April 28, 2011
Redistricting
I have read with interest and frankly, a little surprise, recent coverage of US Senator Scott Brown’s call to establish “a new congressional district centered in Suffolk County that creates a majority-minority seat under the Voting Rights Act. . .”
I am compelled to state the obvious. The 8th Congressional District (CD) of Massachusetts already is a majority-minority district that centers around and encompasses the majority of Suffolk County. That has been the case since 2001, after district lines were redrawn and approved by the state legislature of which now US Senator Brown was a member as a State Representative.
Here are the facts:
- · The 8th CD contains the cities of Chelsea, Cambridge, Somerville, and 71.94% of Boston’s population.
- · Based on the 2010 Census, the 8th CD is home to 660,414 people. Of that total, 53.15% are non-white. People who self-identify as “Black” make up 19.85% of the total, people who listed themselves as “Hispanic” make up 18.82%, “Asians” 9.85% and all other non-whites (which include multi-racial people, Pacific Islanders, and others) total 4.63%.
When the 8th CD was drawn after the 2000 census by the State Legislature, the goal was to create a majority non-white district. It was a goal I believed in and wholeheartedly supported. I still do today. When the current 8th CD was drawn after the last census, it was the first majority non-white CD in the Commonwealth.
And as far as a “Suffolk County centered” district is concerned, we already have that too in the 8th CD which contains 66.4% of the total Suffolk County population. In fact, Suffolk County accounts for almost ¾ of the 8th CD.
The numbers quite clearly speak for themselves. The current 8th CD is a majority non-white district centered in Suffolk County.
Senator Brown is entitled to share his opinion on redistricting. But he is not entitled to his own facts and the facts could not be clearer. Hopefully, in the near future I can persuade Senator Brown to take a tour with me in the current majority non-white Congressional District that is centered in Suffolk County, and one that meets every possible legitimate concern – geographic compactness, contiguity, one-person-one-vote, and equity.
Since you posted it, I’ll raise the question–
Is the jab a sign he’ll start throwing haymakers?
Haymaker: A type of punch, a wild swing with all the person’s might to knock out the opponent.
But what do I know about boxing …….
While he’s right that the 8th CD is already a majority-minority district, the Republicans’ plan is to make it more of one.
The goal is to draw district lines that enhance the possibility of electing more Republicans, or, to put it another way, the goal is to put Congressional incumbents (all Democrats) at maximum disadvantage. A part of the strategy is to make the 8th CD more of a majority-minority district than it is today, in order to make the 8 other districts more competitive for Republicans. Changing the district lines of the 8th in that way would also enhance the chances that a majority-minority district would elect a member of a minority to Congress.
The strategy — to unite Republicans and minorities against (incumbent) Democrats — is pretty clearly laid out in Commonwealth Magazine’s profile of Dan Winslow. http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/News-and-Features/Features/2011/Spring/Who-does-he-think-he-is.aspx.
“He’s playing the hand that works for Republicans and works for minorities,” says Joyce Ferriabough-Bolling, whose Black Political Task Force partnered with Winslow and state Republicans to influence the new legislative maps that followed the 1990 Census. Winslow got four competitive congressional districts, and Ferriabough-Bolling got strong minority voter influence over the Eighth Congressional seat currently held by Michael Capuano. “I don’t see him as a soldier of fortune for diversity rights,” she says. But Ferriabough-Bolling thinks he was also happy to advance that goal. “He’s for minority and Republican [advancement]—he believes in both,” she says.”
Globe post on the topic.
Or maybe Mike Capuano could transform this as a fund raising event. Maybe even Eric Fehrnstrom will come to provide some sub commentary.