Now that you've played the redistricting game and learned the different ways that district boundaries are manipulated to achieve particular political outcomes, check out this article from the New York Times about California's radical new idea of how to draw the boundaries of state legislature districts. Do you think this plan is a good idea? What might be some of the advantages and disadvantages to such a plan? The article mentions that the plan may be applied to the redistricting of congressional districts as well: good idea or bad idea?
Thoughtful comments will be awarded a +1 (out of 40 questions) on this Monday's Congress Exam. Deadline for comments is midnight Sunday.
7 comments:
The whole concept of having the people of California drawing out their own districts can be very appealing. This would eliminate much blame placed on the state’s government, but it would also increase any reproachful feelings towards the board of fourteen members who are supposed to be representing a population of 37 million people. It sounds very ideal having an equally balanced board of both five Democrats and Republicans and four being either Independent or from another party, but this would raise many additional issues. To satisfy all of California, the four members who are not to be from either party, would have to be specifically selected so that there would be no political leanings whatsoever. But when it does come time to draw the districts, any final decision would be viewed as unjust for it will always be benefitting one party or another. If this board were to also work with congressional districts, many Californians would be angry no matter what is decided upon, or the fourteen would never come to a reasonable conclusion.
-Jill Luoma-Overstreet
This idea of having selected citizens of California redraw the boundaries for the districts of the State Legislature and the State Board of Equalization in California is a good idea and is an idea that could have some potential benefits. This idea of gerrymeadering districts in order for one party to have a majority in that district could be eliminated. This could be beneficial to that minority party who could now have a chance at winning that district. Also, California's state government would be, in a sense, less at blame for the decisions made by this commission because they are no longer running it. However, they are potential down falls to this plan. For one, Furthermore, Californians as a whole could feel underrepresented by the 14 members of this commission who are supposed to represent 37 million other Californians. Also, some parties (most minor ones) could be unrepresented if one of the four "others" were not a part of their party. Yet, this would be a good idea for redrawing congressional districts because the people would be drawing the districts for members of the House of Representatives, which is the government body that is proportionally represented by the people and are more associated with the wants and needs of the people rather than senators.
-Stephen Cerqueira
California’s plan that will have 14 citizens redraw the state legislature districts is a good idea because gerrymandering will be much harder to come by. The advantages to this plan are that citizens may feel better represented because a citizen just like them is the one who will be redrawing the lines and they have pretty equal representation of each party. One problem though is, will they have equal representation of women, men, whites, blacks, Hispanics and such. It is impossible to eliminate bias, so no matter what way they do it, people are going to gerrymander to some degree. If they were to apply idea to congressional districts, I think it would be good. There certainly would be similar advantages and disadvantages to the state legislature districts, but like I said it is never going to be perfect. In my opinion what they should do is, take the 14 citizens and give them each an equal part of California. Divide California’s 37 million people by 14 and give each person an area with that many citizens. Therefore, once the citizen gerrymanders his/her area it becomes fair because each party was given the opportunity to gerrymander.
Shane Macnamara
P.S. I beat mission 4.
Interesting ideas. I'm particularly interested to see that everyone sees at least some shortcomings to the system.
Shane, congrats on beating level 4!
California's new plan for the appointment of the redistricting commission seems like a great measure to incorporate "everyday citizens," but there are still some serious flaws. It may seem like the applicants will reflect the people of California, but through the selection process will select only the most qualified. This most likely means that those selected will not exactly represent the citizens of California. Many groups in California are probably underrepresented in the applicant pool, besides white males. People might agree with the plan because it brings more power to the citizens, but there is already an initiative to repeal this proposition, so the idea must not be very popular. One good thing that would come from the plan is that not one political party would be favored by the redistricting, such as it would be if the lines were made by the state legislature. Thus, instead of dividing the minority party so that the majority had an obvious advantage, the actual outcome would be closer to the real support that each party has. I am interested to see who is ultimately chosen to be part of the committee, and how they choose to draw the districts in California.
Maggie Ambrose
The idea of having citizens of California redraw the district boundaries seems rather risky. I understand there is an application process, but I feel like it will be hard for 14 citizens to truly be qualified to redraw the districts. The upside of this plan is that the CA state government won't have to face any blame, but doesn't it seem almost pathetic that they can't deal with their problem themselves? I think it comes off that way. A downside could be that the people in the district could feel as if the selected citizen to redraw the boundary is 1. not qualified or 2. biased. So, now the blame would be placed on some average joe who signed up so he could draw on the California map..Deciding the congressional districts would be equally as bad of an idea. The State government should just do its job, but better.
-Kevin Donahue
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