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Let Texas voters make the redistricting call
07/27/2003
By Linda Curtis
We need another session like a ...
You can fill in the blank. A special session on redistricting is like
Friday the 13th. It keeps coming back. Why? Because the governor and his
party say so, that's why. And the Democrats' response in Washington?
You guessed it -- they held a fund-raiser!
That is why Independent Texans has been joined by a number of watchdog
groups, from the League of Women Voters to Campaigns for People, in calling
for a vote of the people on an independent citizens' redistricting
commission similar to those in Iowa and Arizona.
Independent Texans, an affiliation of independent reform voters, has
initiated an informal on-line petition drive to Gov. Rick Perry and the
Legislature to place a statewide proposition on the November ballot for a
citizens' redistricting commission of equal numbers of Democrats,
Republicans and independents. This would effectively put a stop to any more
special sessions for which Texas taxpayers will have to continue to foot
the bill.
Until now redistricting has threatened to become the bloodiest battle in
Texas since the Alamo. However, a new factor has entered the two-party
power equation. That is the emergence of the independent voter.
Maybe the two parties didn't notice the CNN/Gallup poll last October,
indicating a 35 percent plurality of voters who self-identify as
"independent," with Republicans at 32 percent and Democrats at 31 percent.
Despite our numbers, we have been completely ignored in the redistricting
war. And because of this, we, independent voters, may be the only ones
capable of stopping the fight.
Independent voters are all over the political map -- we're left, we're
right and all points in between on social and economic issues. But what
unites us, along with many Democratic and Republican voters (as opposed to
party loyalists), is the call for political reform. A supermajority of the
electorate wants to clean up and open up our dying democracy and get rid of
special-interest control of government.
The Republicans want to shore up their control of Congress. But even the
Republicans in Texas need to watch their step, because independents are
getting organized, both here in Texas and across the country, to play a
greater political role. For example, the "Choosing an Independent
President" process already is under way in Texas. Independents will hold a
regional conference in Austin on October 26 to begin screening the
presidential candidates, regardless of their party affiliation.
Politicians from both parties can ignore the 35 percent independent
plurality at their peril. Most voters have grown tired of their partisan
power wars. It is time for the politicians to turn their weapons over to the
people.
Linda Curtis, based in Austin, chairs Independent Texans, an affiliation of independent reform voters. The group's petition supporting an independent citizens redistricting commission in Texas can be found at independenttexans.org.
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