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| Senator Moore and advocacy groups file Fair Redistricting legislation |
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January 13, 2005 - In a bid to end the age-old practice of political gerrymandering, Senator Richard T. Moore (D-Uxbridge), a coalition of advocacy groups, and 54 legislative cosponsors have filed legislation that would create an independent commission to oversee the divisive redistricting process. The coalition, including Common Cause Massachusetts, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the NAACP New England Area Conference, MassVOTE, and MassVoters for Fair Elections, along with Senator Moore and 54 other cosponsors, appeared today at a Beacon Hill news conference touting the proposal. Along with the creation of the independent commission, the legislation calls for more stringent guidelines to direct the redrawing of electoral boundaries. Senator Moore, lead sponsor for the reform said. "Redistricting has always been a challenging and, often, controversial undertaking here in Massachusetts and across the country. If we are going to increase public trust and respect in the political process, it must start with ensuring fairness in creating legislative and Congressional districts. These districts are the building blocks of the American system of representative democracy. They must always be designed with the intention that the districts belong to the people who live there, not to any particular person or party," he explained. “Massachusetts pioneered the practice of political gerrymandering. We can be one of the first states to end the practice,” said Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. “For too long, some Massachusetts leaders have used redistricting as a tool to maintain political power – instead of creating open and fair districts for the citizens of the Commonwealth. That needs to end. This is the right reform at the right time. The voters of the Massachusetts owe Senator Moore a debt of gratitude for taking on this challenge as the lead sponsor of the bill.” Last fall, Common Cause Massachusetts ran public policy advisory questions on fair redistricting in fifteen Representative districts, asking voters if they would support creation of an independent commission to redraw districts rather than the state legislature. In each of the 15 districts, the questions passed overwhelmingly, by an average of 67%. A longtime staple of American politics, gerrymandering has grabbed headlines in many states over the past few years. In 2003, Texas legislators fled the state, rather than be forced to vote on Representative Tom DeLay's plan that handed districts over to Republicans, even though the state had redistricted only two years prior. In Massachusetts, former House Speaker Thomas Finneran is at the center of an on-going federal grand jury probe for allegedly lying under oath about his role in the creation of racially gerrymandered legislative districts in Boston. Those districts were thrown out last year by a federal district court for violating the Federal Voting Rights Act. The courts also rejected a Massachusetts redistricting plan in 1987. “Anything we can do to make redistricting more fair and less political would be beneficial to the citizens of the Commonwealth” said Senator Moore. “Massachusetts is no Texas, but we still could improve the process quite a bit, by including public input better, and by making it more fair for everyone. This bill ensures that voters in Massachusetts will be the ones in charge. And that’s why I support it.” |
