Wyandotte County District Judge Bill Klapper has made his decision. And he’s rejecting the latest Republican-backed congressional map, proposed by the Elephants of the political parties. Such a blatant excuse to gerrymander is certainly illegal in both the ethical sense and—in this case—the legal sense, seeing how the Kansas Constitution is straightforwardly against political gerrymandering. Of course, the state may make an appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court, but for what reason, if not to make life more miserable?
Such a decision comes about five weeks before the June 1st candidate filing deadline. Judge Klapper, ever the stubborn ox, ordered the legislators to go back to the drawing board. Certainly, it’s a little upsetting, being that Klapper may have had a part in predetermining how elections turn out between any republican and democratic candidates. He detailed so in a seemingly angry letter.
Klapper says, “How strong are Kansans? Certainly, strong enough to expect nothing more than a level playing field devoid of partisan advantage for one group of Kansans. They’re strong enough for the merits of the issue to be the deciding factor. Strong enough to make their political decisions based upon the content of a candidate’s character rather than the color of their political party.”
This stirs a war between republican parties and democrat parties.
Democrats are not a fan of this latest display of arrogance by Republicans. It’s political gerrymandering. Lawsuits are claiming that the voting rights and constitutional guarantees equal rights for pretty much all residents of Kansas while also promoting freedom of speech and assembly. Other critics had believed that the map was totally unacceptable under the state constitution since it has diluted the political power of Hispanic and Black voters in the area with a division of those demographics.
Of course, as according to the agenda of the republican party in Kansas, Kansas City for instance was moved out of the 3rd District. This area was represented by Democratic Representative Sharice Davids towards the the larger 2nd District of Eastern Kansas represented by Republican Representative Jake LaTurner.
The biggest dilemma here is that as a lesbian Native American lawyer, Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids actually performs well in arguably one of the few Democratic hubs remaining in GOP-dependent Kansas. If the Republicans take that district away, this could spell trouble for the democratic party of Kansas.
And there’s already enough stress happening with a different law that redraws Kansas House, Senate and State Board of Education districts. So there’s no time to waste as the state constitution is dependent on a decision by June 5th.
