Green Representative District Eliminated?

Yes the democrats are trying to ram John out of his job. As much as the greens are not republicans, we should be supporting their right to exist as a party and in this case, it is the best opportunity we have to keep a democrat out of a seat.John beat a democrat 2 to 3 in the seat held by the then majority leader. It was a major blow in the backside of the dems.The republican plan in Portland makes much more sense geographically than the democrats. We should be putting pressure on the republican negotiators to make this an issue.Steven Scharf
97 Grant Street, 2nd Floor
Portland, Maine 04101
Tel: 207-774-9393
Fax: 207-774-1819

Tuesday, April 1, 2003
Maine Greens raise red flag at redistricting
By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Portland Press Herald WriterCopyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.Democrats say it had to be done. Republicans say they had no choice. Green Independents say that a House redistricting plan under consideration in Augusta is a brazen attempt to unseat the Legislature's only - and the nation's highest-elected - Green Party member.The plan, drawn up by Democrats and reluctantly endorsed by Republicans, would sever John Eder from the West End neighborhood in Portland that elected him in November to his first term as House District 31 representative. Eder drew support from voters of all parties and took 67 percent of the vote, beating Democrat David Garrity's 33 percent.Controversy over the plan has sparked the interest of national Green Party leaders and may be one of the forces that pushes statewide redistricting into court. Under the plan, the West End would be combined with House District 32, represented since November by Democrat Edward Suslovic. He won 59 percent of the vote against the incumbent Democrat-turned-Republican and a Green Independent. His district includes Stroudwater, Libbytown, outer Brighton Avenue and part of the West End. Eder's Old Port neighborhood would be combined with House District 30, representing Democrat-controlled Munjoy Hill.The 15-member Legislative Reapportionment Committee will hold a public hearing on the House redistricting plan at 4:30 p.m. today in Room 334 of the State House. It's one of three remapping proposals under consideration, along with new congressional and Senate districts.Democrats say that the House redistricting plan is the best way to deal with population shifts across the state, and that Eder isn't the only representative who would be affected. Republicans say they don't like the damage it would do to Eder's district, but they're not willing to jeopardize the compromise they've reached with the Democrats. Green Independents say the remapping plan would effectively dismantle Eder's support base, preserve Democratic strongholds in Portland and leave Eder vulnerable in the 2004 election. Under the plan, if Eder did seek re-election, he would face Munjoy Hill Democrat Benjamin Dudley, who was elected to a third term last fall with 81 percent of the vote."I'd be running a whole new race in a whole new district," Eder said. "This isn't about population. This is about politics . . . It's gerrymandering, which is using reapportionment to gain political advantage . . . It seems like a pretty bold-faced effort to give me the ax."Eder said he has been shut out of the debate because the state Constitution stipulates that only the two major parties may participate in redistricting.Democrats say that other remapping options would have stretched Dudley's district north into more Republican regions of Falmouth, Cumberland and Yarmouth, or they would have pitted incumbent Portland Democrats against each other in upcoming primary elections."It was not an attempt to get John Eder out of the House," said Rep. Matt Dunlap, D-Old Town, who is co-chairman of the reapportionment committee. "We knew John would be running against a Democrat. Now we know which one. They didn't want to see incumbent Democrats running against each other."Dunlap said that redistricting is controlled by several factors, including census boundaries. He noted that the state's overall population has shifted from north to south by about 70,000 people, requiring larger voting districts in Aroostook County and other rural areas.And while Portland lost only 109 residents in the last decade, Dunlap said that was enough to throw everything off. "It was a matter of making a choice," he said. "Our first goal was to avoid all incumbent matchups."Republicans say the Democrats decided to carve up Eder's district to preserve their hold on other Portland districts."We agree that it's not fair," said David Emery of Tenants Harbor, a former state representative and congressman who is the consultant for Republicans on the apportionment committee. "They wanted to protect their members. When we got into negotiations, they wouldn't budge at all."The battle over Eder's district is nothing new to national Green Party leaders. Political coordinator Dean Myerson said the party is fighting a redistricting effort in Minneapolis that would oust a new Green member of the city council. And New Mexico has tried to pass measures that would make it more difficult for third-party candidates to run.

Steven: There is no "Republican plan" for legislative redistricting. Each situation is being dealt with in an ad hoc fashion. You are confusing legislative redistricting with congressional resdistricting where competing Republican and Democratic plans exist.

