Gerrymandering/Redistricting

"...while Connecticut’s legislative leaders have agreed that the redistricting process so far has been fair, Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, the election watchdog organization, said the secret aspect of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats isn’t good for public perception of the effort."

"...The legislature is hardly a disinterested body when it comes to election districts. The leadership can use the map to keep members in power or make life difficult for members who don’t toe the line. The number of truly contested races for both houses in every election cycle is a minuscule fraction of the total. The fact that this bipartisan body has pushed out a map with such oddities on it should be setting off alarm bells for anyone interested in fair elections..."

Lawmakers on Connecticut’s redistricting panel approved a map of new state Senate voting districts Tuesday which pulls a third district within Stamford’s city lines but leaves big portions of the state virtually unchanged.