non/bi-partisan basis. Basically, the state's reapportionment office plus political science professors and representatives from the two political parties should draw Congressional and legislative maps.

It's hard to legislate a strictly non-partisan process. The process by which the judges reapportioned our districts came close. Saying that you didn't care where incumbents lived and then changing your mind halfway through produced a few bizarrely shaped districts, but more or less it was a good way to do it. I think it's fair to include representatives of the political parties (who would together make up a minority of the map drawers) as well as political science professors.

A "neutral" map drawing process after all could produce maps that greatly benefit one party or the other and it would be helpful to be able to raise that red flag. Additionally, I think having competitive districts are in the interest of the state and country and having the political science teachers as well as representatives from parties could help to reach that goal but in a fair way.

Having seen Glen Richardson and Eric Johnson draw maps, I don't have any more faith in them to draw a fair map than I have in the Democrats who did it last time. With so many Democrats entering the legislature after the 2001-2002 session, now's the time to wash our hands of power politics and this is a great place to start. I can't be sure if the Republicans will take up ownership of trickery and naked partisan power but I do know that we can disown it. I don't really see how we have any other choice.

Posted by Chris at November 8, 2004 04:56 PM

Comments

Reall Chris, that is somewhat hilarious.

For all those years the Dems were in charge and used power politics to do things like redraw the districts how they liked. Now that you aren't the first thing you want to do is ask the Republicans to cede that political power? Please get real. It has been part of the political process forever. The only reason you want to change now is because you are the minority party.

Posted by: davenfl [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 9, 2004 12:13 PM

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