Reapportionment, redistricting, gerrymandering. These words are all over the news these days as Republican and Democratic-dominated state legislatures engage in a frantic mid-cycle effort to gain political advantage by drawing new district maps that will, they hope, help keep their party in power for years to come. This is NOT the way Democracy is supposed to work.
Fair Districts Pennsylvania (FDPA) has been in the trenches for the past decade, trying to win passage of an amendment to our state constitution that would take the process of redistricting out of the hands of self-interested and unaccountable politicians, and put it in the hands of a Citizens’ Redistricting Commission.
FDPA volunteer Doug Webster will explain:
- What is reapportionment, redistricting, and gerrymandering
- The sorry history of gerrymandering in Pennsylvania
- The damage it has done to our political and legislative process
- Why it is so difficult to achieve this reform despite strong public and legislative support
- The critical time window needed for change
- And what citizens can do to help make that change happen.
Doug Webster is a retired marketing and communications consultant and has been a Fair Districts PA volunteer since 2016. He wide-ranging career includes work as a radio and television announcer and producer, an aide to CT Senator Abraham Ribicoff, director of the University of Connecticut Foundation, head of communications for McGraw Hill’s BYTE and Popular Computing magazines and Vice President Communications with the Harford agency, Keiler and Company. He subsequently formed his own communication consulting firm, serving clients in the trade and transportation industry for over two decades. He concluded his working career as Communication Director for the California Maritime Academy. He has delivered numerous lectures for the Osher program on global logistics, Project Cargo logistics, and his travels in the Arctic and Antarctic.
