No organization has led the effort for redistricting reform more than Common Cause. I have known many Common Cause leaders, both nationally and in California where I live. They have all been good and admirable people who cared deeply about safeguarding and improving US democracy. But from my perspective, Common Cause has often been the “conservatives” in the political reform movement, pushing tepid reform that really didn’t accomplish all that much, and usually refusing to support more fundamental reform, such as instant runoff voting/ranked choice voting or proportional representation. It took a number of years for Common Cause to come around on other commonsense reforms, such as automatic voter registration and public financing of campaigns, which it now supports but in my experience their support often has been lukewarm and unreliable, with occasional exceptions.
Still, their leadership for redistricting reforms, especially nonpartisan independent redistricting commissions (IRCs), has been unwavering. Passing political reform is hard work, yet Common Cause leaders plugged away at it year after year, decade after decade, and for that they deserve praise. IRCs have been their signature reform for making US democracy more fair and representative, their leadership on display across many campaigns. In a recent policy statement commenting on this unfolding mid-decade debacle, Common Cause leadership declared: “Independent redistricting commissions are still the best mechanism we know of for achieving fair representation.”
And now that strategy is in utter tatters….