Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Politics Cooper's Gerrymandering Bill Far Too Sensible To Pass In House
Posted by Brantley Hargrove on Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 3:12 PM
This is done for a number of reasons: To exclude a potential rival, to include a wealthy contributor, or just plain distilling a district to its highest proof, the goal being grain-alcohol strength political purity — even if that purity is utter artifice and the districts are unrepresentative of the actual community. You should care because this has the effect of creating extremely partisan districts that then elect extremely partisan representatives and, well, here we are. The House, particularly its Tennessee reps, is a zoo filled with zealots compelled at every turn to demonstrate their zealotry to the zealots back home, or lose the seat.
Instead of giving the state legislature the reins, a bipartisan commission would be formed, whose members can't have recently worked on a campaign or aspire to political office in the next 10 years, the News Sentinel reports. It's not an outlandish proposal. Iowa and California, for example, have similar processes, allowing more public scrutiny.
Cooper's proposal, if passed, would allow the public to see who is redrawing the lines. Light, as he says, "is the best disinfectant." It could take effect this year if passed. If Shuler's bi-partisan commissions get the green light, they wouldn't take effect until 2020. Of course, this all makes way too much sense to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives, a deliberative body now far more hysterical than usual.
Comments (16)
Showing 1-16 of 16
"Rep. Jim Cooper (D-5th) and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) are proposing a bill aimed at ending the hyper-partisan redistricting process known as gerrymandering, where congressional districts are often redrawn in tortuous, Rorschach-like shapes found only in the animal kingdom"
And by the sheerest coincidence, this has only just now become vitally important after the Democrats lost big in state legislatures across the country in the November elections.
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"And by the sheerest coincidence..."
No, this has been a goal for years. It'll never happen of course. It's kind of like term-limits for congressmen. Those who push it are really just tilting at windmills.
here's the thing about that. While I would be fine with such a bill, IIRC, the state of IOWA passed similar legislation at the state level. After the districts were re-drawn, not one seat changed parties.
Chris,
If this has been "a goal for years" then why didn't the Democrats pass it when they had control of the Presidency, the House and the Senate under Carter? Or under Clinton? Or under Obama?
In truth, while there are many merits to non-partisan redistricting, I doubt that the hard Left will really support anything that would shift power from the extremes back to the center. Having fewer districts that are safe for Republicans or Democrats would require both parties to produce more moderate candidates who can appeal to a wide range of voters instead of needing only to get enough support from the most uncompromising voters in their party.
Now that the Dems are getting their fannies handed to them and after years of gerrymandering to unbelievable levels in the states where they controlled the legislatures, this suddenly becomes an issue. This is nothing but self serving garbage and articles like this only appeal to dupes who lap up Dem selling points without the slightest knowledge of history.
I could and will state the opposite, at least here in Tennessee. The strange Democratically drawn districts in this state may have been noticed by the peons and rebellion occured. The districts that were drawn by Dems were drawn to ensure Democratic purity (there is no other explanation for the dud Lincoln Davis even getting elected to begin with). True to form, the Democratic party showed in its 100+ years history of gerrymandering that it is truly out of touch with the realities of life.
The 7th district exists to prevent the "problem" voters from interfering in the purity of the 9th, 8th, 5th, and 6th. Turns out, three of those were more like the 7th then they thought.
"No, this has been a goal for years"
The hell it has.
If it had been, the Dems would have done it long ago when they had the majority.
Although very much a supporter of Congressman Cooper, this bill
by both he and Mr. Schuler appears to be a "protecting my turf/job"
since it comes as their own re-elections are seriously being threatened
by the opposing party!
Gilbert and Mark,
I never said it was only a goal of the Democratic party in general. I said that there were people who have pushed it for years. And like term limits and efforts to scrap the electoral college, there has been resistance by both parties. I said it isn't going to happen. Please don't read into my comment that I think that is the case because the Republicans are going to thwart the Democrats. I never said that.
"Although very much a supporter of Congressman Cooper, this bill
by both he and Mr. Schuler appears to be a "protecting my turf/job"
since it comes as their own re-elections are seriously being threatened
by the opposing party!"
You believe Cooper is in danger of losing his seat? To the opposing party? Really? He won by double digits this last time around, in a strong anti-incumbent year.
I live in the little peninsula of Forest Hills that is in Marsha Blackburn's district. Why was this finger of land included? Might it have been to include some special influence, i.e. contributors?
I hear from Rep. Cooper as if I were in his district, and if at all from Rep. Blackburn, it's completely off point to my communication.
I agree with The Dude, it's self-serving garbage. I'm still pissed off about Cooper running that ad with his wife where she called him a "penny pincher." Well, Cooper, you have 150 trillion pennies to pinch in order to balance the budget. I think your time would be better spent on that task. I hope the Republicans and the Tea Party will make a special effort to oust this bum. And get rid of Frist while we're at it!
This is unintentionally hilarious. Cooper and Schuler probably will be in less safe districts next time around, and this is desperation disguised as public interest. Word: public interest and self interest are never the same thing,even when you have an inflated opinion of yourself. Cooper already has snagged a nice public interest job at Vandy in exchange for certain goodies he got for that fine institution. Schuler should start loading his golden parachute while he can. In the meantime, perhaps the Constitution is bigger than little men.
