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Why the Majority Counts

by: Jennifer Daler

Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 19:34:36 PM EDT
A recent article in The Nashua Telegraph points out the importance of maintaining our Democratic majority at the state level.

Every 10 years after the Census, the New Hampshire Legislature has to realign all election districts in the state, including the 400-member House of Representatives, the 24-person Senate, the two congressional seats in the U.S. House and the five who get elected from independent parts of the state to the Executive Council.

Many people have asked me about the often strange State House districts created the last time the census was taken. For example, Hillsborough District 4 has 5 towns, 9 school districts, and many towns are served by different agencies for social and other services. Just at the school level, Temple is part of the 10 town Conval district, Wilton and Lyndeborough share a high achool, but have separate elementary schools (this may be changing,) Mount Vernon shares a high school with Amherst, and New Boston goes to Goffstown. Also, New Boston, Lyndeborough and Mont Vernon share a State Senate district with Greenfield, Bedford and Merrimack. Wilton and Temple are in a district that stretches from Amherst to Peterborough.
Jennifer Daler :: Why the Majority Counts
The Telegraph article explains how we got this way--sort of.  But a constitutional amendment passed in 2006 requires that every town over 3200 or so people have its own representative to the State House. By 2012, Hillsborough 4 will be no more. Presently, three out of our four reps come from Mont Vernon.

Leaders of both political parties will be working extra hard to obtain the majority vote needed in either the state House of Representatives or the state Senate to be in
charge of redrawing those maps to account for shifts in population.

This is very important, even though the amendment does give less "wiggle room" so to speak, at least for the House. State Senate Districts are also in need of major overhaul, especially district 9, whose conglomeration of towns makes no sense unless the goal is to  all but guarantee a Republican State Senator.

Republican State Chairman John H. Sununu surely doesn't want to be heading the party for the first time since the Civil War that Democrats will be in the majority rewriting these maps.

Of course he doesn't. Which is why we have to make sure that for the first time since the Civil War, Democrats are in the majority while these important decisions are being made.
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Why the Majority Counts | 8 comments
Excellent Analysis (0.00 / 0)
I hope that finally, after this next election, we have districts at all levels that make sense. Why is any part of Rockinghan Couny is in the second congressional district, for example?




"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
I am sure that issue will come up (0.00 / 0)
For decades, Manchester has been in a district with the Seacoast and Nashua & Concord has been in an other with the Connecticut River Valley.  I think the original idea was to split the Democrat vote in the Merrimack Valley between the two districts.  Now that the Democrats have the upper hand, I imagine we will be hoping to split the Republicans between the two districts.

Although it shouldn't matter, incumbent protection would enter into the calculations as well.  If the Democrats sweep the '10 election, we will have Congressional incumbents from Concord & Rochester; hence those two towns would not be placed in the same CD.  Conversely if the GOP sweeps, and Frank Guinta & Jennifer Horn are elected to Congress, then Manchester & Nashua would not be placed in the same CD.  

[ Parent ]
not the way to run the trains (4.00 / 2)
My question was partly rhetorical; I think we all know there was a conscious effort back in the day to keep Nashua and Manchester in separate districts, despite being in the same county, because of Republican efforts to keep the urban (and at the time, most reliably Democratic) cities apart.  Hence Salem in the second, which is geographically illogical. My point is that gerrymandering should not factor into the formation of the districts; whether state legislative or congressional, or executive council, the districts should be based on rational geographical and population factors, not on incumbent protection. Since you are in the legislature, why not introduce legislation to set up a bi-partisan redistricting commission, with a couple of judges, a statistician or two, a couple of political types?      



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
Completely agree (0.00 / 0)
This is how it should be nationally whether we're in charge or not.
[ Parent ]
Exactly (4.00 / 1)
When the Democrats took control of the majority in the legislature in '06, a reporter asked me if I still supported eliminating straight ballot voting and other ballot reforms. I said yes, ballot reform was the right thing to do no matter who the majority party is.  Same is true with redistricting, same is true with ethics. A free and fair democracy should strive to have a level playing field.



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
Majority's rules (0.00 / 0)
Guaranteeing that smallish towns such as Wilton and New Ipswich each have a legislator seems a step in the right direction -- away from gerrymandering. Who gets the credit for getting that in the bill?

FYI: It's true Wilton and Lyndeborough are consolidating their three school districts this year. But in the decades of discussion leading up to that vote, there was widespread public insistence that the two towns' elementary schools stay separate.

[ Parent ]
Wait a minute - (0.00 / 0)
Manchester and Nashua are the biggest and second biggest cities by far. Any plan that put them both in the same district would be strange indeed.

No need to look for nefarious motives.

[ Parent ]
For most of the 20th Century... (4.00 / 1)
The largest base of registered Democrats were in Manchester and Nashua - Hillsborough County government until the mid 1980s was solidly controlled by Democrats by the votes of the two cities. If there had been a congressional district largely Hillsborough County with parts or all of Cheshire County added NH Democrats would have consistently held that seat.

Of course, now it doesn't matter.

Have you told a stranger today about Bill O'Brien and his Tea Party agenda? The people of NH deserve to hear about O'Brien  and his majority committed to destroying New Hampshire and remaking it into a armed survivalist preserve.  

[ Parent ]
Why the Majority Counts | 8 comments

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