We live in a time of extreme political partisanship. There is no shortage of issues on which the right and left angrily disagree. It is tiring and disheartening to be bombarded with political vitriol on a daily basis. Wouldn't it be refreshing if there were at least some things on which we could all agree?
It turns out there are.
No matter your political persuasion or party affiliation, we all agree that our elected representatives should not get a free ride every election. We all agree that our elected representatives work for us instead of themselves. We all agree that the best way to end legislative gridlock is to have qualified candidates competing for every seat in every election.
And since we agree on all that, don't we also agree that legislative districts should be drawn to promote and stimulate democratic participation instead of disinterest on the part of our citizenry?
Unfortunately, in every election we see that many seats in our General Assembly go uncontested. In 2016, five state Senate candidates (out of 11 seats up for election) were unopposed, as were 20 candidates (out of 41 seats up for election) for the House of Representatives. To have a political atmosphere in which candidates have no opponents and voters have little interest in voting points to one thing - the people doing the redistricting are not doing it in our best interest.
So who draws the legislative districts in Delaware? Under Delaware law, the General Assembly does its own redistricting every 10 years. The fox is in charge of the hen house.
But a group of legislators representing both parties has introduced legislation, Senate Bill 27, to take this responsibility away from the General Assembly and give it to a bipartisan commission. By a 12-7 vote, the Delaware Senate passed SB 27. It is now in the House where it has been assigned to the House Administrative Committee. SB 27 deserves to be reported out of that committee so our state representatives can go on record and vote for or against this bill.
We here in the 14th Representative District are in a unique position to help make this happen. Our state representative is Pete Schwartzkopf, Speaker of the House. If anyone can get this bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote, he's the guy.
I therefore urge my fellow residents of the 14th Representative District, of all political stripes, to contact Rep. Schwartzkopf and tell him to support SB 27 and get it to the House floor for a vote.
Let's give Delaware a chance to take the lead on this democratic venture in bipartisanship. If this works, then maybe we can find common ground on other important issues.
Jerry Capone
Common Cause of Delaware
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