News Clips

“This is the culmination of a years long effort to maintain the status quo,” John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Rhode Island, told The Boston Globe. “They did not hide the fact that the goal was to let the incumbents draw the maps as they pleased.”

Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, said in a statement that the courts fell short of the panel’s goal to keep communities of color intact within districts, citing splits between House districts for Black immigrant communities in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities and Latino communities in the southwestern suburbs. “Minnesotans don’t want Republican or Democratic maps — we want fair maps that give us a voice in our government, regardless of political party, race, or ethnicity,” she said. “These maps rob Minnesotans of color from having a fair say in our government.”

Constitutional amendments – which must be passed in identical form in two legislative sessions before being presented to voters on a ballot – should be used sparingly. And they certainly should not be used to let one branch of government sidestep the checks and balances of the other branches. But Pennsylvania legislators are now using the amendment process to take power from other branches of government and increase their own influence.

“In the 2001 cycle, there was essentially a gentleman’s agreement that enabled everyone to run for reelection and stay in power,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause, which pushed for the independent redistricting commission. “This was a process that was exactly the opposite. The commission was literally moving lines and making massively important decisions on a livestream. They’re going to stumble, and thousands of people are going to watch it. But I don’t think I would trade that for a cleaner alternative.”

Sophia Parker, who is a Spelman fellow for Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that defends voting rights, said she thinks there's been "a lack of action taken on behalf of Black Americans" when threats are made against them. ... Parker and her fellow Spelman students plan to reach out to elected officials this month. The threats Spelman and other HBCUs faced were, in part, caused by pushes to ban discussions about racism from classrooms , she said. “A lot of my peers who aren’t even that politically involved, at least not as much as I am, are talking about wanting to get involved, just like writing letters to our senators, our representatives, people who are pushing these bills," said Parker.

"If there was the will to engage in a robust bipartisan process, they would have already established a schedule," said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. "It just feels like a merry-go-round or some sort of weird Groundhog Day."