Has it's time come?
I live in the 7th PA senatorial district. Vincent Hughes is my State Senator. His office is at 46th and Market Streets, in Philadelphia. Vince Hughes does a very good job of representing his district...as long as you only count up to the Philadelphia city line!
Now, I ask you-what does a bedroom community in Whitemarsh, Montgomery County (and Springfield, Montgomery County) have in common with inner-city Philadelphia? Only two things-they both have decent, hard-working human beings living there and they both are represented by Vince Hughes.
I've lived here for 16+ years and have heard of only one instance when Vince Hughes ventured past the city limits (other than to visit his actress girlfriend in New York City), and this was last month when he attended a Whitemarsh Supervisors meeting.
Vincent Hughes has about as much interest in Whitemarsh as I do in flipping my registration to the Green Party.
Maybe the time has come to consider redistricting and give every citizen of Pennsylvania the representation they deserve-real, dedicated representation by people who have ties to a community, not someone who says "oh, yeah, I represent Whitemarsh and Springfield, too".
Click here to read Tony Phyrillas blog post on this subject-I'm not entirely sold on the "reform" part, but, it is very interesting reading.
B.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Redistricting PA...
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The League of Women Voters are campaigning for change in Pennsylvania.
Here's how you can help:
Contact your PA Senator and Representative AT LEAST ONCE EACH MONTH and voice your support of redistricting legislation. This can be done via phone, email or letter. (Visit the Pennsylvania General Assembly web site to find your legislator.)
Forward our most recent op ed to your legislators.
Encourage your friends and family members to do the same.
If our op ed was not printed in your local paper recently, please submit it to your local editor with a request that they print it.
Get other groups involved! If you're a member of other civic organizations, mobilize those resources in support of this critical issue. Ask that the group leadership issue letters to your representatives and to the local newspaper in support of the League position.
Let us know what you're doing! Keep us informed by emailing info@palwv.org to tell us what action you're taking.
There's an excellent suggestion in a comment listed on Tony Phyrillis' blog (http://tonyphyrillas.blogspot.com)
The comment encourages people who care about bringing real reform to Pennsylvania politics thru honest redistricting to contact their state reps and state senators, and it provides the link to their e-mail addresses. That comment is pasted below:
Here are the e-mail lists of the Pennsylvania State Representatives and State Senators. What better way to spend President’s Day?
Members of the House of Representatives – E-mail List
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/email_list.cfm?body=H
Members of the Senate – E-mail List
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/email_list.cfm?body=S
For more information on the redistricting issue, check out:
http://palwv.org/issues/2008Redistricting.html
How about having a monthly or weekly column that educates voters on critical political concepts?
I suggest starting off that column with the issue of gerrymandering, an apparent favorite of certain Pennsylvania politicians. (without gerrymandering, they wouldn't be able to get away with so much back-room politics in smoke-filled rooms where they apparently take pleasure in excluding women and minorities from having a meaningful role in politics)
Here's a powerful quote from an article posted on Tony Phyrillas' blog:
Gerrymandering means drawing the boundaries of voting districts in such a way as to rig elections, thus denying citizens their right to a fair vote.
Politicians no longer need constituents to vote them into office. So insidious and long practiced is this "self-election" that many voters don’t connect the dots between gerrymandering and the hijacking of their constitutional rights. Who cares?
This is the test. You care about gerrymandering if you care about even one of the following issues:
* Paying high taxes;
* Affording access to health care;
* Decent roads and safe bridges;
* Quality public education;
* Losing your civil rights;
* Having a voice in the way you are governed.
Sure-fire signs of the effects of non-representative gerrymandering you may have noticed include:
* Loss of voting power. Voters lose their most important civil right — the right to choose their representatives. This basic democratic freedom is repeatedly stolen by politicians to ensure their own re-election and to expand their own political power.
* Low voter turnout. When the outcome of elections is predetermined by politicians, going to the polls and voting becomes an empty exercise. Eventually voters stay home when they realize they are not able to elect the representatives they want.
* Political polarization. When district boundaries are drawn to guarantee the election of incumbents or another candidate from the same party there is no need to reach out to independent voters or attract voters from the other party. This means that real campaigning for office shifts to primary elections, which are usually dominated by the party's most extreme supporters. Those who finally take office are often more immoderate politically and more out of touch with mainstream Pennsylvania. This polarization produces the extreme rhetoric and political squabbling that is suppressing progress in Pennsylvania today.
* Unresponsive representation. Politicians who are assured of re-election stop listening to constituents. They vote themselves pre-requisites, high salaries, generous healthcare plans, and retirement benefits. Their pensions are four times what they would get in the private sector. And all this is made possible by our tax dollars.
The rest of this insightful article is located at Tony Phyrillas' blog, http://tonyphyrillas.blogspot.com
Please add this to the "Writemarsh's Most Wanted" list. This is such an important issue for all Pennsylvania voters. Thanks.
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