Progressives Decry Senate Redistricting Plan
Tonight at 7 p.m., there will be a public hearing in the Senate chamber of Legislative Hall regarding the abomination that passes as the Senate Redistricting Plan. Paul Baumbach, of the Progressive Democrats for Delaware, is expected to speak at the meeting tonight on behalf of the PDD, and what follows are his prepared remarks:
“I am Paul Baumbach, a resident of and a business owner in Newark. I serve as a commissioner on the Newark Housing Authority, and I serve as the President of PDD, the Progressive Democrats for Delaware.
I would like to start with a question. Is this hearing just for show, or are you committed to incorporating what the public says tonight to make changes to the map? I would hope that we have not wasted our time coming down here to Dover, merely to give the illusion of public involvement in this ‘process.’
I am disappointed with the redistricting map currently under consideration.
It is immediately clear visually that gerrymandering was behind the drawing of many of the lines here. The redistricting process has the potential to strengthen our communities, and to strengthen the political party or parties who lead this process, IF they take the opportunity to use the process to strengthen our communities.
Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso have a paper on ‘How to Avoid Gerrymandering.’ In it, they note that one goal is to eliminate ‘weirdness.’ It is clear from the proposed map that this was not the goal of our state senate leaders.
A neighborhood southeast of Route 95 is included in the 1st district, which clearly should be included in the 5th. A neighborhood east of Concord Pike is included in the 4th which clearly should be in the 5th district. The far west arm of the 1st SD is insane, but consistent with the proposed 1st SD’s insane snake-shape.
The northern ‘panhandle’ of the current 6th SD made no sense ten years ago, and you have perpetuated it in the proposed 8th SD. Why?The proposed 12th SD is a cluster-screw up. Its V shape is a travesty, and should be criminal. The narrow north-south slice through Brookside severs that community’s backbone. There is no excuse to have Battery Park in the same SD as Roger Martin Lane. You are destroying communities with this map. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Senators, this isn’t a game, and this shouldn’t be an exercise in serving you. Being public servants is supposed to mean you serving the public, not the public serving you. Redistricting should be an exercise in serving Delaware’s communities. This proposed map fails, badly. You have failed us, badly.
I fear that this public meeting is a farce, and that you have no intention of incorporating these points into any revisions. Prove me wrong. Please.”
Daaaaaang! GO Paul!
Color me a shade of not-giving-a-shit. When the GOP is in control, they do everything in their power to wipe us out. I’ll take the map that creates the most progressive legislation rather than a bullshit one-sided purity exercise. This is the same kind of stupid hand-wringing that we see when Democrats run attack ads – “oh good heavens, we shouldn’t be negative!” Politics ain’t beanbag.
Well I suppose my first reaction was more to the strident tone the PDD was taking and the willingness to get all up in the grill of our fakey-jakey pharisees.
Whichever redistricting map helps Democrats is the one I favor.
Jason: From what El Som has told us, the Senate map seems more like an exercise in rewarding DeLuca’s supporters and punishing his opponents than any attempt to screw the Republicans. Indeed, he has been very accommodating to Sens. Connor and Cloutier, and punitive toward Sens. Katz and Sokola. This is a case of DeLuca putting his personal interests above his party’s. The public, I guarantee, hasn’t entered his thinking in the least.
I guess Paul’s tone was apt then. To be honest I have not been following redistricting very closely.
Ok, now that’s an argument I can get behind. I just don’t cotton to the way it’s been framed. Community boundaries mean far less to me than having representatives who will work for the common good rather than entrenched power-hungry careerists
The hearing was quite interesting. Senate attorney Frank murphy led with quite a bit of background on the process, followed by four or five of us members of the public making statements. No senators spoke up.
It sounded like Murphy is interested in reviewing the problems raised thus far including this evening, but what is obvious is that thus far this has been a closed process, that if leadership had any vision, they could have opened the doors to the deliberations, and thus prevented the concerns raised, regarding the “stacking and cracking” is the current map.
I find it odd that the same census constraints did not lead to the house district maps being as screwy as the SD maps.
That’s a great speech, Paul.
can anyone share the link to today’s article in the DE State News? (limited view PDF is at http://www.newszap.com/profile_images/compact_fronts/New%20Folder/dsn2.jpg)
DE First Media coverage is at http://www.delawarefirst.org/1_government_and_politics/state-senate-hears-public-comment-redistricting-effort/