"We choose our constituents, not the other way around. I don't think it's good for democracy."
State Rep. Jack Franks of Illinois (D-Woodstock).
Just as state House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) did in Illinois, Maryland's Democratic governor, Martin O'Malley, along with the the Democratic-controlled General Assembly, drew highly partisan maps for the decennial redistricting in 2011. It cost the Republican Party a seat in Congress and it institutionalized the Democratic hold on the state legislature.
O'Malley is now running for president.
His successor, Republican, Larry Hogan, is calling for a constitutional amendment to reform remap process--which is now controlled by politicians.
Illinois' reform Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, wants to do the same thing. He's being blocked by lifetime politicians. In Maryland, the state Senate president has already announced his opposition.
This is democracy?
Today is the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Voting Rights Act.
When did Jack Franks say that?
ReplyDeleteDuring the last reapportionment, he had the precincts his 2010 Republican opponent won in the northeaster part of McHenry County removed from his district.
In the 2000 reapportionment, he removed a potential opponent's home from his district.
I thought the link vanished when the NY Times' Chicago News Cooperative went under, but here it is: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/politics/07cncwarren.html?_r=0
ReplyDelete