Guest opinion: Good faith drawing of districts or gerrymandering?
by Justin Stapley
One of the difficulties in the gerrymandering debate is that there are different approaches to the good faith drawing of districts. More often than not, what many people deride as gerrymandering is simply a disagreement over how the drawing of districts was done.
Consider the four following different approaches to drawing district lines: the enclave approach, the competitive approach, the community approach, and the state delegation approach.
My honest estimation finds both merits and pitfalls to all of these approaches. In some situations, any of these approaches could lead to âtrue representation.â In other cases, any of these approaches could easily become gerrymandering.
This is why the issue of âgerrymanderingâ isnât just some scientific consideration where we can definitively say what gerrymandering is and what it isnât. Itâs an ongoing discussion and debate, which is why itâs best left to state legislatures to draw up districts, however imperfect that process sometimes is. They, at least, answer to the people of the state who alone can truly determine which approach they feel best represents them and which approach is gerrymandering.
Now, yes, there is gerrymandering, and itâs a concerning reality in the American Republic. But given that there are so many different views over what good redistricting looks like and what we should denounce as gerrymandering, the best solution from where Iâm sitting is to educate and empower the people to understand the process and the various approaches to the process. We should continue to allow legislatures to perform this fraught duty so that those making these all-important decisions are ultimately answerable to the people. (Read More)
News Releases
Rep. Owens applauds passage of bipartisan bill to end forced arbitration of sexual assault
Today, Rep. Burgess Owens released the following statement after the House passed the bipartisan Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act.
âFor far too long, forced arbitration has silenced the voices of victims while protecting abusers and shielding egregious misconduct in the workplace. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act restores the rights of an employee to seek public accountability in a court of law. Passing this bipartisan, bicameral legislation is a victory in our efforts to ensure justice for survivors of sexual assault and harassment.â
The full text H.R. 4445 is available here. (Read More)
Senators Romney, Hassan introduce legislation to improve pandemic preparedness & response
U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), members of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today introduced the Medical Countermeasures Surge Capacity Act of 2022, legislation to improve our domestic manufacturing surge capacity and capabilities for biodefense and pandemic preparedness and response. Their legislation has been included in the recently released discussion draft of the HELP Committeeâs bipartisan pandemic response bill, the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics Act (PREVENT Pandemics Act).
âMore than two years into the pandemic, we continue to see a lack of capacity in medical countermeasure manufacturingâmost recently experiencing a testing shortage,â Senator Romney said. âOne of the ways we can improve is by providing our public health agencies the tools to support critical manufacturing on an ongoing basis, which this legislation will equip us to do.â (Read More)
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