Andrew Friedman

This ain’t what democracy looks like

New York State Assembly member Michael Gianaris wrote an important op-ed in last Sundays New York Times that showed that the vital signs of democracy in New York Stae are in severe distress.

He pointed out that, "in the most recent state legislative elections, in 2004, 25 percent of legislators had no opposition for re-election and about 60 percent were effectively unchallenged because they faced opponents who were unable to raise as little as $1,000 for their campaigns...A majority of the representatives in state government were "chosen" in elections where they were the only real option on the ballot. More than half of New Yorkers were denied both the ability to choose among differing candidates and the benefit of having a vigorous and thorough debate on the issues."

Gianaris reccommends a new process for drawing our political map. He suggests the creation of an independent commission to re-draw electoral districts, as opposed to the current partisan process of having the map drawn by legislators more interested in partisan politics than voters' rights.

Regardless of the solution to this galling problem, though, it is clear that here in the United States, we should be spending less time exporting our vision of democracy and more time improving our democracy right here at home

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Posted at 7:42 AM, Feb 09, 2006 in Democracy
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