“Incumbency protection was a dirty word 20 or 30 years ago,” said Carl Hum, executive director of the Districting Commission, not sounding the least bit concerned with letting legislators pick their voters instead of the other way around. “When it came to districting, we equated that with secret backroom deals. The evolution of case law in districting comes to embrace incumbency protection. Sometimes legislators create relationships with constituents.”

This isn’t good: “Commissioners who unanimously approved new City Council district lines last week were not provided with maps showing last-minute tweaks until an hour before voting for them.” Read More