Ah, redistricting season... that wonderful time of year when Republicans and Democrats harrumph at each other while each side does everything possible to protect their phony-baloney jobs while doing everything possible to disrupt the other side's ability to do the same. Since neither side could put together an acceptable agreement during our last legislative session, both sides are
marshalling their forces and picking lots (Nevada Appeal):
Republicans, Democrats and Nevada's secretary of state took very different
approaches in recommending who should be named special masters to draw
legislative and congressional districts for the coming decade.
In
documents filed late Wednesday in Carson District Court, Democrats and Secretary
of State Ross Miller's office called on Judge Todd Russell to name mostly Nevada
political veterans to do the work.
The Republican Party, in contrast,
presented a list that included out-of-state academics and consultants and
nationally known experts with extensive experience and credentials in
redistricting.
So, what's the motivation behind each pick? The Democrats are the majority party in Nevada politics right now and it's not even close. By picking political veterans from Nevada's past, they'll be able work with and perpetuate the machines that made them into what they are today. The Republicans, meanwhile, are hoping to destroy the same political machines that turned on them while also making the state more susceptible to outside political machinations. Remember Sharron Angle? Let's take a look (Nevada News & Views):
But from a political standpoint, also consider this: The biggest under-reported story on Angle’s GOP primary nomination in last year’s Senate race was that she was NOT the tea party candidate; she was the candidate of the out-of-state Tea Party Express. The local groups were split among the other various candidates. Angle didn’t win them; she was forced on them.
And then there’s the out-of-state Club for Growth organization which pumped close to a million independent expenditure bucks into Angle’s failed congressional campaign in 2006, and another million or so into her failed Senate campaign in 2010.
And then there’s this: Of the $710,000 Angle raised in the first quarter of this year for her current congressional race, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that only $24,030 of it came from Nevadans. That’s a measly 3 percent.
Eventually, some smart political opponent is going to begin pointing out that Sharron Angle has no real financial base of support in Nevada; that it’s all out-of-state special interests that keep artificially buying her credibility and viability.
So, in short, both parties are maneuvering the state's electoral process so Nevadans can choose between corrupt products of our state's political machines or unaccountable reactionaries who are more interested in advancing political causes for out of state interests than actually representing the interests of Nevadans.
How, exactly, this will benefit Nevadans remains an open mystery.