News Clips

Mason Graham, policy director of Common Cause New Mexico, said in a news release Monday he applauds the state Supreme Court’s decision. “The redistricting process was more accessible and transparent this time, due to the involvement of the Citizen Redistricting Committee, but we can make it better,” Graham said.

"Every single vote that is put forward is counted but they aren't counted the same — they don't have the same value," said Penny Bernard Schaber, co-chair of Common Cause Wisconsin in Appleton and former Assembly member, at the rally.

"The two ends of that district have nothing in common," Ann Webb, policy director at Common Cause North Carolina, argued at the time, referring specifically to Senate District 2. "They are far from one another; they have different communities, and they should not be gerrymandered into a district together."

Ann Webb says the Republican maps amount to a power grab and suppress the voices of voters, especially in Black communities. Webb is policy director with Common Cause North Carolina, a government watchdog group. ANN WEBB: We know that all voters deserve to have their vote count equally, and that is not what these maps do. And it is clear that that was not the intent of the legislative leadership.

The “issues that we’re seeing focused on in the legislature also do not reflect the views and priorities of most North Carolinians,” Ann Webb with Common Cause North Carolina said at a Wednesday news conference. “When you create noncompetitive legislative maps, you lose accountability to the voters.”

Jay Heck, executive director of government watchdog group Common Cause of Wisconsin, said the fact that Republicans put the plan on such a fast track makes supporters of nonpartisan maps suspicious. “A month ago, there was no even inkling that most Republican members of the Legislature were supportive of redistricting reform,” he said. “And so the matter of believability and trust, I think, really comes into play here as we begin this process.”