NJ Democrats Hope to Put Gerrymandering in the State Constitution

And they're even using a sneaky method to do it. First the problem as reported by that conservative rag Slate:

Quote:

Legislators in the Garden State hope to fast-track a constitutional amendment that would likely create a durable Democratic gerrymander of the Legislature. If passed, the proposal would strike a blow against democracy and undermine the Democratic Party’s ability to hold the moral high ground on partisan redistricting—all for the sake of padding out a liberal statehouse with a few more Democratic seats. It is exactly the kind of election rigging that most progressives rail against today.

The article goes on to point out the problem:

Quote:

But the second change is even more dramatic, and diabolical. It would require half of legislative districts to favor Democrats, and half to favor Republican—but at least 25 percent of districts would have to be “competitive.” That might be reasonable if the measure defined competitiveness fairly, as a district evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. It does not. Instead, a district would be “competitive” if its party composition is within 5 percentage points of the statewide average vote for president, senator, and governor over the past decade.

Here's the sneaky part:

Quote:

Typically, a constitutional amendment cannot reach the ballot unless three-fifths of the state Legislature have approved it. But lawmakers have seized upon a little-used rule that sends an amendment to the voters once a simple majority of the Legislature has passed it in two consecutive calendar years. Democrats hope to approve the measure in December, then again in January, allowing them to place it on the ballot in November 2019.

Liberals may hope that these sorts of shenanigans will result in the Supreme Court stepping in on the whole gerrymandering issue. Slate pours cold water on that notion as well:

Quote:

But just this year, the court considered Maryland’s egregious Democratic gerrymander—and punted the case. If anything, more Democratic gerrymandering will only give the conservative justices cover to kick these cases out of court, depicting their abdication as nonpartisan because #bothsides do it.

Not to mention the fact that New Jersey's gerrymandering attempt would affect only state legislative districts.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2UO7yYb