AZ Redistricting Faces Supreme Court Challenge

Nina Totenberg reports: Supreme Court To Weigh Power Of Redistricting Commissions

Dan Tokaji Tweet

The Art of the Gerrymander http://t.co/zl9pD3JP4M @politico. Check our the Snake on the Lake, OH's CD9: pic.twitter.com/s7Oq7rnaCs
— Dan Tokaji (@Title52law) August 30, 2014

VOTERS voice will be heard in 77 days

Here in Ohio we have a Democratic candidate for governor who seems to have the corner on the running amuck category. Of course our newspapers and television media blurt about FitzGeralds problems day and night. Punishing letters to the editor are published scolding the candidate and the Democratic party for the general awfulness of the candidate situation.

In Ohio as in many other states the only election that is any real test of voter strength is the statewide ballot. Governor, Senate and statewide ballot issues. We shouldn't worry about the awfulness of the defeats at the congressional level because those districts are gerrymandered. Those aren't real elections. When a candidate gets up before his crowd and announces his "win" he should feel shame for having perpetuated another voting fraud.

Democrats living in these grossly over-gerrymandered districts can only hope for their friends and neighbors to grow tired of casting a mock vote for a candidate who can not lose. Wouldn't you think that the voters would also feel some shame for not objecting to the overall unfairness of gerrymandered districts?

But there is a small beacon of hope on the horizon:

In 2012 Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown won his relection bid against Republican Josh Mandel with a few hundred thousand votes to spare - 327,022 to be exact.

In the same 2012 election, President Barack Obama won his relection bid in Ohio with 2,827,709 votes. Mitt Romney lost Ohio.

In the 2010 election for Governor, Ted Strickland garnered 1,812,059 votes and his opponent John Kasich garnered 1,889,186. Kasich only won by 77,127 votes. Two years later, Sen Brown's 2012 victory exceeded the Kasich win by 249,895 votes.

The fact Ohio can and often does elect a Democratic candidate statewide gives me hope that Ed FitzGerald - well - I won't say he can win - but I will say if he loses it won't be an enormous loss.

The link for the real Ed FitzGerald website - the one he owns -

If you must see more dirty tricks Republicans are up to check out their FAKE FitzGerald website.

Will HB 188 End Cherrypicked Congressional Districts?

From an online letter signed by Speaker William G. Batchelder OCMC Co-Chair
and Sen. Charleta B. Tavares, Assistant Minority Leader OCMC Co0Chair
...."In a state as diverse and ever-changing as Ohio, how do we ensure that the Ohio Constitution continues to accurately reflect the people of our great state?
The Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission (OCMC) was created with the goal of making needed improvements to our state constitution.".....

In other words how do we end cherrypicking our voters?

Website: Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library
Sources for researching Ohio Constitution, including new and current versions of the Ohio Constitution....  HB 188 established the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission..


\June 4, 2014 Akron-Beacon Journal
by Stephanie Warsmith Beacon Journal staff writer
article published comments of Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted speaking at an Akron Press Club luncheon:
..."Redistricting reform needs to happen in Ohio and — if the legislature fails to act — citizens should take the matter into their own hands, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted told an Akron audience Wednesday.

Husted said he’d be willing to help with a citizen effort to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to change how U.S. congressional and state legislative districts are drawn.

“We shouldn’t draw the lines the way we do,” Husted, a Republican seeking his second term this year, told a crowd of about 70 at an Akron Press Club luncheon. “Candidates have a free ride after primaries. Parties control who represents us in Congress. Let’s fix this.”....."

some things never change

gerrymander is

 a legal way 

 for a crowd  

 to do something 

 another crowd 

will find abhorrent

gerrymanders promise

power 

achieved 

through

permanence

and unavoidable 

completely predictable

results

living in a gerrymander

that never goes

my way

pretty much

sucks

When being clever is not so smart

"Meanwhile, Republicans dominated in redistricting fights in states across the nation, including Ohio, and even though Democrats running for U.S. House seats nationally received 1.4 million more votes in 2012, Republicans won 234 seats in 2012 compared with the 201 Democratic seats."
Divided government in Washington looks set in stone

by Jessica Wehrman
Aug. 13, 2013
Columbus Dispatch

(The Dispatch is doing a great job writing about gerrymander. I used the Dispatch.com home page search bar, typed in the word gerrymander and 260 results returned )

Save Yourself GOP (so I don't have to)

So, we are all watching the wasting of the GOP.

I wonder why doesn't someone organize an intervention?

Hey Ted and David, I know you are busy helping gays win marriage equality but the gerrymandering of American Congressional Districts is a much bigger issue.

Two July 2013 items Pro and Con - gerrymandering:

On Politico by Alex Isenstadt
GOP could pay price for gerrymandering

On Real Clear Politics by Sean Trende
Gerrymandering and the Republican House

More Rigged Elections?

from Mother Jones
by Nick Baumann
Fri. Dec. 7th 2012

GOP Resurrects Plan to Rig Electoral College
..."now that Romney has been defeated, prominent GOPers are once again mulling rule changes that could make it harder for Democrats to win the White House—and easier for Republicans to claim Electoral College votes in states where they lose the popular vote.........

Not just Ohio

To put it another way, President Barack Obama won 53 percent of the votes in Pennsylvania but Democrats could win only 28 percent of the congressional seats. 

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/map-manipulation-gerrymandering-had-the-last-word-in-election-663917/#ixzz2E5btkvLU

Joe Hallett: Gerrymandering pushes General Assembly to the extremes

".....The day started when the Ohio Supreme Court continued its decennial complicity in a gerrymandering scheme that makes a mockery of representative government.....