{"id":122350,"date":"2020-05-13T22:05:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T05:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=122350"},"modified":"2020-05-14T15:16:59","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T22:16:59","slug":"new-leader-of-common-cause-census-champion-wants-a-democracy-that-hears-every-single-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/new-leader-of-common-cause-census-champion-wants-a-democracy-that-hears-every-single-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"New Leader of Common Cause \u2013 Census Champion wants a Democracy that Hears Every Single Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Above):<\/strong> Jonathan Stein<\/em><\/p>\n

By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On the day he assumed leadership of California Common Cause, Jonathan Mehta Stein said getting people counted in the\u00a02020 census is crucial to the organization\u2019s goal of making\u00a0politics more democratic.\u00a0\u201cFirst and foremost, respond to the census\u2026We want our fair\u00a0share for our communities,\u201d he said in an interview with EMS.<\/p>\n

The lifelong Bay Area resident comes to Common Cause from\u00a0San Francisco\u2019s Asian Law Caucus, part of the national Asian\u00a0Americans Advancing Justice organization. He also worked for\u00a0the American Civil Liberties Union after earning his law degree\u00a0at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n

Watching his non-naturalized Indian immigrant mom\u2019s political\u00a0activism and seeing up-close challenges to effecting change\u00a0inspired his work, he says.\u00a0\u201cWe had this sense that participation matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein emphasized census participation as a priority because\u00a0data the Census Bureau is collecting will not only inform how\u00a0the federal government will spend more than $1.5 trillion\u00a0annually over the next ten years. It will also form the basis for U.S.\u00a0Congressional apportionment decisions and individual states\u2019\u00a0redistricting plans.<\/p>\n

Common Cause pioneered redistricting reform by driving\u00a0California\u2019s 2008 Voters First Act, also known as Proposition\u00a011, which put the job of determining the boundaries of the\u00a0state legislature\u2019s 40 senate and 80 assembly seats into the\u00a0hands of a bipartisan commission of 14 non-politicians\u00a0(wedrawthelines.ca.gov<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Two years later, Proposition 20 expanded that commission\u2019s\u00a0authority to include California\u2019s 53 congressional districts.<\/p>\n

By making the process public through hundreds of community\u00a0meetings up and down the state to gather input on how\u00a0political maps should be drawn, and then review proposals, the\u00a0reform curtailed the ability of incumbents to draw districts to\u00a0include only those voters most likely to re-elect them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some communities that have been locked out\u00a0intentionally,\u201d Stein explained, for example by dividing a\u00a0relatively homogenous community into smaller pieces folded\u00a0into surrounding districts, thereby reducing it to minority status\u00a0in each.<\/p>\n

States decide for themselves where their political boundaries\u00a0are drawn. Over the years it\u2019s led to the process called\u00a0\u201cgerrymandering,\u201d in which those in power could draw the\u00a0boundaries in such a way as to favor their re-election.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Voters First Act, \u201cCalifornia has become a\u00a0model for the rest of the country,\u201d Stein said. Nine other states\u00a0have followed suit, and now have bipartisan redistricting\u00a0commissions of their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn both Republican and Democratic states, voters have\u00a0consistently approved independent redistricting,\u201d Stein said.<\/p>\n

Congressional reapportionment, the once-every-decade\u00a0parceling out of seats in Congress according to population, is\u00a0done by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, but census\u00a0data informs those decisions as well.<\/p>\n

Stein is also passionate about changing the role of money in\u00a0politics and what he calls \u201cthe absurdist campaign finance\u00a0system.\u201d While working as an enforcer of campaign finance\u00a0laws in Oakland, he said, he saw that 93% of campaign\u00a0contributions came from just 1% of the population.\u00a0He is intrigued with Seattle\u2019s \u201cDemocracy Dollars\u201d voucher\u00a0system that provides community members small public fund\u00a0vouchers they can assign to a campaign or candidate of their\u00a0choice.<\/p>\n

This changes the dynamic of candidate fund-raising and\u00a0community engagement by making it well worth their while to\u00a0engage with constituents in other ways than high-stakes,\u00a0exclusive fund-raising events.\u00a0Stein also has his sights set on increased voter participation. He\u00a0cited \u201cdeep voter disparities\u201d such as Asian Americans voting\u00a0at a 33% rate, and Hispanics voting at 36%. Every other group\u00a0votes at or above 60%.<\/p>\n

With the COVID-19 pandemic, \u201cour in-person outreach no\u00a0longer exists,\u201d Stein notes. \u201cWe have to find \u2018virtual\u2019 ways.\u201d In a\u00a0Facebook Live event, Stein called for \u201cculturally competent,\u00a0linguistically competent messengers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need a different message for different communities, for\u00a0those frozen out of power, out of philanthropy.\u201d\u00a0You can\u2019t advocate \u201crestoring democracy,\u201d he said, to those\u00a0who felt they were never included in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to build a society that is more equitable,\u201d Stein\u00a0said, \u201cit\u2019s time we build a democracy that hears every single\u00a0voice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Above): Jonathan Stein By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services On the day he assumed leadership of California Common Cause, Jonathan Mehta Stein said getting people counted in the\u00a02020 census is crucial to the organization\u2019s goal of making\u00a0politics more democratic.\u00a0\u201cFirst and foremost, respond to the census\u2026We want our fair\u00a0share for our communities,\u201d he said in an…<\/p>\n

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