Less debate, more gerrymandering: Ky’s small blows against democracy add up to big ones.
The Kentucky General Assembly’s arcane rules and legislative minutiae are enough to glaze the eyes of even the most enthusiastic of politicos; they are certainly more than most of us want to think about as we scramble through this latest upsurge of COVID.
But we need to care because the Republican supermajority appears to be further closing the door of open government. Tuesday’s opening was marked by new rules from the House leadership that limit debate over bills in the House. They may seem like small adjustments — cutting off the 10 minutes that members can debate after a previous question has been called — but they are will further cement a kind of leadership that seems less and less interested in democratic discussion either for the tiny minority of Democrats who can hardly pose a threat, or renegade Republicans who disagree with them. Of course, two or three hour debates are tedious and time-consuming, but that’s what a democracy is about.
The same problem is true with redistricting. And before anyone says it, yes, the Democrats used to be just as secretive when they were in charge and it was just as bad then. With clear majorities everywhere but Lexington and Louisville, the Republicans could have looked like the good guys by holding open meetings and looking at more equitable maps proposed by the League of Women Voters. At least make the pretense of a democratic process when you already hold all the cards. Thanks to both parties, we’ve normalized this secretive process, and the gerrymandering that has gone along with it.
For example, as reporter Austin Horn pointed out Tuesday night: the new 1st District is now a bizarre county snake that meanders from the Mississippi River up to Franklin County. Although he owns a home and farms in Monroe County, Rep. Jamie Comer also owns a house in Franklin County, where his children attend school, according to his communications director Matt Smith. Both Monroe and Franklin are east of 2nd District Congressman Brett Guthrie. Perhaps more importantly, taking Franklin County out of the 6th District further strengthens Rep. Andy Barr’s hold.
We know they won’t slow down and start over, even though they should. Instead, concerned Kentuckians should look to Michigan, where a citizen’s Facebook post about gerrymandering turned into a 5,000 volunteer movement that started a successful ballot initiative campaign resulting in an independent redistricting commission that not one politicians serves on. In the words of the New York Times, both parties now face a “fair fight” in state and local elections.
To the victor goes the spoils, some say, but it’s not what should happen when the spoils are unfairly engineered over and over again. It may be too late this time around, and yes, redistricting is both highly complicated and boring, and easy to forget about since it only happens after each 10-year census. But we have to make ourselves care sooner rather than later because all our outrage this week should have been happening for the past decade.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 11:14 AM.
