Independent commission needed for fair redistricting
By Dorothy Iman- Johnson
Special to the Outlook
Gerrymandering, the manipulation of district boundaries in order to favor one party or class, has been used very effectively by the GOP to gain control of the Florida Legislature and Congress since the mid ‘80s and early ‘90s. By using stacking, cracking, and packing to minimize voting power of the opposing party, Republicans have been very successful, surprisingly and unwittingly with the help of the Florida Democratic Black Caucus and Black political leaders, in taking control of state legislatures throughout the country. These majority GOP legislatures have controlled the redistricting process in their states and created congressional district maps with such outrageous shapes that it is a wonder that they could get past court challenges. The Republican Party’s success rested in large part with Black leaders so desperate for super majority single member districts that they turned their backs on their own party leaders who also offered minority districts with clear majorities. By packing almost all the Black vote into a few districts, the GOP was able to offer Black leaders districts with Black majorities much higher than the districts offered by Democrats. However, these Black leaders and the Florida Democratic Black Caucus failed to understand that packing so many Black voters into a few districts made the rest strict conservative districts, in which it would be impossible to get issues important to minorities, low, and moderate income Floridians passed. There is just no common ground with people who completely oppose issues like Medicaid expansion, access to healthcare for millions under ACA, public education, voting rights, common sense gun laws, equal justice for all, women’s and civil rights, affordable Medicare, DACA and immigration reform, a safety net for the poor, and much more.
And, at the same time, by using the “cracking” strategy, they were able to spread the rest of Democratic voters out over many districts to minimize their voting power and take complete control of the Florida Legislature by 1996. The political party that controls the Legislature, also, continues to control district lines rigidly skewered in favor of re-electing the Republican majority. They were so successful in Florida that our state became the GOP model for transforming Legislatures with Democratic majorities to Republican controlled bodies throughout the U.S. In the future, I hope our Black political leaders will be more careful about accepting gift horses.
And if anyone is wondering why Congress is so dysfunctional, it is because red state Legislatures have used the cracking and packing techniques to draw very safe, conservative Congressional districts. These districts allow GOP Congressional leaders to ignore their constituents even when a super majority of Americans oppose action they are taking in Washington; because they know they are in safe districts. That’s why former President Obama and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are providing leadership for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee by launching a campaign to educate voters before the next census in 2020 and take action to correct this unfair political system. With gerrymandered congressional and legislative districts in which the votes of a majority of citizens don’t count, Florida cannot just wait for the redistricting process after the 2020 census. Civil Rights, voting rights, and justice advocacy groups should be working to put a referendum on the 2018 ballot asking citizens to vote yes to create an independent redistricting commission. It should be a violation of the law and ethics for Legislators to have the authority to carve out districts for themselves and decide which voters should populate those districts. I am required by Florida law to complete a disclosure form each year ensuring that I have no conflict of interest to serve as a volunteer on a local Friends of Our Parks Board. It would be laughable, if this was not such a serious matter; and seems very much like a double standard that Legislators make laws requiring citizen volunteers to declare whether they have a conflict, but these paid law makers don’t apply the same standard to themselves.
The primary goal for Legislators in redistricting is to protect their own seats and their political party’s control of the election process. The only hope of changing this situation and creating fair districts is for citizens to take control and demand that future redistricting is done by an independent commission with its members appointed by the Court, through a public nominating process, or through non-partisan organizations like the League of Women Voters. It is past time for a change.
Please send comments to dotinman-johnson@hotmail.com.
