Anti-Gerrymandering Congressional Bills
March 2nd, 2006On March 1, U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) introduced S2350, to require the states to use non-partisan commissions to redraw U.S. House district lines. The bill is a duplicate of HR2642, introduced in the House last year. The House bill has 45 co-sponsors, but only two co-sponsors are Republicans.
March 3rd, 2006 at 1:50 am
The commisions need to include true independents and members of minor parties.
March 3rd, 2006 at 6:50 am
sounds like a good idea to me but unless Republicans support it then it has no chance of going anywhere this year. Maybe if the Democrats can make some big gains in Congress this election something might happen
March 7th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
A better solution is for Congress to set up an independent commission to create districts (and also ballot access rules and debate access rules) for all congressional elections. Congress has the power to do this under the Constitution.
(An even better solution would be to have proportional representation in districts of 5 or more, where gerrymandering becomes irrelevant.)