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Judge meets with lawyers on Nevada redistricting plan
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CARSON CITY -- District Judge James Todd Russell met Wednesday with Republican and Democratic lawyers, but set no date for oral arguments on how to redistrict legislative and congressional seats.
Russell will hold another meeting with lawyers on July 12. At that time, he will set a briefing schedule and a date for a formal hearing on how redistricting should be handled.
During the legislative session, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval twice vetoed Democratic proposals to redistrict legislative and congressional districts to reflect population changes shown by the 2010 Census. Districts are required to be as equal in population as possible.
In both vetoes, Sandoval contended the Democrats' plans would have diluted the voting strength of Hispanics, which make up 26 percent of the state population. He also said one of the four congressional districts should contain a majority Hispanic population.
But all 10 Hispanic legislators are Democrats and they voted for the Democratic redistricting plan. Their contention is most Hispanic voters are Democrats and a Hispanic does not need to live in a Hispanic majority district to win. Sandoval is the state's first Hispanic governor.
In passing the redistricting bills along party-line votes, Democrats gave scant attention to Republican redistricting plans. The Republican proposal called for one Hispanic majority congressional district, four Hispanic majority state Senate districts and eight Hispanic majority Assembly districts.
Because of the impasse, Republicans and Democrats did not even work on a compromise plan in the final days of the session, which adjourned June 7.
Expecting that no compromise would be reached, Democratic lawyers in February filed litigation in District Court in Carson City asking for a judge to draw fair district boundaries. Republicans then countersued.
Judge Russell, the former chairman of the state Ethics Commission, is the son of Charles Russell, a two-term Republican governor in the 1950s.
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No, if you run, are electable, have a good message, in this State it does not matter who you are. There are 10 Latino voices in the legislature, and one as Governor. They have and will continue to hold high offices in this State. Quit making it a Republican thing.
That brings me to the fact: WHY ARE THE MAJORITY OF LATINO'S REGISTERED DEMOCRAT? They are hard working, self supporting, usually not swayed by dribble, and are people of faith. Some things just don't make sense. The Dems are just trying to put them in the wrong column and as I stood before the redistricting hearing, I listened to some that were not in favor of how the districts were drawn and others that were..but, I didn't hear any positives that would sway me to think even one district needs to be heavily drawn to a Latino district.
Because voting districts are redrawn every ten years and reapportioned with the census , we get an extra congressman to go along with the new redistricting. The problem with Republicans is that they like their minorities all segregated in one place so that their effect is limited to one congressman. BUT in Nevada the Latino population is so large that Latinos will have the effect of shifting three of the four congressman to the Democrats. The reason the governor wimped out is he could not get the Republican segregation plan out of the legislature and he wasn't about to give the THIRD congressman to the Dems. Voila! Let's have the court decide it; like he's had such good luck with them in the past! HA-HA. Oh, and these are not illegals we are talking about but fully registered Latino-AMERICANS.
Excuse me; why can't lines be drawn along permanent boundaries and just be left the hell alone? Voting districts shouldn't be a jury selection process.
Whereas Governor Sandoval proposed and ultimately signed a budget for the 2012-2013 biennium far beyond the needs of a limited, constitutional government, and
Whereas, in the process, he has violated his pledge not to raise taxes, and
Whereas, he has delegated the decennial legislative redistricting of the State to the Judiciary, in violation of Article 4 §5's requirement it be performed by the Legislature, and
Whereas, he has not renounced his affiliation with the Judiciary, in violation of Article 3, and
Whereas, his actions have done tremendous harm to the long-term solvency of this State, and the individual liberties of its inhabitants,
We, the undersigned People of Nevada, in accordance with the Article 2, hereby demand that Goveror Brian ("Hannibal") Sandoval be RECALLED. Furthermore, we call up the Secretary of State to validate and certify this petition, and then to schedule a special election to effect this recall, at its earliest possible date.
That prettty much says it all in less than 170 words. We need 180,879 valid signatures. Another 5% beyond that would make it incontrovertible.
Why are we pandering to the illegals? This needs to stop NOW!
The article begs the questions: How many of the Hispanic voters are registered to vote illegally in Nevada? How many of the Hispanic voters are illegal immigrants and law breakers in Nevada? How many Hispanics have used forged/falsified documents to register to vote in Nevada? How many illegal immigrants are drawing public assistance using forged/falsified documents in Nevada?
Fact: Nevada has the highest concentration of illegal immigrants.