Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Politics Harwell Defends Putting Screws to Nashville Liberals in Redistricting
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 11:24 AM
"There was absolutely no way to avoid that," she said. "If you look at Rep. Mike Stewart's district, it's a downtown district. The population just doesn't justify a downtown district. The growth in Davidson County has certainly happened on the southern border, and that's why we had to put a new district there. We've gone out of our way to be as fair as possible. I can't control the demographics of this state."
Jones says she believes she was singled out because of her outspoken advocacy of liberal causes. Notably, she is one of the legislature's few remaining strong proponents of abortion rights. Stewart, too, has been an increasingly vocal liberal, often taking the side of organized labor on issues before the House.
"Mike and I are pretty outspoken about our opinions," Jones said. "Bottom line, I'm just a little too open-minded."
Jones said she will run for reelection in her new district. She said she isn't sure what Stewart will do.
Stewart said, "I have staked out the position of being categorically opposed to virtually every aspect of the radical Republican agenda and I'm not surprised that they have included Rep. Jones and I in the same district. She is also a very strong representative for Democratic interests." He said he hopes Republicans will change their minds and redraw the lines the way they were.
No word yet on when Republicans will show their Senate redistricting plan to the public. Harwell said the congressional plan still is a work in progress, but she promised it'll be finished this week.
"We're still working on it. We'll have it ready in a timely fashion and it'll be ready to go. We just want to get everybody on board."
Comments (5)
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You know, I have been consistent in saying that we Democrats just have to take our lumps on this whole redistricting thing, but I would have a lot more respect for this vapid empty suited nitwit, Beth Harwell, if she would just say, "Look, we won. We made some districts that we like pretty well. The Democrats lost, and they will just have to live with it." Insted, she lies about what really went on. At least she could wink and nod while she lies about it.
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Perry, sometimes I just don't know about you. These people are politicians or didn't you know. Do you think the very best Democrat would have said anything differently when they were fooling around with these districts?
Furthermore no one cares whether you respect B Harwell. I'm sure she does not.
Is anyone in government or the media going to actually judge these districts on the merits, or are incumbents just going to whine and get blogs to republish them?
I would be less concerned about the redistricting result if the TN/RICO (nee TN/GOP) could prove that they took control of our legislature with, oh you know, the actual consent of the governed. Since they cannot (because our votes were -- and perhaps forever more will be -- counted on the fraud-friendly DREs that the RICOs love so much), I cannot.
Perry: What you and the other sane people of Tennessee need to do is organize in a big way and play smash mouth with these corrupt bullies, who want nothing more than to control every single aspect of your life. They claim that they don't like government intrusion while they want the government to reside in a woman's vagina. FIGHT!! FIGHT !! FIGHT!!
