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Tag: congressional district
As Nebraska Goes In 2024, So Could Go Maine

As Nebraska Goes In 2024, So Could Go Maine

Every state is different. Nebraska is quite different. It is one of only two states that doesn't use the winner-take-all system in presidential elections. Along with Maine, it allocates its Electoral College votes to reflect the results in each of its congressional districts.

In 2020, Donald Trump lost the Omaha-based congressional district while winning Nebraska's other two. That cost him one electoral vote. In a very close election, that one vote could matter. Hence, Trump and his people have been pressuring Nebraska to adopt "winner-take-all," whereby whatever candidate received the most votes statewide would get all five of Nebraska's electoral votes.

This move is especially bold because in 2016, Trump did win Omaha's district. One supposes he could win it again the old-fashioned way, by getting more people to vote for him than for Joe Biden. As he's proved in terrifying ways, Trump is not a stickler for honoring the will of the people.

Don Bacon, the Republican representing the Omaha district, supports the Trump camp's efforts to change the state's method for assigning electoral votes. "I think it undermines the influence of Nebraska," he told CNN.

The opposite is more likely. Were Nebraska to embrace "winner-take-all," neither candidate would have great incentive to campaign there at all. As for the politics of it, one strains to understand how pushing to deprive his constituents the right to allocate their electoral vote is going to win Bacon love in his purple district.

So far these efforts have failed, even in the GOP-dominated state legislature. Good for them.

But pressure remains. Nebraska's current Republican governor, Jim Pillen, has offered to support a special legislative session to move the state to winner-take-all. "I will sign (winner-take-all) into law the moment the legislature gets it to my desk," he vowed.

However, Nebraska's unique political culture is deservedly a point of pride. There could be blowback on those who help outsiders try to change it.

For example, Nebraska is the only state with a one-chamber legislature. This dates back to 1934, when Nebraskans voted to replace a governing body with both a House and a Senate with a unicameral one. Party affiliations are not listed on the ballot.

This reform was pushed through by George W. Norris, a devout Republican. Norris argued that there was no logic in having a two-house legislature. On the contrary, it cost the taxpayers more money and made politicians less accountable to the people.

"The greatest evil of two-house legislature is its institution of the conference committee," Norris wrote in his autobiography. That's where power brokers could fiddle with passed bills.

"There the 'bosses' and the special interests and the monopolies get in their secret work behind the scenes," Norris wrote. "There the elimination of a sentence or paragraph, or even a word, may change the meaning of the entire law."

Meanwhile, were "reliably Democratic" Maine to adopt a winner-take-all system, that would cancel any Republican advantage in a Nebraska that did likewise. Maine's rural 2nd congressional district favored Trump both in 2016 and 2020.

Adding intrigue, Maine's House recently narrowly voted to have the state join an interstate compact that would assign its Electoral College votes to whatever presidential candidate won the national popular vote. So far 16 states have joined the compact, which would go into effect only if the members have enough electoral votes to determine the outcome.

In 2020, Biden won over seven million more popular votes than Trump did. And in 2016, Hillary Clinton comfortably beat Trump in the popular vote by three million.

It would not seem in Republicans' interests to encourage states to change how they count electoral votes. After all, as Nebraska goes, so could Maine.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Pico-Union and Beverly Hills: A Tale of Two Cities in the Same District

Pico-Union and Beverly Hills don’t have much in common. Pico-Union is a largely poor and Latino area on the outskirts of Los Angeles, while the almost entirely white and suburban Beverly Hills community is one of the most affluent in the nation. But in the first draft of redistricting maps released by the California Citizens Redistricting Committee, these two neighborhoods occupy the same Congressional district. Can these two communities with vastly different demographics be fairly represented by the same Congressman?

Angelica Solis, executive of the Los Angeles Latino advocacy group Alliance for a Better Community, does not think so.

“Pico-Union already faces existing challenges to political participation. By redrawing district lines that place Pico-Union in a map with communities like Beverly Hills and Malibu, which don’t share the same needs, the commission has virtually erased recent political gains for the area.”

Neither does Rosalind Gold, the senior director of policy, research, and advocacy at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

“Latinos cannot have a chance for fair representation in such a district,” Gold said. “We can’t tell you why [the commission] combined those areas— it’s baffling.”

Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, a member of NALEO, represents California’s 31st district, which currently includes Pico Union but not Beverly Hills or Malibu. Like Gold, Becerra does not understand why the wealthy suburb was added to his district.

Becerra (D-Los Angeles) said he was trying to figure out “what was going through the commissioners’ minds” in creating a district that put struggling Pico Union and spiffy Beverly Hills in the same district.

Whether or not it makes sense, though, Becerra may soon represent both the richest and poorest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. [Contra Costa Times] [New American Media] [LA Times]