Dead-on-Arrival Bill #1 -- Citizen Redistricting

KELO reports on a proposal from Representative Bill Thompson (D-13-Sioux Falls) to put legislative redistricting in the hands of a citizen committee and take it out of Legislature's purview entirely. His thesis:

Thompson believes the way it works now, Republican incumbants try to make sure they don't lose strong republican neighborhoods when they redraw their own district. He says Democrats do the same, and the process leads to less competitive races.

"The problem is if they don't have to work hard, or they have an easy race, there is a greater chance they will become lazy and that laziness sometimes results in arrogance. 06 and is detrimental to the democratic process," he says.

Thompson thinks taking that particular power away from Legislators would create more of an open government [Lou Raguse, "Legislative Redistricting Controversy*," KELOLand.com, 2008.01.05].

Rep. Thompson must be a teacher to come up with a good idea like that. Increase citizen involvement in politics, get the party bosses out of the process -- heck of an idea!

Also a dead-on-arrival idea. The only people who can take this power out of legislators' hands are legislators.** And on that power, you'll find bipartisan agreement: there's no way Republicans or Democrats will willingly sacrifice this splendid perk of winning an election in a year that ends with a zero. The GOP has used redistricting to keep a solid grip on the South Dakota Legislature since before Senator Pettigrew became a socialist. The Dems are gunning for a majority in 2010 so they can redistrict Republicans into a lasting minority. With only one Congressional district, this power isn't nearly the big deal it is in bigger states, but our legislators aren't about to give up what little power they do get to wield over state legislative districts.

Besides, much as I like citizen participation, it's unlikely Thompson can offer a plan that would make a citizen redistricting committee any less political than the status quo. Which citizens will volunteer or campaign to be on this committee? Oh, Jack Billion, Jerry Prostrollo, all the leading lights of the parties, or at least some harmless-looking front people, all determined to set district boundaries that suit their (or their financiers') political interests. Heck, Sibby and I would probably try to get on the committee so we could redistrict according to our site stats and increase the power of the blog lobby.

Rep. Thompson just wants to open up government and increase citizen participation, and that's cool. Unfortunately, this bill won't make it out of committee.

*Note Raguse's hyperventilatingly overtagged headline. There is no controversy. No one denies that legislators draw district boundaries to favor their and their parties' political interests. And Raguse apparently couldn't find anyone to argue against the bill.

**Well, we could try an initiative, but this sounds like one of those measures that would look complicated, be hard to explain on the ballot, and thus draw a conservative "If I don't get it, I'm not voting for it" majority, kind of like Amendment F in 2006.