It’s time to change the redistricting rules

Here’s more evidence from The Washington Post that it’s time for redistricting reform in this country: “Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.”
As long as lawmakers in power — both Republicans and Democrats — are allowed to carve out political districts along partisan lines to ensure easy victories, democracy will be in danger. As it is now, 90 percent of incumbent U.S. House members always win re-election. It’s time to change the system.
Posted by Melissa Cooley

4 Comments

  1. Sum1
    Posted December 3, 2005 at 7:44 am | Permalink

    Excellent point Rhonda, lets go a step farther.As long as you have to be a millionaire or at least have that sort of financial backing to run for federal office the voice of the people will never be heard.

  2. Brian
    Posted December 3, 2005 at 9:08 am | Permalink

    Money for political campaigns is really a vexing problem, but in some senses campaigns don’t spend all that much money on a per voter basis.

    There were 215.7 million voters registered for the 2004 presidential election. The Bush campaign spent $367,228,801, Kerry,$326,236,288, Nader, $4,566,037. That’s a total of $698,031,126 – for an average of $3.25 or so per registered voter. Since only perhaps 60% voted, the number goes up to about $5.50 per voter. This hardly seems like an outrageous amount of money, given the length of the campaign and the importance of getting voter attention. Of course, these figures don’t include the “soft” money spent on the campaigns.

    So, the question to me becomes more “how do we fund elections?” compared to “is too much money being spent on elections?”. Or, even more profound, “how does a campaign minimize its expenses while maximizing the impact of these expenses?”

  3. Rage
    Posted December 3, 2005 at 12:07 pm | Permalink

    The redistricting rules may or may not need to be changed, but in this case the rules were deliberately subverted, and it was widely known by anyone paying the slightest attention at the time. Apples and oranges, Rhonda.

    The only surprising thing about this story is that the prosecutors haven’t been intimidated or bought off.

  4. Rage
    Posted December 3, 2005 at 12:08 pm | Permalink

    Er, Melissa.