States See Growing Campaign to Change Redistricting Laws

[paineinthearse]

Appeal to Texas members: Proior to the Congressional caucuses / leader elections, I watched a Pelosi press conference where she said the DCN had filed suit in federal court to challenge the Texas redistricting (and subsequent Rep elections) on the grounds that DeLay's boundaries had not been approved by DoJ civil rights division. I've heard squat since, can anyone update?

Did someone say "geyyrmandering"?

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/politics/07reform.html

February 7, 2005
States See Growing Campaign to Change Redistricting Laws
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - The politically charged methods that states use to draw Congressional districts are under attack by citizens groups, state legislators and the governor of California, all of whom are concerned that increasingly sophisticated map-drawing has created a class of entrenched incumbents, stifled electoral competition and caused governmental gridlock.

Largely uncoordinated campaigns stretching from California to Massachusetts are pushing to end, or at least minimize, a time-honored staple of American politics: lawmakers drawing Congressional and legislative district maps in geographically convoluted ways to ensure the re-election of an incumbent or the dominance of a party.

Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a state that has historically been at the forefront of political reform movements, proposed putting retired judges in charge of redistricting, taking it out of the hands of the Legislature. Common Cause, one of the nonpartisan groups championing changes in the system, said campaigns to overhaul redistricting were under way in at least eight states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

The increased attention to the issue is in part due to the effectiveness of efforts in 2003 in Texas, where Republicans, with the backing of the White House, forced through a midterm redistricting that effectively cost four Texas Democrats their seats. The complaints are also spurred by the way computers and the enormous amount of available voting data have turned redistricting into a surgically precise procedure and opened up to anyone with a laptop what was once dominated by legislative tacticians with decades of knowledge.

much, much more.....

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Redrawn Arizona districts.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/politics/07reform.html