Redistricting Will Work Best If Citizens Are Involved

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING

• It's Time to "Change" Congress  (Independent Voice) With an historic victory for the Open Primary in June 2010, it's time to move on to our next fight - Redistricting Reform. IndependentVoice.Org is one of the Steering Committee Members of Yes on 20, No on 27. Proposition 20 takes the Redistricting Reform we passed in 2008 and applies it to Congressional Districts.  Proposition 27 is a measure put on the ballot by politicians that would return all power over the redistricting process to them.  So say it with us . .  . YES ON 20, NO ON 27!!
• Promises made, promises changed (By CHRIS FITZSIMON, Winston Salem Journal) Republicans also seem to be running away from their previous support for an independent redistricting commission. They announced after the November election that there wasn't time to set up a commission to draw the districts this year, though they could have passed legislation to create one the first week of the session and it could already be hard at work drawing the lines.
• Meetings share info about redistricting -Residents urged to learn about redrawn voting boundaries. (By Sarah Janssen, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel) Despite Vaughn's and others' efforts, no changes have been made to the law that gives this power to representatives. Gerrymandering is less of a concern for congressional voting district boundaries because of more federal laws, but House and Senate voting district boundary restrictions are much more lax.
• Jeffries Warns of Redistricting “Shenanigans” Ahead (By ZACHARY KUSSIN, CUNY J-School) With the first 2010 population counts for New York released yesterday by the United States Census Bureau, there may be a battle ahead over redistricting, said local Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, a vocal advocate for changes to the way that the state draws its district lines.
• Take the politics out of New York redistricting (A guest essay by Assemblyman Joe Morelle, MPNnow.com) Last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo honored one of the most important promises made during last year’s campaign when he proposed independent redrawing of state legislative districts. I am proud to be a co-sponsor of this important reform legislation. Nonpartisan redistricting was at the heart of former New York Mayor Ed Koch’s 2010 reform movement New York Uprising, and there is a good reason. Without it there is little chance of changing Albany’s self-serving political culture. I fully support the redistricting initiative and hope the Legislature will respond to the will of the people on this issue.
• Involve public in redistricting (Albany Times Union) The League of Women Voters of New York State believes this can come about only if legislators support an independent commission for redrawing legislative and congressional districts in time for the 2012 election. To achieve that end, the League has joined ReShape NY, a broad coalition of different advocacy, business, union and civic groups calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature to create an independent redistricting commission that will draw fair lines while involving the public in the process.
• Politicians ready for challenge as redistricting begins (Written by Jill Terreri, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) Koch's group, New York Uprising, will be in districts of senators and Assembly members who signed the pledge but have not followed through, calling attention to their broken promises.
• Vorderbrueggen: (By Lisa Vorderbrueggen, Contra Costa Times) it is ironic that the new Citizens Redistricting Commission, which California voters approved in 2008 and 2010 to remedy the heavy-handed partisan gerrymandering of the past, is taking partisan fire before it draws a single line.
• Census puts congressional districts in flux (Robert Harding, Auburn Pub.com) The New York Public Interest Research Group made the argument Thursday that data shows downstate will lose two seats because of population growth in the region, mainly in the Hudson Valley.