| Subject: news of the day 2/22/05 |
| From: Rick Hasen |
| Date: 2/22/2005, 8:32 AM |
| To: election-law |
Stuart Rothenberg offers this
fascinating Roll Call column (paid subscription required)
on a recent comment by Tom DeLay on CNN's Inside Politics. Here is the
beginning of the column:
DeLay was responding to Woodruff’s question about California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) redistricting reform plan, which would take responsibility for the drawing of Congressional district lines away from the Legislature and transfer authority to three retired judges who would draw, presumably, more competitive districts. The Majority Leader doesn’t much like the idea.
Woodruff very properly followed up her initial question by asking the Texas Republican whether there wasn’t already “a massive incumbent protection system” in place, given the microscopic level of turnover in the House in 2002 and 2004.
DeLay’s response was stunning.
“Yes, it’s called judges,” he said. “When the Democrats in Texas saw that they no longer were the majority party, they used judges to protect them. And they went 20 years being a minority party with a majority of the Congressional delegation. And they used judges to do it. That makes my point for me.”
Prisonersofthecensus.org has posted this
analysis.
It
is an unusual week when two election law scholars (including me) get
mentioned in everyone's favorite law school gossip column, The Leiter
Report. See here
and here.
Steven Hill writes Schwarzenegger
v. Gerrymander, an oped for the New York Times.
A snippet: "It may well be that California's electoral system, like the
rest of America's, has reached its endgame. Our current politics are as
good as they are going to be as long as we continue to use an
antiquated method that is so ill suited for the new California and its
wide range of attitudes, demographics and geographic regions. We can't
change where people choose to live, but we can begin using some type of
proportional representation system. For example, California could use a
system like that in Peoria, Ill., for municipal elections. Instead of
electing 40 state senators from 40 districts, voters in 10 districts
could elect four senators each. Any candidate who won at least a
quarter of the vote would earn a seat. These districts would be far
more likely to be bipartisan, even electing some urban Republicans and
rural Democrats."
Roll Call offers this
report
(paid subscription required), which begins: "Defenders of 527 groups
are gearing up to battle Congressional efforts to more strictly
regulate their political efforts, which are estimated to have resulted
in more than $400 million in spending during the 2004 election cycle."
Roll Call offers this
report
(paid subscription required), which begins: "House Minority Whip Steny
Hoyer (D-Md.) has spoken with several Democratic governors in recent
weeks about the possibility of revisiting their states’ Congressional
lines in response to the ongoing Republican-led redistricting in
Georgia, according to informed party sources. Faced with the prospect
of Republicans redrawing Congressional lines in a third state since the
initial 2001 round of redistricting ended, a faction of national
Democrats is urging an aggressive strategy aimed at striking back at
Republican House Members in states like New Mexico and Illinois."
The Seattle Times offers this
report. Earlier this weekend, the newspaper offered Judge
Sides with G.O.P. Over Election Lawsuit.
Doug Chapin writes to note that the Kerry/Clinton bill is here
and the McConnell/Bond bill is here.
See Jeff
Jacoby's column in the Boston Globe praising Gov.
Schwarzenegger's plans to move to a nonpartisan redistricting
commission. Thanks to Richard Winger for the link.
The Washington Post offers this
very interesting report on election administation controversies in
Maryland.
The Los Angeles Times offers this
report,
with the subhead: "While criticizing the system, Schwarzenegger
continues to raise millions to help his political agenda and seeks to
lift restrictions."
-- Professor Rick Hasen Loyola Law School 919 Albany Street Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211 (213)736-1466 - voice (213)380-3769 - fax rick.hasen@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html http://electionlawblog.org