Abuse of Power

“In order to avoid illegal map-rigging, the redistricting process in 2021 must be transparent, nonpartisan and include robust public input — and be completely free from gerrymandering,” Common Cause North Carolina Executive Director Bob Phillips said in a news release after Monday’s announcement. Common Cause was a plaintiff in both federal and state partisan gerrymandering lawsuits in the 2010s.

“If anything, the climate is more tense now than it was 10 years ago,” said Khalif Ali, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause Pennsylvania. “Once again, I anticipate districts that don’t really reflect registered voters and the people of Pennsylvania, and I also expect a veto from Gov. Wolf and then onto the Supreme Court.” For those reasons, and more, Ali said it’s important for Pennsylvania to adopt an independent commission to helm the state’s redistricting process — a long-sought change by advocates that has failed to gain necessary traction in Harrisburg. “I think we have to take the politics out of it,” Ali said. “I think a lot of what we do is eating away at the integrity of democracy, and if we continue doing it, I don’t think we can expect people to participate.”

“It’s critically important that the For the People Act remain big, bold and together,” said Aaron Scherb, the director of legislative affairs for Common Cause, one of several groups working with Democrats on the bill, adding, “People don’t want piecemeal solutions to comprehensive problems.”

"America is one of the only democracies that does not have elections run by a nonpartisan government entity," Sylvia Albert, director of the voting and elections program at the nonpartisan voter advocacy group Common Cause, said in an interview with Salon. "What you're seeing right now is the danger of politicians running elections. We should all be very much on guard."

It is vital that Congress start by enacting long-overdue reforms by passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Common-sense reforms can begin to bring about substantive changes and stem the tide of police racism and brutality in our nation.

Today’s conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd is a small step but we still have so far to go to address the underlying racism, police brutality, and lack of police accountability behind it. The conviction represents accountability but not justice. George’s Floyd’s murder must serve as one more catalyst to bring about systemic change and dismantle the white supremacy that drives deadly policing in the United States. In the wake of this conviction, so much more must still be done to bring about equal justice for Black Americans. Unchecked police brutality continues to claim the lives of far too many Black and Brown people and it must be ended.