redistricting

Given the high levels of partisanship and dysfunctionality in our Congress, perhaps Thomas Friedman is right to suggest a new way of drawing Congressional district lines, thanks to inspiration from a leader in the field of democracy studies, Stanford scholar Larry Diamond.

Diamond suggests two innovations. First, let every state emulate California’s recent grass-roots initiative that took away the power to design state electoral districts from the state legislature and put it in the hands of an independent, politically neutral, Citizens Redistricting Commission. It will go to work after the 2010 census and reshape California’s state legislative districts for the coming elections. Henceforth, districts in California will not be designed to be automatically Democratic or Republican — so more of them will be competitive, so more candidates will only be electable if they appeal to the center, not just cater to one party. (There is a movement pressing for the same independent commission to be given the power to redraw Congressional districts.)

As I see it, this has two benefits.

1.) This puts one of the republic's responsibilities (defining constituencies for representatives) back into the people's hands. Thus, ordinary folks not only get to choose their representatives, but they also exercise more power in reconstructing that process.

2.) It leads to more honest electoral races. With the elections constructed by the people themselves, campaigns have more incentive to focus on the common good as opposed to the interests of elite insiders (notice I didn't say they will be exclusively focused on the common good -- more needs to be done).

It's not often I agree with Friedman, but I concur with his endorsement of Diamond's proposal. The people need to reassert their will on our governing processes. Taking over redistricting is one way of doing so.

April Fools Day 2010 will be a big day, and not just one for jokes and gags. More importantly, it will be the deadline for the most robust survey of its kind, the decennial U.S. Census, mandated by the Constitution to count every American resident regardless of status. The Census also determines how political power and public goods are distributed, influencing our everyday lives for ten years before another count.

To mark the importance of this awesome project, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s largest coalition of civil and human rights organizations, organized a media call with bloggers to exchange information about how the LCCR community is supplementing the efforts of the Census Bureau to ensure an accurate count. “If we are going to serve all of our citizens, we’re going to have to have a really accurate picture of who we are and what are needs are moving forward,” says Wade Henderson, executive director at LCCR. (You can listen to the call in its entirety (~45 minutes) from here.)

While this media call focused mainly on communities of color and undocumented workers, the issues and obstacles are similar, if not the same sometimes, for young people. The good news is that the Census is seeking out organizations that work or serve young people. With the email lists and other contact data gathered from the ’08 election, it would be prudent for youth groups to raise awareness about the 2010 Census.

According to Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, Spanish media has already been working hard on its public education campaign, including partnerships with state and local organizations. We can follow this model, too, by combining the targeted power of contact lists (GOTV, registration and advocacy groups) with the dissemination and presentation ability of youth media organizations.

I’m still searching for Census participation rates by age, but Wade Henderson had some ready stats available by race: Black 60%; Hispanic/American Indian 65 percent; Pacific Islanders 55%; Asian-Americans 70%; White 78%.

Census participation is not 100%, but it should be. Participation varies by race and ethnicity, and I’m going to put my neck out there a bit and say that it varies by age, too. I base this on the assumption that it is easier for people to fill out a Census if they live in a traditional household setting (single-family home, say) with a postal address; these people tend to be older and more economically stable. We know that young people are more mobile, switching addresses and residences often. This is a problem because the Census doesn’t track you, instead it tracks postal addresses (another reason to modernize the postal service, but for another post). So, forwarding your mail won’t work, at least in this case. And since it’s April and tax time, it doesn’t matter if your parents count you as a dependent. Unless you live in the same household as your parent or guardian, you should be counted where you live right now, because it is your local community.

We’ve still got a year until the deadline, and we already have some of the infrastructure in place to educate young folks about the 2010 Census. If your organization is interested in partnering with the Census, email me and I’d be happy to introduce you to my contact.