[LWVNM Action] LTE - Let the CRC do it's job. - also an attachment

[E.K. VanWie]

Great letter, Dick.  Thanks!Eileen

E.K. VanWie, Ed.D.
Email: vanwieek at yahoo.com

"We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity."                                              
               Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1866  

"To me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."        Alice Paul - Circa 1917

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
      Attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt - Circa 1940  
 

    On Monday, June 28, 2021, 09:19:19 AM MDT, Richard Mason via Action <action at mailman.swcp.com> wrote:  
 
 
Publishedin the ABQ Journal Letters to the Editor – Monday, June 28, 2021

 

In response to the June 13 Journal editorialcriticizing the lack of diversity on the Citizen Redistricting Committee (CRC),the League of Women Voters of New Mexico shares those concerns.


However, the League wishes to allow the CRC to fulfill its statutory functions,after which we will evaluate the results. The League was very involved in theprocess leading to the creation of the CRC. We knew from the beginning that itwould be a compromise. What I believe many don’t understand is that the threeexcellent New Mexico State Ethics Commission appointees are the swing votes onthe Committee. Former New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Chavezoversaw the redrawing of the 2011 New Mexico state House seats. He was involvedin the drafting of the legislation which created the CRC as well. Member RobertRhatigan is the New Mexico state demographer who oversaw the 2021 census effortin New Mexico and is an unaffiliated voter. Member Joaquin Sanchez is a teacherand an unaffiliated voter as well.

 

So even if the Republican and Democratic appointees pursuetheir partisan goals, I doubt they will vote as a bloc - meaning they will haveto win at least one vote from the Ethics Commission appointees. So let the CRCdo its work and then we can evaluate the results. If you know anything aboutthe League you know we will be the first to criticize any unfair results.

 

Finally, problems with this process emphasizes theneed for a New Mexico constitutional amendment to create a truly independentredistricting commission. In the future the League will be pursuing that endalong with other good government groups. 

 

Richard Mason
Chair of the Action Committee 
League of Women Voters of New Mexico

 
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