Redistricting and Bad Policy

[billroper]

I went to vote in today's Illinois primary. It was a singularly depressing event.

First, you have to consider that Illinois' politicians have cleverly scheduled our primary election so that it always occurs long after the presidential nominees have been decided. This helps keep the turnout down, which is to the advantage of our professional politicians in the state. We wouldn't want unreliable voters to show up because of an interesting presidential race. I still remember taking a Democratic ballot in 1992 to cast a futile vote for Paul Tsongas, the last presidential candidate who I really liked. But I digress...

I've known for years that the redistricting process that most states use is bad for voters. Voters thrive in an environment where there are a large number of competitive districts. Politicians thrive in an environment where there are a maximum number of safe districts. Politicians draw the maps. Can you guess what we get?

I've been redistricted from what was a safe Republican U.S. House district and competitive state House and Senate districts into districts that are all so safely Democratic that the Republicans didn't even bother to field a candidate. I'm not sure what I'll vote for this fall, but it calls to mind the old joke that Gretchen tells about Chicago elections. (The Democrats go into the voting booth. The Republicans go into the boys room. There's a handle there they can pull and it will make just as much difference.)

Of course, there was a contested Senate race on the Republican side. I finally decided to hold my nose and vote for Jack Ryan, since I think he has the best chance of winning this fall, and a Republican victory this fall is our best chance of keeping Patrick Fitzgerald as the U.S. Attorney here in northern Illinois. (Fitzgerald was nominated by outgoing Senator Peter Fitzgerald -- no relation -- who wanted someone honest from outside of Illinois who would chew up our corrupt local government on a bipartisan basis. So far, so good.)

And the first thing that I did was to spoil my ballot as I punched the hole for Jim Oberweis by mistake. I think I managed to spoil that ballot in record time. I apologized to the election officials and got a new ballot and voted for Ryan.

But I think what I really wanted was an ice cream cone.

Comments

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Is it time for an open source redistricting program? Give it data on city/county/township boundries, roads, and population, but no prior voting records and let the software draw the lines. Oh, one of the rules built into the software would be to keep the disctricts as close to rectangulare as possible, while following the boundries and roads. Anyway, take that into court when challenging the latest redistricting. No, I'm not volunteering.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

The amazing thign about the GOP side is that the guy leading with major endorsements (Rauschenberg) is also far behind in the polls.

Of course, I wound up voting for someone who stands less of a chance of winning than, say, Dennis Kucinich.

[billroper]

Actually, Gretchen did vote for Dennis Kucinich.

Shows you how disgusted she is, doesn't it?

"A Den of Corruption and Iniquity"

[tnatj.livejournal.com]

Bill --

First, I've found that you've stirred me to write about southwestern Michigan politics; but at so much greater length that I should put the bulk of it in my own LJ.

Second, in terms of the casino issue: these are organized and run here in Michigan by the local Indian tribes/bands. ("Indian" here means "North American aborigine" for you Europeans/ANZies listening in, btw.; "Indianer" not "Indischer" for germanophones like delennara.)

The Republicans are politically dominant in west Michigan. The Republican party itself is pretty well influenced by members of both the merchant and the Dutch Reformed chuches here. They are agin casinos, generally because (1) casinos would compete with existing businesses for the tourist entertainment dollars, and (2) casinos induce gambling, which is deemed immoral: a closely held tenet of the church groups.

But though the state can negotiate, in the last it is the Federal government who has the final say about where casinos are established, and which tribes get to run them. (In fact it looks like there's going to be one coming in up near Wayland, Michigan, a few miles from my residence.)

So the corruption and iniquities these establishments bring will likely be limited to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (oh, man!), the Indian bands and their franchisees.

-- Dave

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I agree with your sentiments about the primary system, but I don't think most of the blame rests with Illinois. Illinois hasn't moved their primary to later in the year; other states have moved theirs earlier. But as long as they don't all vote at the same time, there are inevitably some that vote first and the rest that don't need to bother, as far as the Presidental nominee is concerned.

And I agree even more strongly about the districts. The way legislative and Congressional maps are gerrymandered these days makes an absolute mockery of democracy. (Down here, I'm stuck in a district that extends all the way from Urbana and Danville to the southern tip of the state, only a few miles wide in places, guaranteeing a safe Republican seat.) I personally think that geographic districts are irrelevant in these times, and people should be able to align themselves into groups to elect people that actually represent them. But if a neutral party actually drew districts that were geometrically simple and compact, only fiddling things to be able to use recognized existing features for boundaries and keep the populations of the districts equal, it would be a huge improvement over the mess we have now.

Considering that Patrick Fitzgerald's principle success has been against the Ryan administration, wouldn't we expect a politically motivated Democrat to keep him in, and a politically motivated Republican to get rid of him out of spite?

[billroper]

Actually, no, the Democrats have no great use for him either. One of the first people he went after was the head of Near North Insurance, which is immensely well connected politically on both sides of the aisle.

Interestingly though, the Senatorial candidates on both sides have said favorable things about Patrick Fitzgerald, because saying something unfavorable would be viewed as tantamount to endorsing corruption in government. I'm sure, though, that given an opportunity, there are a number of candidates from both parties who would jettison him.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Ah well, it's not like we should be able to expect candidates to actually tell us what they really believe and will do in office, unless of course we're big donors in a private meeting...

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Things like this make me happy I don't vote in Illinois. (Yes, I've been here 6 years. But I'm still a resident of Virginia. Changing my residency would have lent a sense of permanence to my grad school career that I didn't want. *grin* Besides, I'm home about half the year, so it's about a toss-up.

Actually, there's an interesting bizarrity to the residency thing. I have a friend who moved here for grad school (she's been here as long as I have), changed her residency, and now owns a house and pays taxes to Illinois. Yet the U of I refuse to grant her in-state tutition because, according to them, you can't qualify for in-state tuition if you moved here to come to grad school. You have to have already been here. Nevermind that she is paying property taxes to Illinois etc. - she's not a resident. Bizarre.)

Virginia, of course, is a bit behind the times...someone said to me once "gee, I wouldn't have expected Virginia to be so conservative politically." I replied "Do you know what our biggest cash crop is? Tobacco."

Case closed. *grin*

I love my state, but occasionally I want to bash some of the idiots in Richmond. Or just kick them into the 20th century. (I can't kick hard enough to get them into this century; I'll settle for what I can do.)

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

I'm in a safe Republican area if there ever was one, and I tend to vote for any Democrat in sight, mostly because I Hate Political Machines of all sorts. Like you, I voted happily for Tsongas. I've ended up voting for either you or Bill Higgins as a write in for most any big office for years, because I think you guys would be a vast improvement over the choices I have before me.

Agree with you totally on the redistricting stuff, loved Gretchen's joke, and would love to see Fitzgerald stay where he is and clean things up. I'm dying for a centrist reformer to come in and clean house nationally.