Gerrymandering

Congressman John Tanner’s bill.

An editorial and debate over Illinois redistricting.

Fair Districts Florida campaign heats up.

Gerrymandering scored a mention in a New Jersey political blog.

We cover stories in Florida and Illinois and look at John Tanner’s bill in the film.

New Elbridge Gerry discoveries shed light on the man, the myth, the legend.We had a great time shooting in Marblehead, MA on the 4th.  Spent some time with the Gerry bust in Abbot Hall and took some lovely pictures.

Here’s a great WSJ article on the upcoming census.  This part really nails the essence of why demographics are important to democracy (emphasis added):

Early analysis indicates that Texas will likely be the biggest winner since the prior count a decade ago, picking up three or four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and Election Data Services Inc., a political-consulting firm. Other states poised to gain at least one seat include Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Florida and Utah.

Growth in these states is driven by factors including migration from other states, immigration and birth rates. The economic crisis has put the brakes on some of this expansion — Florida just reported its first year-over-year population decline since 1946 — but in general, Sun Belt states have grown faster than others over the past decade.

Since the number of seats in the House is capped at 435, the gains in the South and West have to be offset by losses elsewhere.

When we interviewed Howard Dean, he suggested that dramatic shifts were underway in Texas politics, that the home of LBJ was quickly trending back towards the Democratic Party.  Seems like activists on the ground have taken notice as well.  Here’s an interesting strategy article on The Southern Shift that discusses ways to push Texas blue.  Guess what: redistricting is the key.

So, I finally broke down and joined Twitter. As most people who just join Twitter say: “I’m not sure what it’s all about” but you can follow me @Gerrymandering1.  I’ll be updating there a couple of times a day, and also tweeting other folks talking about gerrymandering, redistricting, etc.

So, I remain a bit unclear on what the whole ado is, but I did enjoy @ILSenateGOP’s coverage of today’s redistricting reform hearings in Illinois, home of the famous headphone district.

Massachusetts looks likely to lose another congressional seat after the upcoming census and reapportionment, continuing the flow of seats away from the Northeast and Midwest into the South and Southwest.

This article actually does a terrific job out outlining the complexities attendant to losing a seat. Especially in a delegation like Massachusetts’s where all the members are fairly senior Democrats, it must be tough to decide who gets voted off.

Netroots Nation held a panel specifically on redistricting.  I wish I’d known sooner - I would have tried to send over a teaser of some sort.

It’s great to see the increasing amount of attention gerrymandering is receiving…

So, I’m trying to figure out how to link things like this blog, facebook, Twitter and other various and sundry “social media” applications, so that I don’t have to update all sorts of different things.  Let’s see if this syndicates out to my facebook page.

Though it now begs the question: if I post news articles here that then go to my facebook page automatically, and then post the same articles to Twitter, they’ll also go to my facebook, so I’m potentially doubling up all over the place. Is this actually making less work for me?

This all makes me feel old, though lots of people seem to love it. (My mom’s a big Twitter fan, apparently.)

And will it sell any tickets for Gerrymandering? I hope so…

Looks like some high profile names are signing onto reform the redistricting process in Utah.

A little video work from my other day job:

I like producing these not only because it’s a bit of a break from thinking about Gerrymandering, but also because it gives me a chance to try out new ideas and techniques — stuff that likely wouldn’t make it into my current film, but that might find expression elsewhere later. Or, ideas that might only need to live within the bounds of one of our six-minute interviews. I’ve found over the last year that the more different kinds of mental exertion I’ve got going on at any given time (editing Gerrymandering, reviewing new releases, planning and shooting a Talkie, reading the new Thomas Pynchon…) the better the results have been across categories.More to come on the film soon…and maybe even a clip!