UT Legislature as National Role Model – GOP Governors to gerrymander districts nationwide
Posted By JM Bell on September 12, 2008
A letter from Gov. Bill Richardson raises an alarm in every state but Utah, which got this done years ago.
Dear JM Bell -
After my speech at the Democratic Convention, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) gave me some disturbing information.
Right now, the GOP is executing a plan to TAKE 38 governorships over the next three years. If they accomplish this, they will have the power to shrewdly alter election district borders and steal back Congress.
Why governors? Governors influence redistricting–the redrawing of congressional district lines, and all states redistrict in 2011 to make our government more representative. But like Texan Tom DeLay, who led the underhanded, but legal, effort to create SIX new Republican congressional districts in Texas in 2003, the GOP wants to make government non-representative–to win by making it impossible for Republicans to lose.
The DGA is mobilizing right now–before the GOP plan gains momentum–to elect Democratic governors all across the nation. 11 states are at immediate risk! Will you help us now to protect our democracy? Please donate $5 or more today:
http://www.democraticgovernors.org/EarlyStand
Democrats have a 28-state majority of governors. But 47 governorships will be decided in the next three years, starting with 11 in 2008. And the Republicans have already raised close to $30 million. Their plan is to use this massive war chest to pick up 16 new governorships and gerrymander their way to a new congressional majority.
This is not Democratic propaganda. Just read these words from a spokesman of the Republican Governors Association:
“We could feasibly see 25 to 30 congressional seats swing as the result of redistricting…The odds are, if it is a Republican in the governor’s chair, the seat will end up in GOP hands.”
Republican governors = manipulated districts = 25 to 30 more congressional seats in GOP hands!
This is old-school, back-room politics at its worst, and if they succeed, our democracy will suffer for years to come.
One thing is clear–the Republicans expect to lose at the ballot box for a long time to come, unless they get their 38 governors and give themselves an unbeatable edge.
So let’s give them the defeat they expect and deserve starting with this year’s races.
Please join in giving the DGA the resources it needs to protect our democracy.
Let’s show the GOP that we take our democracy seriously. That means the American people–in every state–get to decide.
Sincerely,
Bill Richardson
Governor of New Mexico
Former Chair, Democratic Governors Association
Elected Utah Democrats could introduce legislation to implement proportional, gerrymander-proof electoral systems, but they haven’t … and bipartisan/independent redistricting commissions don’t solve the problem either.
Until they do introduce such legislation to break up the two-party duopoly, elected Utah Democrats don’t have much “fair elections” credibility.
You know Rob, I’d take third parties a lot more seriously if they weren’t so whiny.
Several Democrats over the years, since the last gerrymander, have presented bills only to have them tabled in committee by the GOP members who love the protection they gave themselves.
Ironically enough for you, the only way you third parties will have a shot at winning is to support Democratic candidates until there are enough Dems on the hill to make the changes YOU need to actually move forward and win a few.
You, however, based on what I’ve seen over the years that I’ve known you, seem unable to plan strategically, and spend most of your time bemoaning your easy marginalization and mediocrity.
The only “fair election” you want is one that give you the strategic advantage and that makes you different from the GOP only in the fact that they have it and you don’t.
Sorry, Rob, but, as good as I think fringe parties would be for the system in Utah, whatever plan you have (no plan at all is my guess) to make yourselves competitive comes across as sour grapes and whining.
(I just re-read this and yes, I am aware of what an asshole I am.)
[...] in the states. Over the next three years, 49 states will have gubernatorial races. Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has written that “[r]ight now, the GOP is executing a plan to take 38 governorships over the next three [...]