Minnesota’s conservatives aren’t just worried that brown people might steal their votes. Now they’re fretting about state senate districts being handed out according to population.
Because acreage so deserves to have representation in St. Paul.
The Austin Post Bulletin reports in Mower County GOP gathers delegates, debates resolutions:
Among the resolutions passed were many dealing with the health care reform known as the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The resolutions state a general opposition to government-run health care, various aspects of abortion issues and birth control.
Other resolutions that passed dealt with county representation in the state senate as opposed to drawing up districts based on population, opposition to use of Legacy Amendment funds for a Vikings stadium, and accounting reform and balancing the state budget.
Opposition to health care reform and reproductive freedom are pretty standard fare for today’s Republican Party, but blatant opposition to representative democracy is a bit unusual. Bluestem has come to expect more subtlety than reading that the 330,844 residents of Anoka County, the 398,552 residents of Dakota County, the 1,152,425 residents of Hennepin County, the 144,248 residents of Olmsted County, the 508,640 residents of Ramsey County, the 129,928 residents of Scott County, the 200,226 residents of St. Louis County, the 150,642 residents of Stearns County, the 283,136 residents of Washington County and the 124,700 residents of Wright County should have no more voice than the 3,558 people who live in Traverse County (2010 census figures found here).
Bluestem loves Traverse County. But not that much.
Moreover, there are currently 67 senate seats in the legislature; adding 20 more so each of 87 counties has its own voice in St Paul at a time when the Senate Rules Committee voted to cut $2.6 million in its budget makes little sense. Perhaps the legislative assistants could be assigned on the basis of population, since one imagines that a state senator from Washington County or Hennepin County might get a few more calls from whomever serves the huddled masses in Mower County.
Rural Minnesota has lost clout with demographic shifts, but the notion of moving closer to a one acre, one vote rule is pure foolishness. In the landmark Reynolds v. Sims decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote:
Legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests.
Image: Lookit all those counties–we so definitely need more Minnesota state senators.
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