Redistricting occurs every ten years following the census, as mandated by the US Constitution. Conventional wisdom holds that the party with the majority in the state legislature and with the Governor controls redistricting. As always, conventional wisdom is partly right, and partly wrong. The goal of the Redistricting Task Force is to build a fifty state group of individuals who are willing to take advantage of both the ways in which conventional wisdom is right, and the ways that conventional wisdom is wrong.
Getting out the vote in the election that determines which party controls state government during redistricting and getting decent candidates for office is part of what is needed, in every state, as we all know. Some years we have had more success than others, but the Republicans usually have done this better than we have, on average, so there is obviously room for improvement, and part of this group will probably want to concentrate on this side of redistricting efforts.
Then there is this question of what we can do where conventional wisdom is wrong. This part is different for every state, but there will be some common themes. We need people to look at the actual redistricting process in each state, and spot opportunities for influencing the process even when the Republicans control the legislature, by what margins, or the Governor is Republican, or often both. We need people willing to be appointed to redistricting commissions, where there is a bipartisan mandate and where there isn't. We need to know when meetings are held that will take public input, and make sure that we have people who are knowledgeable who will attend and provide that input. For every state, we need an action plan that takes advantage of our best opportunities, and reliable people prepared to act.
In addition, we need to know what changes in districts we want to push, and what we want to avoid. We need ongoing research into what our elected politicians need to stay in office, and ongoing research into what happened when our candidates did not get elected. Often that is information the politician already has and can share with us if she believes that we can help her. But we need to be reliable and credible, or she will have no reason to share what she knows.
Other information will be available from Kossacks who are involved in phone banks, door to door canvassing, getting out the vote. Again, this information can be shared with us if we are credible and reliable. Sometimes, there may be specific information we hope these people can solicit for us so that we do not need to duplicate their efforts and can focus on our part of the big picture.
First we will need some people to get the ball rolling, get this thing organized. Hopefully someone who has more experience and credentials than I do at this point, but I am willing to get things started until that person shows up, or I become that experienced, whichever comes first.
Meanwhile, we also need people with all levels of experience, and all sorts of skills, interests, talents.
If you are interested in following what we are up to, click to follow this group. If you are interested in doing anything more, send me a message. Let me know a bit about who you are and what you are interested in, and what state you are interested in working on.
Comment Preferences