McClellan: Soon, we'll see if redistricting ends stalemate, produces solutions
Mike McClellan
Mike McClellan is a Gilbert resident and former English teacher at Dobson High School in Mesa.
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chuckles3 posted at 8:13 am on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
Sorry Mike, if you think Kristen Sinema is a moderate you have been smoking something.
And I doubt you would be crowing about this had the libertarians not thrown all 3 of these elections to the Dems.
We are a very Red state, despite wishful thinking otherwise. For us to have 5 Ds and 4 Rs representing us in Congress show how great a job the redistricting commission did in Representing the people.
Dale Whiting posted at 9:26 am on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
I saw Kirkpatrick on TV this am. She's already making a name for herself on the topic of solving the fiscal crisis. So perhaps chuckles3 needs to re-think some of his thoughts. Could Sinema move to the center and help out Kirkpatrick?
downtownresident posted at 12:37 pm on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
Thanks to the IRC we finally have some parity in even the heavily gerrymandered districts. Much to the chagrin of the radical whackos presently in office.
If any of these people had any ethics, morals or honesty they would welcom a fair and unbiased political election battle, instead of using the Olivia Cortez method of dirty politics.
Now if we could just get rid of Dina "Let's ban fluoride" Higgins we'd be better off here in Mesa, too.
dellett posted at 1:13 pm on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
Any redistricting that bases decisions on political demographics or affiliations or anything political is to that same extent political, and is therefore gerrymandering regardless of good or evil intent.
We will be forever at the mercy of the personal political opinions of politicians and judges as to what political demographic that THEY think is good or bad when politics should have nothing to do with it.
Elbridge Gerry would be proud.
Cerulean posted at 2:33 pm on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
I do not believe that seats picked-up for the Arizona Democratic congressional House delegation is going to make much difference in Washington.
Republicans still hold a majority vote and still pledge allegiance to Grover Norquist (whose firm ‘Janus –Merritt Strategies’ lobbied for Pakistan, and Lissouba the corrupt president of the Republic of Congo, et al).
Leon Ceniceros posted at 4:39 pm on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
Dear Mike,
If you are a retired Mesa High School English teacher as your byline states, why can't you comprehend the simple English words in the United States Constitution. In Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1; it clearly and simply declares that only State Legislatures can "manage" Congressional Elections withing their Borders.
"THE TIMES, PLACES AND MANNER OF HOLDING ELECTIONS FOR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES, SHALL BE PRESCRIBED IN EACH STATE BY THE LEGISLATURE THEREOF.....".
"STATE LEGISLATURES" , MIKE.....NOT BY A REDISTRICTING COMMITTEE APPROVED BY STATE INITIATIVE.......LET ME REPEAT THAT ONE MORE TIME FOR MIKE........"STATE LEGISLATURES".........GET OUT THE OLD WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY MIKE AND LOOK UP THE DEFINITION FOR ...."LEGISLATURE"...NOW TELL ME....DO YOU SEE THE WORD "INITIATIVE" IN THE DEFINITION OF ....."LEGISLATURE".
AND WE BLAME THE STUDENTS AND THE PARENTS FOR OUR ABYSMAL "ENGLISH COMPREHENSION" SCORES IN A.I.M.S. AND S.A.T.....TESTS..............[wink]
Leon Ceniceros posted at 4:42 pm on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
CORRECTION TO THE ABOVE..."withing"...SHOULD BE ..."with in".
LOL....MY GRASP OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS ALMOST AS BAD AS SOMEONE WHO SHALL REMAIN.....NAMELESS..............[wink]
Accuracy posted at 6:00 pm on Wed, Nov 28, 2012.
Mike McClellan’s commented; “They were biased, many claimed, giving the Democrats too much of a fighting chance in too many races."
Arizona’s senior Democratic congressmen have also said the maps of new congressional districts were drawn in ways that benefited Democrats.
Arizona’s Republicans are challenging that the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) was rigged to favor Democrats, and there are now three redistricting cases – pending in federal and state courts – challenging the created districts by IRC. The cases continue a legal and political battle, and will go to trial for fact-finding and legal determination of what's permissible.
Cerulean posted at 9:34 am on Thu, Nov 29, 2012.
Always, always our governor claims “we have no money” .
We have no money for education, for health care, for State Parks, etcetera. We have no money - except when our governor and our legislature decide we do have money to file law suits against the Independent Redistricting Committee.
Then the state has an open check book with enough money to spend ,spend and spend at will.
Rich posted at 7:31 pm on Fri, Nov 30, 2012.
Just as an aside, with the debt and the financial cliff, looming, and pressure building to raise the debt ceiling, again, with no prospects of paying it back, isn't stalemate a step in the right direction? It stops government before they can do any more damage, doesn't it?
Cerulean posted at 1:29 pm on Sun, Dec 2, 2012.
Mike,
Thank you for your column on House Speaker Andy Tobin.
http://azcvoices.com/politics/2012/11/30/what-will-the-legislature-be-up-to-come-january/
Very good information about Rep. Tobin’s “real constituents”.
Andy Tobin said “ …the ignorance of citizens initiatives must be stopped.”
He is referring to all of us who voted for the initiative that removed redistricting from the extremely partisan legislature.
pd posted at 7:57 pm on Mon, Dec 3, 2012.
@ Leon Ceniceros -- Your argument had merit until you descended to petty name-calling in the last lines. Disagree with Mike, but do it with a little class. I'm a conservative and disagree with Mike on some key points, but I happen to know he is a fabulous teacher.