Keep redistricting off ballot, lawmakers argue (Repugs flip flop in Fl

[wakeme2008]

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/10/State/Keep_redistricting_of.shtml

Keep redistricting off ballot, lawmakers argue

But backers tell justices a proposal to have a nonpartisan panel redraw congressional and legislative districts is clear and deals with a single subject.

By Associated Press
Published February 10, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - A proposed constitutional amendment that would strip state lawmakers of the job of redrawing legislative and congressional districts should be kept off the ballot, attorneys for several state and federal lawmakers told the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday.

The citizen initiative would set up a 15-member commission to handle redistricting every 10 years. Sponsors have collected the 611,000 signatures needed to put the amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot if the high court approves.

The lawyers who argued against the amendment, state Rep. Dudley Goodlette and former Rep. Barry Richard, said it would violate a ballot requirement because legislative and congressional redistricting are separate matters. Ballot questions can contain only one subject.

..more at link....

Hey Arnie come on down to Florida and tell the Repugs why redistricting is good....... :grr:

[drm604]

1. Oh fer cripes sake!

The subject isn't "redistricting" (which is only one subject anyway), the subject is "a redistricting panel" which is one panel and certainly one subject. But I guess they'd claim that it's 15 subjects. :eyes:

The proper frame for this would probably be something like "it addresses the single issue of setting up a panel which would help to keep all sides honest during redistricting".

They obviously know that this stands to be a winning proposition with the public, so they've chosen to fight it on a technicality (an incorrect technicality, IMHO) rather than let the public decide.

It's interesting that they're so intent on keeping an uneven playing field. Apparently they feel confident for some reason that they won't be in the minority in the near future.

[loudsue]

2. Plus, they'll just FIX THE VOTING MACHINES even if this does go to

the voters. Diebold is the republican's best friend in these troubled times.

You can't kick out the republicans until you kick out the REPUBLICAN OWNED VOTING MACHINES.

:kick::kick::kick:

[ProudToBeLiberal]

3. alert get you hats on folks

:tinfoilhat:

[wakeme2008]

4. Well in fact there are THREE ballot measures

on this over the single issue problem. The attorneys were very very careful about that. There is one issue that states that the redistricting will be done before the 2008 election. :)

[seafan]

5. So Barry (FL 2000) Richard rears his rabidly partisan head again.

Oh, how well we remember him, as lead attorney in FL for the 2000 election theft. Guess it's time to head off any threats by the *voting public* against their electoral empire.

Don't mind me, I'm just flashing back to Barry Richard's glad-handing and high-fiving his GOP cohorts in Tallahassee, after every forced ruling against counting our votes.

This nightmare seems endless.

[seafan]

6. To expand on your last sentiment:

Reform groups latch onto Schwarzenegger visit

Published May 26, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Groups wanting an independent panel to draw Florida's political boundaries are using Gov. Jeb Bush's support of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make their case.

The groups, including one founded by Betty Castor, are letting supporters know that Gov. Jeb Bush helped Schwarzenegger raise money last week for the California governor's proposed ballot initiatives. One of those measures would create an independent redistricting panel, which could help the Republican governor whittle down the Democrats' power in the California Legislature.

Castor is involved with two groups - Campaign For Florida's Future and the Committee for Fair Elections - that support a proposed Florida ballot measure that would create an independent panel to draw legislative and congressional districts.

Democrats argue that Republicans manipulate the redistricting process to keep a tight grip on power. The Republican-led Legislature has done nothing to help create an independent panel.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/26/State/Reform_groups_latch_o.shtml

[AndyTiedye]

8. May Their Efforts Have the Same Outcome as in California

The groups, including one founded by Betty Castor, are letting supporters know that Gov. Jeb Bush helped Schwarzenegger raise money last week for the California governor's proposed ballot initiatives. One of those measures would create an independent redistricting panel, which could help the Republican governor whittle down the Democrats' power in the California Legislature.

Hopefully their efforts in Florida will be as "successful" as they were here in California, where the Gropenators initiatives ALL went down in flames last November :party::kick:.

[seafan]

7. From the Orlando Sentinel:

It's those pesky voters again

Published February 9, 2006
By Scott Maxwell


For most of us out here in the hinterlands, it's hard to understand why Tallahassee politicians seem so fixated on prohibiting residents from voting on things.
Fortunately, Jeb Bush explained it to us this week. At an event with business leaders, Bush said the following, according to the Tallahassee Democrat:

"Democracy is imperiled a little bit when big donors that can't get their way through the traditional way of creating policy through the Florida Legislature, secret donors who do not disclose who they are, come into our state from out of state to advance in many cases a left-wing political agenda, to put things on the ballot that sound good but create long-term challenges for us."

Imperiled Democracy? Big donors? A left-wing agenda?
Jeepers, Ma, grab the shotgun and hide the babies. Them top-secret liberals is coming!
Bush wants to scare. So he has launched Devious Plans, the sequel.

Here's what's really going down:

Hundreds of thousands of Floridians signed petitions, saying they want the chance to vote on a constitutional amendment. That amendment, quite simply, would take the ability to draw legislative districts away from the legislators, whose political lives depend on them, and give it to a bipartisan committee.

Bush is right. That concept is scary -- for career politicians.

snip

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-maxwell0906feb09,0,2648104.column?coll=orl-news-col

[seafan]

9. More choice bits from this article:

snip

As for the so-called left-wing agenda he referred to, well, this effort is being led in part by radical liberals such as Thom Rumberger, the Republican patriarch whose law firm nurtured the likes of Bill McCollum and Ric Keller. Also co-chairing the Committee for Fair Elections is Republican veteran Bob Milligan.

These guys are die-hard Republicans. The difference between them and their contemporaries is that their next paychecks don't depend upon special-interests-funded campaigns.
What's interesting is that there have been governors -- Republican governors, even -- who have embraced the concept of taking district-drawing away from the politicians and allowing less-partisan people to get involved.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of them. And among the Republican governors who helped the Governator in his effort was . . . Jeb Bush.
Yes, Bush was plenty eager to help Schwarzenegger raise money to equalize the redistricting process that Democrats had hijacked in California. In fact, last year, Bush said fixing Schwarzenegger's push for a referendum was needed "to bring California out of its morass."

Now, however, when Florida is in a morass of its own, Bush seems quite content to let the state fester.

This morass, after all, is good for his party.

snip


I'll withhold comment.