More Trail Updates

Coming Up:

Sunday, October 8, Bloomington: Fundraiser for Mike Kole, hosted by Margaret Fette and Paul Ehrstein at their home, 1135 N Logan Rd Bloomington, In 47404 . Margaret and Paul throw fabulous parties, and I'm sure this will be no exception. It's a pitch-in, and the suggested donation is $25. I'll look forward to seeing my Monroe County and 9th District friends, as well as others from around the state.

Kindly RSVP by calling 812-360-8873. Be there at Noon to go door-to-door for Mike. Pitch-in is from 2-6pm. Be sure to pick up your Kole yard signs there, too!

The Purdue Exponent ran an article today on the varying platforms of the three ballotted candidates for Secretary of State. I was especially delighted to observe how the Exponent writer noted how the incumbent has picked up one of my top issues- the gerrymandering of districts- and has tried to make it his own. From the Exponent article:

Mike Kole, the Libertarian candidate, said one of the number one issues for him is gerrymandering ? the drawing of political districts for the purpose of ensuring certain election outcomes.

"Gerrymandering ensures two things for citizens, both of them bad," Kole said. He said it ensures a low voter turnout because the elections are viewed as a foregone conclusion; the outcome is predicted. Without challenges at the ballot box, voters tend not to listen to their constituents, Kole said. (Should read "elected officials tend not to listen..." -MK)

"This is an obvious problem, but neither Republicans nor Democrats want to change the system because each party currently collects a share of fairly certain wins, fighting over just a handful of contested seats," he said.

...

"Anyone interested in the integrity of our representative government should be calling for an end to gerrymandering," Kole said.

Kole believes that districts should be redrawn to be a more geographic orientation, rather than by majority political party.

"Elections are supposed to represent people that are (in a specific region), that is the point of representation," he said.

...

Like Kole, Rokita believes gerrymandering should be ended.

"It decreases voter turnout because the public perceives election results to be predetermined," Rokita wrote in his platform.

It is interesting to watch this develop. In 2002, Libertarian candidate for SOS Rebecca Sink-Burris made this her top issue, when she ran against Todd Rokita. He has been in office for nearly four years now, and could have made it an issue at any time, or even put his backing behind Jerry Torr's bill in this year's short legislative session. Instead, he put his weight behind the Voter ID law. Why was the anti-gerrymandering measure not good enough to back strongly when it could have become law, but good enough to tout on the trail? Hmm... Let's leave that as an exercise for the reader to deduce.