Listen: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/americandemocracyminute/episodes/2022-05-30T06_15_33-07_00
Today’s Links:
Articles – InDepthNH, Concord Monitor, NH Bulletin
Fair Maps Advocacy Groups in NH – Open Democracy Action, ACLU NH, League of Women Voters NH
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
We’re back in New Hampshire, today, where on May 27, Republican Governor Chris Sununu vetoed two gerrymandered Congressional maps, which a defiant Republican legislature passed despite overwhelming public condemnation.
Gov. Sununu had earlier threatened to veto HB 52, having made several public remarks about vetoing a voting district map which, quote, “Doesn’t pass the smell test.”
The NH Legislature passed the bill anyway along party lines, changing a competitive map which had remained largely the same for 140 years and had flipped three times over the last decade, to an uncompetitive map which packed Democrats into one district and Republicans into the other to guarantee a Republican Congressional seat. It also gerrymandered the NH House, Senate & Executive Council maps which Sununu later signed, including a rigged NH Senate map which creates a veto-proof majority despite an evenly-divided state.
Alternative Congressional maps were drawn by the legislature, including SB 200, the last legislative attempt to pass a gerrymandered map. The NH State Supreme Court issued a statement saying that if a map wasn’t agreed upon by the end of May, a special master would create a “least changed” map. That map was released Friday, and oral arguments will be heard May 31 over the objections of NH House and Senate leadership.
Action by the public changed the debate in NH. What was a secret process 10 years ago faced unprecedented public scrutiny, engagement and pressure.
Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we have, it’s something we DO.”
For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.
