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The Democratic hierarchy in Maryland cynically manipulated the legislative redistricting process to make the congressional Sixth District inhospitable to its longtime incumbent, Roscoe Bartlett ®, and hand it over to the state House Majority Leader, Rob Garagiola (D).
But the Democrats in the newly drawn Sixth refused to go along, and overwhelmingly voted for venture capitalist John Delaney instead. Good for them. I like the idea of voters choosing the pols instead of vice versa. I don't agree with Delaney on a lot of issues--he is pretty self-interested and his economics are a bit too free-markety for me--but I'm glad the Sixth chose someone who suits them better than Gov. O'Malley's handpicked candidate.
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OMG ! You mean Democrats actually engage in Gerrymandering too ? (Like the Republicans did in Ohio to rid the House of Dennis Kucinich ? )
No ! I thought they were all about fair and diverse and multicuturallyoffensensitive stuff !
Heh.
Agreed, it's nice when the voters actually speak louder than the Party Bosses. Sounds like your Democratic voters in MD have their heads on straight.
Too bad many of the voters in my party seem to be knuckleheads. :confused:
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I believe that the body politic would be better served if all congressional and state districts were set by an independent commission based on natural geographic boundaries.
Florida politicians of both parties have been fighting the Fair Districts constitutional amendment that voters passed in 2010.
New guidelines imposed by the Fair Districts amendments, and approved by voters in 2010, prohibit lawmakers from protecting incumbents and political parties when redrawing their maps to reflect changes in the population. The new rules also required that they make districts more compact and that they protect minority voting strength.
Cue Lord Acton's classic quote.
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Any districting method is going to disenfranchise somebody. Objective geographic or straight-line methods can easily splinter voting blocs as well even though that is not intended. At least with gerrymandering, it's possible to create a district that has a minority as a majority so that they have a voice. We all know that gerrymandering is just as often used to split undesirable voting blocs, of course, but on paper it has some advantages.
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August.. from that perspective a transit strike in an urban area, or seeding the clouds for rain in a suburban area would have the same effect ?
Piffle. We have people up here in Cleveland who called the TV news and claimed they were being 'disenfranchised' because they had to wait in line for more than 10 minutes. Whiny little wimps.
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If you split a group or area among three districts so its voting power is diluted to the point that its candidates can't win, that's disenfranchisement.
I could not find any mention of Ohio voters calling in to say they had been disenfranchised for having to wait ten minutes. I checked four stations. Am I missing one?
