2122 Search Results Containing ":"
Associated Press: Rhode Island lawmakers approve redistricting map
“This is the culmination of a years long effort to maintain the status quo,” John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Rhode Island, told The Boston Globe. “They did not hide the fact that the goal was to let the incumbents draw the maps as they pleased.”
Found in: Common Cause
Associated Press: Minnesota courts release new political district maps
Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, said in a statement that the courts fell short of the panel’s goal to keep communities of color intact within districts, citing splits between House districts for Black immigrant communities in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities and Latino communities in the southwestern suburbs. “Minnesotans don’t want Republican or Democratic maps — we want fair maps that give us a voice in our government, regardless of political party, race, or ethnicity,” she said. “These maps rob Minnesotans of color from having a fair say in our government.”
Found in: Common Cause
Patriot-News (Op-Ed): Pennsylvania lawmakers are abusing the constitutional amendment process
Constitutional amendments – which must be passed in identical form in two legislative sessions before being presented to voters on a ballot – should be used sparingly. And they certainly should not be used to let one branch of government sidestep the checks and balances of the other branches. But Pennsylvania legislators are now using the amendment process to take power from other branches of government and increase their own influence.
Found in: Common Cause
CalMatters: No legal battles for California’s new election maps. But what lessons can be learned?
“In the 2001 cycle, there was essentially a gentleman’s agreement that enabled everyone to run for reelection and stay in power,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause, which pushed for the independent redistricting commission. “This was a process that was exactly the opposite. The commission was literally moving lines and making massively important decisions on a livestream. They’re going to stumble, and thousands of people are going to watch it. But I don’t think I would trade that for a cleaner alternative.”
Found in: Common Cause
USA Today: HBCU bomb threats are a painful reminder of past anti-Black violence, students say
Sophia Parker, who is a Spelman fellow for Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that defends voting rights, said she thinks there's been "a lack of action taken on behalf of Black Americans" when threats are made against them. ... Parker and her fellow Spelman students plan to reach out to elected officials this month. The threats Spelman and other HBCUs faced were, in part, caused by pushes to ban discussions about racism from classrooms , she said. “A lot of my peers who aren’t even that politically involved, at least not as much as I am, are talking about wanting to get involved, just like writing letters to our senators, our representatives, people who are pushing these bills," said Parker.
Found in: Common Cause
Columbus Dispatch: Ohio redistricting: Few signs that third time's a charm for state House and Senate maps
"If there was the will to engage in a robust bipartisan process, they would have already established a schedule," said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. "It just feels like a merry-go-round or some sort of weird Groundhog Day."
Found in: Common Cause
At Common Cause: Honoring the Past, Present, and Future During Black History Month
As we remember and honor the legacies of Representative John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and many other Black leaders – we also want to take a moment to appreciate the many Black history-makers who work right here at Common Cause.
Found in: Common Cause
Politico: Inside the totally legal, fairly macabre, classically political world of the true Zombie PACs
“Political committees are [standalone] — free-standing corporations … separate from the humans who set them up,” said Paul Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the watchdog group Common Cause. “While it’s entirely fair to think of them as the alter ego, in the case of candidate committees, … as a legal matter, they go on in existence even in the event of the death of the candidate or officeholder who set them up.”
Found in: Common Cause
Roll Call: State courts continue redrawing maps, as Supreme Court backs off
Critics of the map argued it diluted the power of minority voters. Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, one of the map’s challengers, told reporters on a call Wednesday that the state wants to be “the leader of the path forward to a better way with regards to redistricting.” “We watched all this train wreck and simply decided we could not sit back and see racist gerrymandered maps locked in for the next decade that will ensure one party in power at the expense of voters of color,” Phillips said.
Found in: Common Cause
Associated Press: GOP scrutiny of Black districts may deepen after court move
The question in Florida, said Dan Vicuna of the anti-gerrymandering group Common Cause, is “will courts put aside whatever are their own personal party preferences and adhere to the law?”