Thursday, January 12, 2012
Where were the Republicans?
Comment in Cambridge Chronicle on lack of choice in this week's State Senate election.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Frank's Redistricting Complaint
MetroWest Daily News op-ed; no longer on-line. Here is a version:
Redistricting and Barney's Version
Martin G. Evans
It was sad to hear of Barney Frank's retirement from
politics. He has been a reliable liberal voice in the house for over 30 years.
It was even sadder to hear his complaints about the
Massachusetts redistricting results.
For the first time in a generation, the Redistricting process
in Massachusetts was open and transparent. Meetings were held by the Joint
Committee on Redistricting across the state so that ordinary people could
provide their fine-grained input about where sensible boundaries might be
drawn. Common Cause even held a contest so that individual citizens could
design maps using publicly available (at no cost) on-line software. The results
can be seen here:
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=7751111
The Redistricting Committee had to consider several important
constraints:
•
Districts had to be of equal size
•
Districts had to fulfill the Commonwealth's
obligations under Federal law
•
Districts as far as possible should be:
•
compact
•
not split other political divisions (e.g., towns
or cities)
•
keep communities of interest together
Finally, in a perfect world, districts should not reflect the
preferences of the incumbents
Frank is reported as saying that “If the district had been
substantially similar, I would have felt obligated to run again.”
This year, with Massachusetts having lost a Congressional
seat, it was impossible to create districts that were substantially similar to
those designed a decade ago. In the process, legislators and common people
alike had the chance to argue for their preferred district boundaries.
This year the Committee did a good job of meeting the formal
criteria
This year, these new districts give the public a chance to
chose their Representatives rather than fulfilling the old cliché: “The
Representatives choosing the voters they prefer.”
Gerrymandering is dead in Massachusetts..
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
What's wrong with a Balanced Budget Amendment
Op-Ed on the Balanced Budget Amendment in the MetroWest Daily News
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