No incumbents were defeated in Florida last year...gerrymandered to death.

[madfloridian]

Not one incumbent in Florida was defeated. Over 72% of them had no major opponent. The Weekly Planet, Tampa section, has a good article on this. Our local ABC affiliate had a half-hour discussion, which was mostly pre-empted by storm coverage. Here is The Weekly Planet link, but the story is so mislaid on the page that it is almost impossible to read.

The story is called The Bipartisan Screw Job.

http://weeklyplanet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/TPACOVER/508240419/-1/TPA

"Thom Rumberger was legal counsel to President Bush's campaign in 1998 and 2002, and advised the GOP redistricting effort in the 1990s that started the political pendulum swinging toward Republican control. He's now an honorary co-chairman of Committee for Fair Elections (www.committeeforfairelections.com), a bipartisan political committee headed by Common Cause that is trying to collect 611,000 voter signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot and reform the way Florida draws its political boundaries.

The heavyweight former party lawyer and circuit judge is adamant about the damage done by the current system of redistricting.

"Since I was a part of it, I recognized how evil it was," Rumberger said. "The fact of the matter is, it's a bipartisan screw job that is being put on the citizens."

I don't really trust any one committee, but there is no choice. We simply can not leave it up to the parties to do it anymore. They mentioned the Bilirakis family in the Tampa area...almost a shoo-in for them.

Betty Castor and The Campaign for Florida's future are working on this issue. We work with them, getting petitions signed for the redistricting campaign. Here is the website:
http://www.committeeforfairelections.com/

SNIP..."Not a single incumbent in Florida's State Legislature or in Florida's U.S. Congressional delegation was defeated in 2004. In that cycle, 72.5% of state legislative races had only one major party candidate. Of the 142 seats up for re-election, 103 were uncontested by a major party. That made Florida the second least competitive state behind Arkansas."

"Allowing legislators to draw their own districts is like having "the fox guard the henhouse". Consequently, Florida citizens are left without a voice - without opposition and competitive elections, politician have little incentive to be responsive to their constituents."

How true. This is why our Republican congressmen and state legislators scoff at us who are Democrats. This is why our Democrats can vote any way they please and get re-elected in their own little gerrymandered districts.

I don't see this part in the story, but the man on TV said that they use a software program now which allows them to draw their own district lines. One incumbent used it, only to find that his own street (or home...no transcript) had been made part of someone else's district. They can draw the lines as they wish.

[zann725]

1. That's why Arnold's "special" election will be Redistricting CA

from Blue to Red. Voila!

And even when a local court decision struck down the "Special Election," Arnold then appealed it to Supreme Ct., who predictably let the Iron Man gets his way.

[FloridaPat]

2. Amazingly, 55% of the registered voters are Democrats.

[bear425]

3. Interesting that Thom Rumberger is now the fox guarding the henhouse

And that the petition will probably be unacceptable for the ballot, because of too many words. If we don't put an end to redistricting, we're in serious trouble. I posted this in the Florida Forum, but got no interest:

6 words may block overhaul of redistricting

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/23/State/6_words_may_blo...

TALLAHASSEE - A push to strip the Legislature of its power to draw political districts and give it to an independent commission has hit a snag: One of the proposals has too many words.

Under state law, ballot language for citizen initiatives to amend Florida's Constitution can't exceed 75 words.

The petition in question, one of three the Campaign for Fair Elections is trying to get on the November 2006 ballot, has 81 words.

<snip>

Election law specialists were skeptical that the measure could be salvaged. It could run afoul of the state Supreme Court, which must approve all ballot measures.

[safi0]

4. Madfloridian,

Who's running for Cruella's seat

[madfloridian]

6. Don't quote me, but I think Jan Schneider.

She was at a meeting a month or so ago where we were and said she was going to run. Haven't heard officially. Didn't she run against her last time? My mind is blank today.

[Hidden Stillness]

5. This Killed Our Votes as Much as Any Other Thing

This issue is not being paid enough attention to, and it is just as important as Republican "voting" machines programmed to discount Democratic votes. This is why this bastard DeLay is so threatening and should be in prison, why the Democrats of the Texas Legislature made that desperate move of going, as a group, out of State to try to delay a vote (only to be tracked down by Republican-ordered Homeland Security agents--supposed to be a Federal crime to misuse them that way, but who is there to bring the case?), and why Republicans win even though we are the majority.

This was part of their plan as much as anything else--"win" elections to take power, as they did, then re-work the entire map of the United States until voting districts are just irregular, bizarrely-shaped things that have no relation to areas of population, that commonly now remove longtime Representatives from their districts, and that make it possible for Republicans to win and win and win, even when we as a popular majority want them out, and now can't find a legal way to accomplish anything anymore. Republicans are voting on legislation, killing or passing it, when the American people do not agree with any of it--and we can't stop it anymore; because "their" irregular little district wins, and our huge expanses of population lose. This is so threatening because they have closed off the one way we would have had to get rid of them.

Money got them in, lies from their media keep them there, and the laws they changed now make us incapable of acting. They are now permanent wins, as actual vote totals don't count anymore, only "placement" or "location." Redistricting is an issue as important, as threatening, as any other.