Ohio just voted to end gerrymandering. NJ can too.

How does a party that can win a statewide election by 20 points hold so few seats in the New Jersey Legislature?  The answer is gerrymandering, drawing district boundaries that favor one political party over another or, as is often the case, so that only one party can win. 

New Jersey Republicans could be competitive in at last ten more legislative districts if the district lines were drawn fairly.  Oh, and the guy who did the last bit of gerrymandering for the Democrats -- Bill Castner -- has just been rewarded with a job by Governor Phil Murphy as the state's new "gun czar."  Well, if he adjudicates on firearms the way he did on boundaries, there goes the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights.

But the good news is that Ohio just voted down gerrymandering.  The people did it.  They got tired of the Bill Castner-types and did something about it.

This is a huge victory in the fight to end gerrymandering, stop political polarization, and give power back to the voters. Ohio is a center point of American politics, and one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. If the people can organize and pass a statewide law in Ohio, it can be done in New Jersey.

Thousands of volunteers from the Fair Districts = Fair Elections coalition collected more than 200,000 signatures, which pressured the legislature to put gerrymandering on the ballot. Groups like Represent.Us got involved and its members joined the fight, hosting 23 phone banks to contact voters, joining forums, and reaching more than 100,000 people with a video about the problem of gerrymandering.

This is just the first of five statewide gerrymandering campaigns that could pass this year. Here's a snapshot of the other four:

  • In Michigan, thousands of volunteers in the Voters Not Politicians campaign gathered more than 425,000 signatures in less than four months to put a gerrymandering reform measure on the ballot this November. 
  • In MissouriRepresent.Us members joined volunteers and organizers in the Clean Missouri coalition to put gerrymandering reform on the ballot. Last Thursday, they submitted more than 345,000 signatures for a measure that will fix gerrymandering, ban lobbyist gifts to politicians, and increase transparency in state government.

In Colorado, voters will have the opportunity to vote on a measure that would have a transparent and independent commission draw congressional and legislative lines, thanks to the hard bipartisan work of Fair Districts Colorado and People Not Politicians. The plan won unanimous support in the state Senate and House, and it will appear on the November ballot.

  • In Utah, Better Boundaries submitted nearly 190,000 signatures in support of a ballot initiative to create a non-partisan redistricting commission to draw legislative, congressional and school board district lines. 

If you want to do something about gerrymandering, contact this website and we will put you in touch with the people who are working to make it happen:

Jersey Conservative

Represent.Us is a good place to start.  You can check them out here:

                                                            https://represent.us/

Will McCann-Murphy ballot shenanigans end up in Federal Court?

The institutional corruption in New Jersey's political process isn't as well known as it should be.  That's why we're here.  To write about it, define what it is and who it is, to expose it... endlessly.

Word comes to us that the County Clerks of machine counties like Passaic and Bergen have been providing candidates for FEDERAL office with incorrect information.  If the Clerks or their employees are doing so at the direction of or in congress with outside political powers, and if such actions result in impacting the ability of FEDERAL candidates to have full ballot access (including ballot placement) this could become a civil issue for the Federal Courts or an issue for the United States Justice Department to review.

Anyone who has studied the career of United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the former Attorney General of Alabama, knows how seriously he takes such issues.  This probably has something to do with him having been a Republican candidate back when all the county clerks in Alabama were Democrats.  Suffice to say, it is an issue near to his heart, and when the FBI come calling -- knowing "Joey D" or "Frankie two-times" or "Jimmy baggadonuts" will not count for much.  It won't be like dealing with the locals. 

This is a FEDERAL election, they are FEDERAL law enforcement officers -- you cannot purposely mislead them without committing a FEDERAL crime.  So good luck.

But it doesn't end there.  The fact is there is one thing that rigs an election more than gerrymandering, and it is called "the line"

WHAT IS "THE LINE"?

A few county party organizations in New Jersey (both Democrat and Republican) have usurped the actual government-prepared ballot so that they can use it to advertise who their "official" candidates are.  That's right.  A few party bosses in a few counties are using the taxpayer-funded ballot to "instruct" the voters of their party on how to vote.

Not only is "the line" an aberration used nowhere in America outside a few political machine controlled counties in New Jersey, it wouldn't pass muster in a Third World election overseen by the United Nations.  "The line" is arguably in violation of several United Nations General Assembly Resolutions, including A/RES/46/137 (1991), A/RES/55/96 (2001), as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966).

So while we send American service men and women far from home to make the world "safe for democracy," a few county politicians in New Jersey are laughing at them by corrupted the process and are making a mockery of the sacrifice of those young lives.  They should be ashamed but corrupt party bosses like Passaic County's Peter Murphy are beyond shame.

And candidate John McCann is right there with them.

President Donald Trump was criticized recently for employing the term "shithole" to describe some Third World nations.  Well, as far as political processes go, there are quite a few "shithole" county party committees (both Democrat and Republican) who are making an effort to turn New Jersey into a political and economic "shithole."

That's why we need groups like Represent.Us -- you can check out their video below:

Across America, political machines are brazenly rigging the system and defying the will of the people – so we're fighting back. 

On April 15th, Represent.Us members are organizing a national day of action to send a clear message to politicians who stand in our way.  Representation Day is our chance to show that there's an unstoppable movement of people all across America fighting to fix our broken political system. We will no longer tolerate politicians who protect the corrupt status quo.

Join Representation Day 2018 to help unrig the system: RSVP now to attend your local event.

The Represent.Us movement has already passed 75 anti-corruption measures.

They're building momentum for statewide and national reform, and won't stop until America's broken political system is changed for good.