News Recap 06-22 to 06-26

ND
2010-06-22 ND constitutional amendment proposed to make independent comission.

North Dakota now has 47 legislative districts. Each one is represented by two House members and a senator.
The amendment petition needs almost 26,000 petition signatures by Aug. 4 to get on the November ballot.

Party Fight
2010-06-23 Real Clear Politics blog notes Howard Dean's warning of republican gerrymandering power grabs, and the Democratic Governors Association's "Redistricting Fund".

FL
2010-06-23 Rose Report on the escalating kerfluffle in Florida. More politicians and organization weighing in and joining suits.

2010-06-24 Orlando Sentinel formerly-Republican Governor Charlie Crist weighs in on lawsuits on the side of keeping 5 and 6 on the ballot.

MS
2010-06-24 Mississippi county supervisors note tightness or impracticability of schedule between Census data release and primaries. Part of the time crunch is VRA federal approval of distict maps.

DE
Delaware SB 20 would make an independent commission for state legislative redistricting.

CA
There are now initiatives on the November 2010 California ballot to both (Prop 20) add congressional redistricting to the independent comission previously made in charge of state legislature redistricting; and (Prop 27) eliminate that comission on redistricting. I believe the rules are that if both pass then the one with more votes wins and overrules the other. California Secretary of State Qualified Ballot Measures

2010-06-25 Rose Report tells us the system protects its own. The anti-independent-commission ballot initiative seems to have gotten priority treatment (or a term-limit measure got specially slow treatment) and got squeezed into the schedule for the November 2010 ballot.

OH
2010-06-26 Akron Law Cafe blog talks about the (apparently pretty good) maps that resulted from random interested citizens being given the right tools.

US
Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D-CA16] introduced H.R. 5596: "To prohibit States from carrying out more than one Congressional redistricting after a decennial census and apportionment, to require States to conduct such redistricting through independent commissions, and for other purposes."