KCET featured a report on the upcoming election.
The opening segment was an analysis of the Brown-Whitman race.
The final segment was devoted to Props 20 and 27 and starts about 17 minutes into the video (please follow the link). It is not complementary toward Howard Berman and his brother Michael, the architects behind 27′s attempt to keep redistricting in the hands of political hacks. The brothers declined to be interviewed.
At last week’s meeting of the Neighborhood Council Valley Village, a local employee of Congressman Berman stated that Prop 27 would prevent the use of ”Jim Crow” tactics in drawing lines (she used the term Jim Crow).
That argument amounts to hypocrisy. As I mentioned in a previous article, and what the So Cal Connected segment reinforced, Berman orchestrated a shift of Latino voters to head off a primary challenge by a Latino candidate. I suppose Mr. Berman must use a very narrow definition of Jim Crow.
The staffer was working from a list of arguments provided by backers of 27 and was not in a position to take questions; however, I did refute them.
One of the other reasons on the list implied that civilians were amateurs and could not be trusted to perform redistricting.
Uh, have you seen the current district maps? So Cal Connected did an excellent job of graphically displaying their contorted shapes - they were drawn by the pros; not amateurs.
I’ll give the amateurs a shot. They are more likely to be sensitive to logical community and geographic lines.
Perhaps Congressman Berman should focus more on creating jobs rather than protecting his own. Pushing 27 while the country and region are shedding jobs adds insult to the public’s injury.
Vote NO on 27.
Vote YES on 20.
Paul Hatfield
Suzanne Lauer
