[EL] Ornstein gerrymandering article's facts are wrong

[Douglas Johnson]

Unfortunately Mr. Ornstein has his facts and conclusion wrong in this
article. At the heart of the article is his claim that:

 

"With the exception of Iowa, where the state Legislature turned the drawing
of lines over to a nonpartisan agency in 1981 after disputes and deadlocks
handed the power to the Iowa Supreme Court, the one outlet for change has
been using the initiative process to implement such commissions."

 

There are, in fact, nine states with congressional redistricting
commissions, not three: California, Arizona, and Iowa are joined by Idaho,
Maine, Hawaii, Montana, Washington and New Jersey. 

 

[For details, see our Rose Institute Report "
<http://redistrictingonline.org/uploads/Rosereport_on_redistricting.pdf>
Redistricting in America: A State by State Analysis" (published in April,
2010, before California gave control of Congressional redistricting to its
commission) and Dr. Michael McDonald's "
<http://datadrivendetroit.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/McDonald_Comparativ
eAnalysisRedistrictingInstitutions_2004.pdf> A Comparative Analysis of
Redistricting Institutions in the United States, 2001-02," published in
2004), both published before the November 2010 addition of California to the
'Congressional redistricting by commission' group.]

 

As noted by Mr. Ornstein in the article, Iowa's commission was created by
the legislature via statute. But he misses that Maine, Hawaii, Idaho,
Montana, Washington and New Jersey were all created by measures put on the
ballot by the legislature. Only the Arizona and California commissions were
created by initiatives put on the ballot via signatures.

 

One may debate the level of independence of the various commissions, but all
are at least as structurally independent as Iowa, so the omission should not
be due to the form of the commission.

 

Mr. Ornstein's conclusion that "If the Supreme Court throws out these
redistricting commissions, we can kiss good-bye any efforts to effectively
change the redistricting process, to reduce the pernicious effects of
gerrymandering," is incorrect - the delegated-by-the-legislature-by-choice
redistricting models of Iowa, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Washington and
New Jersey are likely to remain valid and legal.

 

-          Doug

 

Douglas Johnson, Fellow

Rose Institute of State and Local Government

at Claremont McKenna College 

 <mailto:douglas.johnson at cmc.edu> douglas.johnson at cmc.edu

310-200-2058 

 

 

 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Rick
Hasen
Sent: Thursday, December 4, 2014 9:16 AM
To: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/4/14

 


 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68793> "The Pernicious Effects of
Gerrymandering"


Posted on  <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=68793> December 3, 2014 8:05 pm by
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/washington-inside-out/the-pernicious-effects
-of-gerrymandering-20141203> Norm Ornstein on the Arizona case coming to
SCOTUS.

 
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