opinion Ingrid Jacques The Detroit News Published 11:00 PM EST Nov 10, 2018 Republicans are running scared. It’s not just last Tuesday’s Democratic sweep that has them worried. The ballot proposal to end gerrymandering in the state passed easily last week with more than 60 percent of the vote, and that could seal the GOP’s fate for decades to come. That’s why business groups and the GOP fought the proposal’s appearance on the November ballot so fiercely. Republicans fear that the end of traditional district drawing by lawmakers is their death knell. They have controlled the process for nearly 20 years, as the party in power following the 2000 and 2010 census. Most states allow their legislatures to create district maps, but now Michigan joins a handful of others, including California and Arizona, to try this new approach. While supporters of the proposal claim the new process will strip politics from the process of drawing congressional and legislative districts, opponents don’t buy that. “It does nothing to take politics out of this,” says Tony Daunt, executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund, which fought Proposal 2. “It just shifts it into another area.” In Michigan’s case, the Secretary of State’s office will now oversee redistricting — and the 13-member independent council tasked with creating the new districts. Newly elected Democrat Jocelyn Benson will head the department. She says she is ready to hit the ground running. “I have a deep background in redistricting law and in particular citizen-led redistricting,” Benson… [Read full story]
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