Charlie Day Volunteers With #FairDistrictPa
#FairDistrictPa was a part of a recent hearing in the supreme court of Pennsylvania that has some Pennsylvania legislator in a quite uproar. The ruling based on our state constitution calls for our state legislators to fairly redistrict Pennsylvania by February 9th 2018. Our Governor Tom Wolf took time to listen to constituents about their concerns on #GerryMandering. You can submit your concerns to Gov. Wolf online at governor.pa.gov/fair-maps. But there is a deeply rooted mentality around safe seats for incumbents and these Republican incumbents have gone to the federal supreme court to try and have the Pennsylvania Supreme court ruling overturned.
By assuring incumbents of re-election, gerrymandering relieves them of worrying about what their voters think. They need to worry only about primary opposition, usually from more extreme candidates. Letting politicians choose their voters instead of the other way around robs people of their voice.
“Whatever your No. 1 issue, it’s not going to be resolved until we fix this,” said Carol Kuniholm, a Pennsylvanian who is a co-founder and chairwoman of Fair Districts PA.
Congressional gerrymandering is most extreme in Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, according to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. For state legislatures, add Wisconsin to the list. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/opinion/michigan-gerrymandering-fair-voting.html
Committee of Seventy Retweeted
Let @GovernorTomWolf know what you think about PA's current redistricting process and how the state's congressional maps should look. https://buff.ly/2DRzSjx . Then tweet out what you told him and tag us!
Nina Ahmad can't circulate petitions until our legislators redraw party lines. Unfortunately the democratic Congressman in this district sold his district to Republicans. He's not planning to seek another term in Congress. Who is creating the redistricting? How will redistricting affect Nina's candidacy push for Congress?
Women Representation Affected By #GerryMandering
“Women in Congress are more than three times as likely to be Democrats,” Thomsen said.
Because of this gender gap, partisan gerrymandering could disproportionately affect women’s representation, as well as the manner in which women’s issues are addressed in U.S. politics.
Gerrymandering has been found to target female candidates, as in the case of Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis in 2011, according to the National Organization of Women. In this case, Republican leaders redrew Davis’ district, moving thousands of black and Latino constituents who voted for her in the previous election to predominantly conservative districts. Davis successfully sued the state under the Voting Rights Act before the election and was re-elected.
Political scientists Barbara Palmer and Dennis Simon also found that women in the Ohio House of Representatives were far more likely to have their districts redrawn than their male counterparts. They identified what they call “women-friendly districts,” in which women were more likely to be elected.
The use of gerrymandering to disadvantage female candidates was also noted in Virginia in the early 2000s, when five out of the eight women representatives had their districts redrawn to favor Republican candidates who were men.
The possibility of gender gerrymandering is especially salient in Syracuse. Democrat women are the largest constituency in the city and Onondaga County. And gerrymandering continues to be a central topic of debate in local politics.
Still, paying attention to the issues of gerrymandering also provides us with opportunities to scrutinize, and maybe even combat, gender inequality in politics. At the very least, questions surrounding partisan gerrymandering can inspire more meaningful investigations into the causes and effects of gendered partisanship.
“If you have a party that is going to be in the majority for long periods of time, and there are eight percent women, do I think that matters for the issues that get put on the agenda? Absolutely,” Thomsen said. “Do I think that if you would draw districts a different way, it would fix it? No.”
This distinction between gendered partisanship and the effects of gerrymandering on gender representation is important. Yet we cannot ignore how gerrymandering affects women in U.S. politics. The current Supreme Court case can prompt critical debate on how we can avoid voter suppression.
Considering gerrymandering as a gender issue may also promote intersectional advocacy against the suppression of historically disadvantaged voters. Without such efforts, our democratic ideal of fair representation is futile.
C.C. Hendricks is a doctoral student in composition and cultural rhetoric. Her column appears biweekly. You can reach her at crhen100@syr.edu. By C.C. HendricksWriting to resist
#FairDistrictPa is petitioning Pa. legislator to create a #CitizenCommission that would create fair district maps. This is a three year process that involves approval from our legislators two years in a row before the constitution can be amended to grant a #CitizenCommission. #FairDistrictPa has proposed SB22 and HB722 to end #Gerrymandering. These bills are being blocked by Senator Joe Scarnati, Speaker Mike Turzai and Senator Mike Folmer whose twitter handle reads:
@SenatorFolmer
State Senator from Central PA dedicated to restoring government to We The People
Fair Districts PA Retweeted
Amazing to hear @senatorscarnati @drewcrompton @RepTurzai and now @SenatorFolmer accuse the League of delaying redistricting reform in PA. They've had decades. NOW would be a good time to schedule a hearing on SB 22 & HB 722. We're still waiting.
Fair Districts PA Retweeted
Important work by @danmcglone at @azavea. Turzai production data shows how/why/where counties/municipalities/precincts were split. We knew about packing and cracking - this makes it personal. https://www.azavea.com/blog/2018/01/23/exploring-pennsylvanias-gerrymandered-congressional-districts/ …
You can read more about Gov. Wolf tour at this link: https://www.governor.pa.gov/governor-wolf-hosts-non-partisan-redistricting-listening-sessions-with-pennsylvania-residents-round-up/
Sign Our Petition Now!!
With your help, we can rally every Pennsylvanian around our cause, and make the call for change impossible to ignore. The first step is to sign our petition asking state legislators to support redistricting bills SB 22 and HB 722. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/enact-sb22-and-hb722?source=website&
Make Your Vote Count!!
Find Your Representatives Stand On GerryMandering?
Committee of Seventy Retweeted
#HB722 now has 104 cosponsors! Thank you Rep. Michael Corr of Montgomery County for signing on. #Redistricting reform in PA is a bipartisan proposal with 69 Democrats and 35 Republicans in the #PAHouse cosponsoring so far. The time to end #Gerrymandering is now. @FairDistrictsPA
- Committee of Seventy RetweetedParty leaders may want 10 more years of #gerrymandering, but 103 cosponsors in #PAHouse, 17 in #PASenate, and thousands of citizens want an early spring. Bring sunshine to #redistricting. Prune the process to put people, not politicians, in charge of drawing maps @FairDistrictsPA
- In a recent case, the PA Congressional District Map was ruled unconstitutional. In this thread on #gerrymandering: - details from our expert witness report for a similar case, Agre v Wolf - statewide map of partisan data - details for Pennsylvania's most gerrymandered districts
