This week at progressive state blogs: 'Regulatory humility' is rightist claptrap; Iowa's toothache
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This week at progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Here is the July 7 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorThis week at progressive state blogs: 'Regulatory humility' is rightist claptrap; Iowa's toothache
This week at progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Here is the July 7 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents. LOLGOP at Eclectablog of Michigan writes—In ‘Voters v. Politicians,’ Michigan Republicans side with the politicians: Michigan’s Supreme Court announced on Friday it will review an unanimous Court of Appeals decision that ruled the independent gerrymandering reform proposal backed by Voters Not Politicians should appear on November’s ballot. Plaintiffs argue the changes sought to the state’s constitution require a constitutional convention. The grassroots ballot measure backed by the signatures of around 400,000 residents has faced opposition from the Michigan GOP, the frontrunner to be the GOP’s nominee for governor and the Michigan Chamber, which — as Bridge reports — shares an address with the group backing the complaint against the proposal. And why wouldn’t they be against it? Conservatives have a sweet con going. After a decade of picking the voters who would give them the chance to control more than 60 percent of the state’s congressional seats along with super majority control of the state House and Senate even when their party generally gets around 50 percent of the vote, you can be sure they don’t want to give voters a chance to make their votes count. Data from the Citizens Research Council finds Michigan’s districts are both “stacked” and “cracked.” That means “an overwhelming majority of voters from the same party are put into one district” AND “regions are split so that one party wins a large number of districts by a narrow margin.” Thus tens of thousands of Michiganders’ votes are “wasted.” For the record, Eclectablog just celebrated its 10th anniversary. In case you’re wondering, a decade is a heckuva long time for a blog—any blog, but especially a political blog—to survive, much less thrive. When This Week in Progressive State Blogs was started just over five years ago, some 40 state blogs existed that don’t exist now. But Eclectablog continues, and it keeps getting better. Happy anniversary! Read more