![]() ![]() “That’s what everybody does,” said Assemblyman Paul Aizley (D-Clark). “The people in power will do what they can to keep the people in power.”Įven though the next legislative session is four months away, lawmakers are preparing for the redistricting battle. Assemblyman Tick Segerblom (D-Clark) is in the very early stages of developing legislation that the Assembly will examine in February. “Right now the process is strictly mechanical,” said Segerbloom. “Each caucus will look at ideal goals after the election.” According to Segerblom, goals that will be examined include rural-area representation and double districting in Clark County. ![]() Solutions to the gerrymandering problem have presented themselves over the years, but according to Stewart, problems still remain. One proposal - the “Existing Borders” plan - was offered by Longabaugh after the 2000 census, when he was a law student. The plan called for municipal boundaries to be used for redistricting rather than the artificial boundaries legislators select. Longabaugh said he wrote the plan as a potential law review article and had no major political intentions. He still, however, believes Nevada needs redistricting reform. “There are districts with two senators, and that’s purely being done to protect incumbents.” “Constitutionally, there’s a challenge,” he said. The constitutionality question for Nevada arises out of the Equal Protection Clause in the 14 th Amendment, which the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted to mandate “one man, one vote.” Yet some Nevada districts are either over- or underrepresented. For example, Senate District 5, in Clark County, has 116,343 voters and two state senators - Democrats Shirley Breeden and Joyce Woodhouse, while Senate District 9, also in Clark County, has 136,588 voters but only one senator - Republican Dennis Nolan.įormer state senator and current state GOP Chairman Mark Amodei served during the Senate’s 2001 redistricting session. ![]() “The problem is when you see these peninsulas or fingers sticking in and out of districts,” said Amodei.Īccording to Amodei, realizing “one person, one vote” is a challenge when trying to draw districts that reflect their geographic areas. “When you’ve got that much variation on one side, some voters are getting more bang for their buck.”Īssemblyman Tom Grady (R-Washoe), whose district includes rural areas such as Storey County, cites examples of gerrymandering all over the state, from Douglas County to Clark County. “We must fight to correct this wrong this time.” “It is very apparent what is being done,” said Grady. Whether lawmakers can correct the wrongdoings or not is another story. “I’d like to take redistricting out of the Legislature’s hands and put it in the people’s hands,” Longabaugh said. “I don’t know if it’s the best solution, but it might be one of the fairest.Book Review of Supreme Courtship: a Novel by Christopher BuckleyĬhristopher Buckley, Supreme Courtship: A Novel, New York, NY: Hachette Book Group USA, 2008, pp. ![]()
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