Filing Period Reveals Redistricting Flaws!

            File this one under the category, “You just can’t make this stuff up.”

            Better yet, let’s create a new category.  Let’s file this one under the category of “calling a tail a leg won’t make a horse have five legs because calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”

            Even as House legal counsel/lobbyist/spinmeister Ed Mosca rushed to the media to claim that yesterday’s State Supreme Court decision on redistricting was a total vindication for the House, the filing facts prove just the opposite is true.

            Remember how part of the debate focused around Pelham which deserves four Representatives of its own, but might in fact wind up with zero according to the plan Mosca so desperately wants to defend.

            With filing period completed for individuals, Republicans have filled the 11 seats for Hillsborough District 37 (the Hudson-Pelham grouping), and more than 11 candidates have filed.  In fact, 12 have thus necessitating a Republican primary, but guess what?

            Of the 12 candidates who filed, only three are from Pelham.  One will be eliminated in the primary.  Thus, if this district comes out the way Mosca and Republicans undoubtedly hope it will, Pelham will be deprived (some would say “cheated”) out of at least one Rep it deserves, most likely two.

            So much for total vindication!

            So much for attempting to call a tail a leg!

            On the Democratic side, only six individuals filed for the 11 seats (the party has until 5 p.m. today to fill the five vacancies). 

           Guess what?

           Slow down; don't get too far ahead of me.

           Yes indeed, only one of the six is from Pelham.  Had Pelham been separted from Hudson, as it should have been, chances are that four individuals would have come forth from each party.  As it is now, Pelham is dominated nearly two to one by Hudson, so those thinking of running from Pelham most likely are discouraged by the odds.  To right that wrong was the purpose of the amendment in 2006.

           The arguments made by those of us against this House plan are coming true very quickly.

           Pelham, it very much appears, will be denied the four Reps it deserves as expressed by more than two-thirds of voters in the state who approved the Constitutional Amendment in 2006.

           But Pelham is not the only example.

           As everyone in the Manchester delegation knows very well (remember how they all "promised" to vote to sustain John Lynch's veto) Manchester deserves 33.2 Reps, but it was potentially dropped to 31 Reps by the House plan, and if Republicans have anything to do with it, the potentiality will become a reality, at least for one of the seats.

          Only two Republicans filed for the two-member float (Hillsborough District 44) which includes Manchester Wards 8 and 9 and Litchfield.  One is from Manchester, Andy Martel; the other is from Litchfield, George “Forget About That Senate Race” Lambert.  Thus, the only way for Manchester to retain these two seats will be for a Democrat to beat Lambert.  Only one Democrat has filed so far; that would be Gary Haworth from my own ward 8; I seem to recall talking with him from door-to-door travels in the past. 

         Welcome aboard, Democrat Gary Haworth.

         No, you just can’t make this stuff up.  Even as some would try to convince us total vindication was delivered by the courts, the truth is the filing period has proven the very worst of expectations about this redistricting scheme have come to pass.

         And that’s just the first two examples I’ve looked at.

        Quite clearly, the will of the people as expressed in 2006 is not being followed, the Court notwithstanding.

        Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not about to blame the court.  I’m not like Rep. Paul Mirski who from the House floor two weeks ago called the judges “unethical”.  I respect the judges.

       The judges didn’t create this redistricting mess.  The House did, and now we all have to live with a mess which could have been very easily fixed.  What we don't have to do AND MUST NEVER DO is pretend that there’s any such thing as vindication here…just like we don’t have to pretend that calling a tail a leg will give a horse (or a cow) five legs!