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>>Professor Gaffaney, Tell me about the topic that we are dealing with today?
Can you kind of explain this for students?
And how are these districts drawn?
All right this sounds like a technical governance issue, a political science issue,
but it'貞 in the news. It's in the news right now, right?
Ok, Where is it in the news?
The Republicans have the advantage if they have hold the majority in the State legislature
So some states where they still have a Democratic legislature, the Democrats
hold the advantage. Now, why should the average person be concerned with this; it sounds like we
were saying--kind of technical, what i簫s the significance here?
down the middle of a highway So we used to..We had a history of drawing districts to discriminate against certain
people, like African-Americans and that type, all those redrawings like that have been
eliminated or the軌're illegal now but discriminating against another party..
It'貞 a long standing tradition of America
to gerrymander your district
>>So what'簫s happening is that some states are overturning this? Is that right?
So what'貞 going to happen is these districts are going to be more competitive,
in a sense, they are not going to be just like exclusively Democratic territory
or Republican territory
The goal is-California has been in the news a lot because they just passed
a proposition in this election that would allow their non-partisan commission to draw
district lines for representatives to the federal Congress.
So there is some discussion over the goal of the commission is to draw lines that
reflect each community.
So, of course, there is still a debate about, well, how do you define community?
Is it by solely geographical lines; is it income levels?
How do you define community?
>>Well, you don'負 run it down a stretch of highway for five miles for sure
>>That is the lingering debate but it still surely has to be, you know, more sort of,
consistent than the lines that get switched when a different party takes over.
>>Now some people suggest, that redrawing with these commissions, means that the
campaigns will be become more competitive and that means we'衍l get more moderates
in elected offices, do you agree with that? Do you think that will happen?
>>I do, I do, because what tends to happen when one party or another controls the lines,
is that the primary election before the general election becomes much more competitive,
and that'貞 where the real competition is within that party and since only Republicans,
for example, vote in the Republican primary, it tends to attract more extremist views
to primary elections. So, I do think that a more competitive race, each party will be thinking about who
will appeal to the population as a whole, not just our party.
>>All right, as the state initiatives become law, and go into effect,
what should students look for?