Redistricting benefits all voters
Re: Nicole Russell’s May 6 column, “Rush to redraw maps hurts all voters”:
Mrs. Russell’s column ignores several basic facts that defeat her thesis. Her last sentence asks can ”we still call it democracy?” The U.S. has never been a democracy, which always leads to totalitarianism of the majority. It is a constitutional republic.
The Declaration of Independence holds all individuals equal with certain unalienable rights. Constitutional amendments 15 and 19 solidified these rights in voting. Consistent with those, California’s Constitutional Article 21 established the Citizens Redistricting Commission that mapped out districts independent from legislative influence that comply with the U.S. Constitution, geographically continuous with geographic integrity and compactness.
Districts should not be drawn favoring or discriminating against incumbents, candidates, or parties — and certainly not against, or for, any group defined by race, color, ethnicity, or creed.
We Californians, by a democratic vote rather than action of a constitutional republic, chose to nullify parts of our national and state constitutions with Prop. 50. All states, red or blue, who have redistricted in the past based on “racial (or ethnic) balancing” per Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s famous premise regarding college admissions only, have violated the U.S. Constitution and the common law sense of California’s prior Article 21. We are merely two years ahead of Justice O’Connor’s poor prediction, “… 25 years from now the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary…”
Finally, remember that the greatest number of Black legislators, state and national (before the “favorable discrimination” of the Voting Rights Act), was during Reconstruction, and ended with Jim Crow 1.0 installed by the Democratic Party.
Nicholas Bednarski, Camarillo
Tan is right person for job
I support Marilou Tan for Ventura County Treasurer-Tax Collector. I hired her into the office in 2015 as the office business manager. She was promoted in 2019 to the post of treasury manager, managing the banking and investment operations. Sue Horgan promoted her to the post of assistant treasurer-tax collector in 2023.
Marilou Tan has successfully managed the following activities:
These are not activities that should be turned over to an amateur. Marilou Tan has proved herself for years as a gifted leader in the county’s financial services. Her list of endorsements is spectacular.
Your vote for Marilou Tan ensures the professional leadership of an office that takes care of a whole lot of your money.
Steven Hintz, retired Treasurer-Tax Collector
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Redrawing maps is a positive, supporting Tan for treasurer | Letters
Reporting by Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