You really have to love a green, who really has no car. (EG Practices what he preaches).I did talk to him on the Public Access channel, I do not think he liked me too much.I agree, with Steve on this, that district is going to be super hard for a republican to win, unless someone registers as a democrat, and runs as an Old Time Maine Democrat (really like a Snow/Collins Republican), and Rep Davis from Falmouth.Regards
EJ

Capitol Kid,You are confused, not Mr. Scharf.For your information, there is a Republican plan (as in a detailed map) for House districts, Senate Districts, and Congressional Districts. There are similar (competing) maps/plans prepared by Democrats. There also is a legislative Committee on Redistricting that will attempt to come to a compromise between the competing plans/maps. So far they have come to a tentative agreement on the House map. They are unlikely to come to an agreement on the Senate map, which means that map may have to be hashed out by the Maine Judicial Supreme Court.The Democrat House map adjusts the boundaries of Eder's current district in a way that 1) eliminates the political base that elected him, and 2) moves his residence into a district with a sitting Democrat.[ 04-01-2003: Message edited by: NoneDare ]

Rep. Kevin Glynn
South Portland, ME
207-799-5319 / 207-287-1440For Immediate ReleaseGlynn Cries Foul
Green Representative John Eder has been cheated out of his seatAugusta ME (CCRC)Cumberland County Republican Committee Chair, State Representative Kevin Glynn announced he is supporting State Representative Jon Eder, G-Portland, in his quest to overturn the House re-districting plan proposed by the Democrat Party. Representative Eder feels that the Democrats are seeking to unseat him in the November 2004 elections by gerrymandering his Legislative District.Attending the Tuesday afternoon committee meeting that was overseeing the re-districting plan, Representative Glynn made the following statements. "I believe that Representative Eder has good reason to believe that the democrat re-districting plan was based solely on partisan politics and not based on the best possible representation for our citizens. It appears that the perpetuation of democrat power politics is the only interest of the partisan democrat leadership with the apportionment of the districts in greater Portland. Fairness was the guiding principle of the Republican House apportionment plan. In raising this issue, I need to point out to you that my district would have been dramatically effected by the proposed shift under that Republican plan. For the past 15 years, I have represented the good people of South Portland on both the local and state level in elected office. Under that plan, one third of my district would have been moved into the city of Portland, where I have never run for political office and where Republicans seldom win. To me, having a plan that embraced the diversity of greater Portland and embraced fairness is more important than the minor effects of boundary lines. If you look at the way the democrats have drawn the re-districting maps, their district boundaries clearly are about concentrating as many democrat voters in one place as is possible. To remove the West End of Portland from freshman Representative John Eder's district defies the rules of logic. I am here today to offer my support to Representative Eder, as a fellow Legislator, as the Chairman of the Cumberland County Republicans and as a citizen of Maine, who only seeking what is fair and just in the representation of all Maine citizens."For further comments from Representative Glynn regarding this re-districting plan, please call him in South Portland at 799-5319, or in Augusta at 287-1440.

It is more a matter of moving lines. They don't need to hurt any of their incumbents. They are proposing for the line to go one block to the east of where John lives on Park Street. It is very clear thier intent as it is also cutting the neighborhood in half. It is my understanding that they did the smae basic thing 10 years ago leaving a jagged line to make sure a couple of people were kept on certain sides of the line. I have seen the plan close up. (And yes Captiol Kid have detailed plans. I have access to the pritouts that were provided by the greens of them for Portland).Steven Scharf
[ 04-01-2003: Message edited by: Steven Scharf ]

Oh but the republicans are oh so deft, they have I think kept the current incumbents intact. Ed Suslovic's district is geographically large and he lives towrd one end of it, so the Stroudwater end will be jettisoned to a shared district with South Portland (Kevin Glynn's I believe).Stroudwtaer is pretty republican compared to the rest of the city.It is also well known that Bill Norbert is planning to leave at the end of his term. He recently got married and is looking to make some money/spend more time with his wife. This will be our best opportunity to pick up a Portland seat.Steven Scharf
[ 04-01-2003: Message edited by: Steven Scharf ]

I like the idea of redistricting Maine as North Maine and South Maine, it' the only one that makes any sense or it looks like food lines..

