What Happened in These States When Unelected Bureaucrats Took Over Redistricting
22nd December 2021
In Michigan, the state’s civil rights agency said proposed maps of legislative districts “do not measure up to the requirements of the law.” In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers complained about an “extreme partisan gerrymander.” And in Virginia, incumbents and potential challengers scrambled to work with proposed district maps.
In theory, new bureaucracies to draw up maps for congressional and legislative districts were supposed to save democracy from politics and block the practice of gerrymandering.
But this month has seen controversies on multiple fronts regarding the independent redistricting commissions involved.
Saw that comin’.
“California’s independent redistricting commission yields more disproportionate representation than most states,” Watson told The Daily Signal. “California Democratic Party-aligned advocacy groups lobbied the commission.”
Similarly, redistricting commissions in Arizona and Michigan have been “besieged by shadowy pressure campaigns,” The New York Times reported.
The Times noted a string of problems in other states that use a redistricting commission even as New York’s Democrat-controlled state Legislature was expected to ignore its advisory committee, just as Utah’s Republican Legislature did.
Ohio’s Republican-controlled Legislature overrode the independent commission with primary responsibility for redistricting.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
I’ll refrain from repeating my explanation of how ‘gerrymandering’ improves democracy rather than the opposite, and from pointing out that the only people who profit from ‘competitive districts’ are Narrative Media who can gin up attention from the ‘horse race’.