Stiefel supports End Gerrymandering Pledge from Common Cause

RALEIGH — Todd Stiefel and the Stiefel Freethought Foundation have committed $250,000 in matching funds to Common Cause and Common Cause Education Fund to expand an End Gerrymandering Pledge from North Carolina to a national audience. The goal is to raise $500,000 for redistricting reform.

The End Gerrymandering Pledge aims to spur prominent national leaders to advance fair redistricting reform that is transparent, nondiscriminatory and politically impartial across the United States in advance of the 2020 Census. Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, and Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are among the more than 6,000 Americans who have signed the online pledge.

The pledge started in North Carolina, the state at the center of Rucho v. Common Cause, an anti-gerrymandering case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Common Cause, lead plaintiff-appellee in the case, argues that North Carolina Republicans violated the U.S. Constitution through an extreme partisan gerrymander that all but silenced Democratic voters. The Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of gerrymandering in June.

Redistricting is the once-in-a-decade process by which new congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn. Gerrymandering is a manipulation of that process that gives the party in power a guaranteed advantage over the minority party.

Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. The Stiefel Freethought Foundation, based in Raleigh, seeks to secure humanity’s future by ensuring public policy decisions are based on love and reason rather than bias and dogma.

The matching gift from the Foundation will support civic engagement and educational efforts to advance fair redistricting through the 501(c)3 arm of the organization, and Mr. Stiefel will support lobbying efforts through the parent 501(c)4 organization. Donations from grassroots members will be matched up to $125,000 for each part of the organization.