I am not sure why the Republicans care so much about John Eder's fate. While he may not always vote with the Democrats on the issues (the budget for example). He does vote with them on organizational matters (he would rather see Speaker Colwell than Speaker Bruno).Concerned

While I haven't replied to this thread before this, I have been checking it out and is very interesting. I realized that there is a bit of a constitutional dilemma in drawing districts in the Greater Portland area. The end Article IV, Part First, Section 2 of the Maine Constitution, which George pointed out in an earlier thread, says, "Whenever the population of a municipality entitles it to more than one district, all whole districts shall be drawn within municipal boundaries. Any population remainder within the municipality shall be included in a district with contiguous territory and shall be kept intact." But I'm pretty sure it's impossible not to violate at least the second sentence somewhere in the Greater Portland area. For example, Scarborough has almost exactly enough population for two State House districts (it's "quota" is 2.0099), so under the Constitution both those districts have to be entirely in Scarborough, and trying to make part of a third district would raise eyebrows. That means the Cape Elizabeth's remainder (it's quota is 1.0740) must be put in a district with part of South Portland (whose quota is 2.7645). The sum of the remainders of Cape Elizabeth and South Portland is .8365, so you could have two districts entirely in South Portland, one entirely in Cape Elizabeth, and one consisting of the remainder of both municipalities plus part of another. But all the cities that border South Portland or Cape Elizabeth have are covered under the two sentences cited above and have remainders greater than 1 - .8365, so you would still have territory remaining in those municipalities. Even if you were to put a take a tiny sliver of territory in Scarborough to connect South Portland and Gorham, which come fairly close to bordering each other, you'd still have a problem because Gorham itself has a large remainder, and putting any of Cape with any of Gorham anyway would be unheard of. I just remembered that Cape Elizabeth has a water boundary with Portland, but South Portland's remainder alone is enough to mess things up. So the question isn't whether a plan violates those two sentences, but how often and how badly. It seems like the Republican plan might have only one district entirely within South Portland, so both sentences might be violated in South Portland, but I don't know the details of the plan so I could certainly be mistaken (and the last time I said "I might be mistaken" on AMG, I was). One thing I think might be a good idea would be to put the westernmost part of South Portland (although for all I know Kevin Glynn might live there) in the same House District as the southern Westbrook district (Westbrook's quota is 1.9118) and to have one district stretching from northern Cape Elizabeth across the peninsula in South Portland into part of Portland, while leaving two districts in between that are entirely in South Portland. I'm not sure how much havoc that would cause though, especially since the adjacent part of Portland is the Old Port, where Eder apparently lives. The plan could do one of those things and not the other. I have to get going, but it's been interesting thinking about all this. Have a nice day tomorrow (almost today).Sincerely,Kevin Lamoreau

The republican plan has Kevin Glynn sharing his district with the Stroudwater part of Portland.John does not live in the old port, he lives in the West End, defined as west of High Street (he is actually 3 blocks west).If the democrats arent careful, John may have no option but to run for the senate in 2004. And don't think he want make it a race. (And they can't district him out of Ethan's district. They live in the same building).Steven Scharf
[ 04-02-2003: Message edited by: Steven Scharf ]

quote: If the democrats arent careful, John may have no option but to run for the senate in 2004. And don't think he want make it a race. (And they can't district him out of Ethan's district. They live in the same building).

Eder can move his residence at will.

quote: They obviously don't care much because they agreed to a plan to eliminate his district. They like having him around because he really irritates the Democrats by holding a seat that would usually be a safe Democrat seat. And you never know what would actually happen if he was the key vote on organization after the next election. Also, a strong Green Party running legislative candidates around the state could help elect more Republicans.

Very perceptive, G. Also, Eder supports elimination of the Business Equipment Tax (no, not BETR, the TAX itself!). nd[ 04-02-2003: Message edited by: NoneDare ]

Is the MEGOP yawning?This is front page / kitchen table stuff!!!

This might be a partial answer to K-Dogs last reply. The 151 districts for the state house do not all have to be exactly the same size. They should be 8,443 this time to make them all the same size, but courts allow deviations of as much as +/- 5% (or about 422 people). This might be able to be used to cure the problem of the small numbers "left" over when towns should have 2 complete districts (and a little left over) like Scarborough.I am unsure about this so don't hold me to it.Concerned

The two party system perpetuating themselves! Now there is shocking news.