Let’s imagine for a moment that it is, say, 250 years into the future. And in that far off time, your name is remembered by all, but not perhaps as you would have hoped. How might you feel, knowing that in that 23rdCentury, presumably after one James T. Kirk was born in Iowa, your name is remembered with irritation, frustration, and outrage. Not the best of legacies, eh?

Then take pause to recall the American patriot Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. The esteemed Mr. Gerry served his nascent nation most of his adult life as a statesman and a diplomat, ultimately being elected the Vice President of the United States. Mr. Gerry was a champion of the Bill of Rights and more, yet he is largely remembered for a state law he signed as governor of Massachusetts, which redrew some electoral districts in a manner that favored his Democratic-Republican Party, including one particularly odious example that resulted in a district shaped, it was argued, like a salamander, roughly like the letter “C.” And for this act, Mr. Gerry has been immortalized not as a patriot, but rather as a sinister verb, used to consolidate power and to deny citizens equal rights when electing representatives.

Today gerrymandering is considered a very significant problem by most folks, even including our political leaders, though they might disagree sharply on whose re-drawn districts are the most unfair. Over the years, and especially in the last couple of decades, various courts have been called upon to settle district shapes. The Supreme Court, now firmly in the hands of conservatives, can be expected to continue to favor Republican-drawn districts, as they did last June in cases involving Texas and North Carolina. Gerrymandering is, quite simply, deeply unfair and Un-American, even as both parties engage in it (though the GOP seems particularly energized to redraw majority-minority districts in ways that favor Republicans). So, what can we do about it?

Well, Colorado is trying, and the Governator is coming to help.

Amid the various candidates and proposals, amendments, and other issues voters will decide next month are Amendments Y and Z. These proposed amendments would create independent commissions to redraw state legislative and federal congressional districts every ten years, following the Census. There is a good story in Colorado Politics about upcoming visit by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Colorado in hopes of generating support for Amendments Y and Z. The former gov is coming to rally the voters to fix the gerrymandering problem in Colorado, or at least taking an important first couple of steps toward that goal. Schwarzenegger is apparently familiar with the parable about the reformed sinner, because he admits he engaged in gerrymandering efforts while in the Governor’s Mansion. The CP article quotes him as saying:

“Looking back, I stepped over the line several times, and I was the first one to say sorry,” …. “I feel bad about it, and I apologize. When I became governor, I wanted to make sure that no one, including me, ever makes this mistake.”

I welcome Mr. Schwarzenegger’s efforts, though I would have been more impressed by them had he engaged in them while in office. And I think it is very encouraging, in this hyper-partisan time, that support for Y and Z had been nearly unanimous among our state’s leaders. They likely recall the recent efforts to draw voting maps for Colorado and how such legislature-drawn maps ended up predictably in the Courts for resolution.

Last August, Governor Hickenlooper kicked off the campaign, called Fair Maps Colorado, standing side by side with Democrats and Republicans. If these measures get the 55 percent of the vote they need (and I certainly hope they do) Colorado will be again seen as a national leader in an important area.

Elbridge Gerry died not long after taking his vice-presidential oath. He likely would prefer to be remembered as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and not as a skewed map maker. Sadly, history decides our legacy for us, and Mr. Gerry will forever be remembered for a turn to the dark side of political strategy.

Perhaps, in that aforementioned 23rdCentury, there may be a different term in common use – Hickenloopermandering – meaning a fair process to draw fair districts for fair representation. It will be a hard one for students to spell correctly, but it would be a good legacy for posterity. We’ll see what the voters have to say very soon. I hope they rebuff Elbridge Gerry once and for all.