Delaware House Of Representatives Public Hearing: Comments On The Comments
Well, first and foremost, the R’s are not happy with Mike Ramone being placed in Paul Baumbach’s district. House Minority Leader Danny Short spoke to that, as did several of Ramone’s constituents. Schwartzkopf gave some mumbo-jumbo about the numbers and how they had no choice. Except–Ramone is right on the district boundary. Both the ACLU and Common Cause pointed out that several incumbents who lived right near their district boundaries were drawn in to their existing districts and, in fact, argued that ‘edge incumbents’ should not be protected. I don’t care either way. Except it should be one or the other. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Ramone gets drawn back into the 21st, just to forestall a floor battle on November 1, which is the scheduled date for the vote on the maps.
I spoke and maintained that Val Longhurst should be held accountable to the voters in Delaware City. She has had Delaware City excised from her district despite being a primary cause of the huge redevelopment project there. I pointed out that Nicole Poore kept Delaware City, and that Longhurst should as well.
A speaker noted that a portion of RD 8 had been excised from the district despite the fact that, like most of the RD, the excised portion is within the Middletown municipal boundaries. The section has been placed in RD 11, which goes all the way southwest to Marydel.
And, that’s about it.
Got this from the tipline. Is this true?:
“Regarding new district maps: Stephanie Barry’s current address now places her in the 22nd RD with Mike Smith, not the 21st. Also — if the party was truly interested in getting her in office, they might have at least asked her beforehand if she had an intention to run if Ramone was drawn out of the district. Nope — they just placed her in the 22nd. A bit of a slap in the face, honestly.”
So. They took both Ramone and Barry OUT of the 21st? Does Val’s sister live there or something?
I know this is rhetorical but IIRC her sister lives in Ohio
Haven’t seen anyone talking about how House leadership seems to be at least on the surface intentionally trying to lose at least one seat here. The 4th is going from safe D to a plurality R population. They’re obviously fine with gerrymandering in some cases (look at how the 5th is drawn), so why are they being so conservative with these maps?
I would imagine that most people commenting on this blog would assume something a bit more conspiratorial like influence from donors or something. But I think the answer closer to reality is pure laziness. Pete has a couple of minor legislative priorities every year and doesn’t want to pass things at the pace the Senate has been these days. His leadership staff has been the same for like a decade and they don’t want to manage a caucus this size because it’s a lot of work. So we’re going to have dumb maps for 10 years. But hey at least they’re all vesting their pensions lol
NCC was almost certainly gonna have to lose a district under any circumstances. It couldn’t be a ‘minority-majority’ district so as to forestall any court challenges.
I was pretty certain all the way through the process that the district would move to Sussex.
There’s no doubt that political machinations played a part in some of the House districts, which is why some of them look so weird. Specifically the 15th and the 17th. They were drawn that way to enable Our PAL Val Longhurst to beat a hasty retreat from Delaware City, which she had saddled with a total boondoggle that the residents will have to endure. So, that portion of the 15th was ‘given’ to Melissa Minor-Brown. I raised the issue at the public hearing last night, won’t make a bit of difference, but I wanted it on a public record.
Dwayne Bensing of ACLU Delaware made comparisons to district maps like he was cloud gazing, finding images within the proposed designs. His opinion also goes in direct opposition to [House Minority Leader Rep. Daniel] Short’s request of maintaining incumbent seats.
“Using incumbents addresses has also resulted in several non-compact districts, with some of the most egregious examples being: District 17, which looks like Washington Crossing the Delaware; District 2, that looks like a megaphone; District 5, that looks like a Wu Tang Clan logo,” Bensing said. “We encourage the house to adjust the proposed district boundaries such that communities of interest are preserved within single compact districts to the greatest extent practicable without regard to incumbent legislators addresses.”
C.R.E.A.M., indeed.
https://www.wdel.com/news/that-looks-like-a-wu-tang-clan-logo-public-reacts-to-delawares-redistricting-process/article_ea8a0342-30ef-11ec-8918-3b36c90600bb.html
Yeah, he spoke tonight at the Senate hearings too. Same argument, no specifics. I’d just like to make a point: The shape of the State of Delaware is–misshapen. You’re not gonna get a bunch of rectangles under any circumstances. I agree that a couple of House Districts clearly were gerrymandered, 15 and 17 for sure, in order to protect Val Longhurst.
But I find no similar fault with the Senate maps. I can’t remember–he might’ve been the guy, or maybe it was Jack Young from the League Of Women Voters, who said tonight that Wilmington should only have one and a half senate districts.
I don’t question their sincerity. What bothers me is this ‘above the fray’ attitude that turns real issues into hypothetical exercises removed from reality.
It’s like they’re all (Caution: Stereotype Warning) academics and/or Unitarians.
I have to disagree. The issue is not removed from reality. The point is that communities should have people in Dover to represent them. When incumbents carve up the state for the primary purpose of protecting their own seats, and consequently run lines through a community, that undermines the ability of that community to have its voice heard in Dover. And what happens in Dover has material effects on people’s lives and will for the next 10 years.
Wilmington doesn’t fit in one district to be sure, but it does not have to be divided six ways in the House maps and three in the Senate maps. The tiny town of Lewes does not need to be divided in two for the House maps. The problem with dividing municipalities is that there a number of reps have responsibility for only a small segment of the city.
I don’t know about Dwayne but my oral comments were much shorter than what I submitted in written form. The House only allowed 2 minutes to each speaker. I could hardly even make my main point about the short timeline. I had to cut all the specifics that were in the written statement I submitted.
Partisans are probably going to be fine with Dems using their power to advance the interests of their party, but “good government” groups focus on communities and voters. And as a matter of fact, the DE Constitution prohibits legislators from redistricting in a way that “unduly favors any person or party.” So using incumbent addresses is arguably unconstitutional. Yet they are doing it anyway.
Why do you think it is so hard to get progressive change in DE? It’s because powerful legislators use their power to protect themselves.