Hunting For SMD
At the urging of Mike Martinez, our city council is taking another close look at single member districts. They have Chartered a Commission and given former mayor Gus Garcia the reigns. I’ll spare you the blow by blow, but if you want to read about it go over to InFactDaily where Kimberly Reeves walks you through what happened at the Commission’s recent meeting.
If SMD’s were to come to a citywide vote would they prevail? They have failed something like 6 times already, so there would have to be some real buy-in from the business community who would then have to join up with those who fight for better minority representation. Marcelo Tafoya of LULAC noted that any change would likely mean 2 or more Hispanics on council to pass muster with the Feds. One sticky point is the belief that these seats could come at the expense of African American representation. The Commission is going to have to get creative and do it quickly if they want this thing to have legs.
Weather or not SMD are ever found, we want to give kudos to Mike Martinez for stirring up what promises to be an entertaining hornet’s nest at least, and at best wholesale change at city hall. That’s a win-win in our book.
Posted on August 27, 2007 – 10:53 am by APR