From Fair Districts PA (http://www.fairdistrictspa.com):
Recently business leaders in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., came out in strong support of redistricting reform. In the wake of the longest government shutdown in history, they point to the unresponsive, unaccountable government that results from partisan gerrymandering:
Each of us has learned that for any organization to be effective, it must always remain responsive and accountable to the people it serves. Our job is to solve problems with common-sense workable solutions. If we allowed gridlock in our businesses or failed to align the underlying system of incentives with the broad preferences of our customers, we would go out of business.
The endemic dysfunction in our government stems from incentives in politics that promote ideological purity over pragmatic problem solving and cooperation. That has to change. We believe anti-gerrymandering measures are the logical starting point for reform.
You can read the full Washington Business Journal op ed here.
Fair Districts PA has been working for three years now to connect the dots between gerrymandered districts, unresponsive government and legislative inability to enact common sense solutions sought by people across the political spectrum.
Some states are working to resolve this, with fair agenda practices and bipartisan efforts to step back from the brink of dangerous division.
We still have a long way to go here in Pennsylvania.
Two data points we’ve unearthed in the past few weeks:
- Our Pennsylvania Legislature has an agenda fairness ranking of ZERO. As a point of comparison, Colorado’s is 100. Two redistricting reform amendments introduced in the Colorado General Assembly on April 18, 2018, were amended in joint committee May 4 and 7, then passed unanimously in both houses on May 16, just four weeks later. Voters passed it enthusiastically in November with 71% of the vote. Compare that to decades of work by advocates and sponsors and countless twists and turns on supported bills in the PA General Assembly.
- While seats won in the 2018 PA congressional races were far more reflective of the number of votes cast than in years past, our state legislative races were the most unreflective in the country. Here’s a quick graphic explainer (from the Washington Post) we’ll be using in informational events as we talk about work yet to be done on redistricting reform in Pennsylvania:
To put that graphic into words: according to 2018 election results, PA’s legislative districts are the most gerrymandered in the country, 50% worse than the two next worst states. (Our vote to seat skew is 9%; the next two states, Michigan and North Carolina, are both 6%).
What can YOU do to help?
- Ask your PA representative to cosponsor resolutions to Reform the Rules. Info on specific resolutions, HR 11 to 20, is available here. Ask your representative to cosponsor ALL, or those they think would be most helpful in ensuring bills with bipartisan support get a vote.
- Invite an FDPA speaker to your group. Are you part of a Rotary? A Chamber of Commerce? A retired teachers’ group? We’ve updated our speakers’ material and are happy to provide updates for groups that have heard from us before or to explain the basics to groups new to the issue. Fill out our request a speaker form or check our event page to see what’s scheduled in your area.
- Join a local group. Find your local groupor email us at info@fairdistrictspa.com and we’ll put you in contact with leaders in your area.
New bills are coming!
We’ll have details about bills we’ll be supporting soon. We’ve had good conversations in both House and Senate, have strong support from legislators in both houses who ran with redistricting reform as part of their platform, and are busy putting materials in place so we can advocate strongly once the February budget-hearing season is over.
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