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Tony Quinn’s Analysis Makes It Clear There is No Good Reason for Democrats to Support “Reform” of Redistricting Process
By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento
Republican analyst and redistricting expert, Tony Quinn (he was a lead player in the 1980’s redistricting process) has written a thoughtful column on the eve of new efforts at redistricting “reform”.
Part of Quinn’s op ed piece in today’s Bee is bogus. “Fairly drawn districts will not,” Quinn writes, “markedly change the partisan makeup we have.” Previously, I have delineated the seats I believe would be lost to the Democrats under any Commission Plan. Quinn asserts that’s “nonsense,” but doesn’t bother to provide evidence to support his point. In that sense, he’s still Republican.
The remainder of his analysis is more thoughtful. “Reform will not bring about the nirvana of thoughtful moderates from marginal districts supporters hope for,” Quinn notes. The reason is that voters have moved geographically to join with others of a similar demography or ideology.
He goes on: “The white working class that was open to voting Republican has been replaced by a Latino working class that is not. Church attendance rises in Republican areas, drawing together people of similar religious views, while secular values have drawn people of more diverse lifestyles to Democratic areas”.
Quinn is correct. This is a fact totally ignored by journalists who are taken in by phony analysis that suggests that redistricting is responsible for the death of Ken Maddy and that redistricting reform would magically resurrect him and “moderate” Republicanism.
But if “reform” won’t produce more legislative moderation, why is it necessary?
Quinn says it will result in “more logical districts” with a “less brutal hacking up of the political map”. What he really means is that it will result in more REPUBLICAN districts and perhaps the loss of majority control by the Democrats.
When Democrats win a majority of Legislative seats, they win the benefits of representing that majority. They elect a Speaker or a President Pro Tempore with that majority. That leader, in turn, allocates all – I repeat, ALL – the Chairmanships of ALL committees in the Legislature to the Democrats. The Leader then picks ALL of the Committee’s majority members on ALL the Committees. In such a manner the Majority Party controls ALL public policy (save the state’s budget), reflecting the opinion of the majority of voters that elected them.
Among the bills that are passed by the Majority Party in the Legislature is the one mandated by the US Constitution to redistrict according to population changes.
Today the good government/Republican Coalition seeks to alter redistricting. Tomorrow it will insist on other measures that dilute majority rule, other measures to cash in losers tickets at the winner’s window.
Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker’s Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years.
He attended undergraduate and graduate school in the 1960’s and received a doctorate in political science at UC Berkeley. He taught political science at UC Berkeley during the 1970's while he worked part-time for the State Assembly.
Cavala left teaching at UC Berkeley and went to work for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 1981 until his tenure as Speaker ended in 1995, and he has worked for his five successors as Speaker up to and including Speaker Fabian Nunez.
Mr. Cavala manages election campaigns for Democratic candidates.
Comments
Are you seriously asking me to entertain the notion that the only way the Democrats will maintain a majority is via the current unjust gerrymandering? If that's the case, then something is seriously out of whack. Even if that truly was the case, if we should support an unjust system for the purpose of maintaining a material benefit from it, we are fools at best
Posted by: Ben at May 11, 2008 01:52 PM
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