Have you been following the progressive news coming out of Virginia? You know, Virginia — in 2016, ranked the nation’s 49th most difficult state in which to vote, second only to Mississippi? Named by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy in 2018 as the state with the worst partisan (GOP) state-legislative gerrymandering in the country? The state with such an egregious history of racial discrimination, it was one of the nine states singled out for “preclearance” in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, meaning it had to obtain federal approval for any proposed changes to voting laws? …

Thank you, Bay State legislators! By overriding Governor Baker’s veto of the ROE Act, you’ve protected women’s health (and, by extension, the wellbeing of women’s families and partners). Co-sponsored by State Senator Cynthia Creem, the Act protects abortion access in Massachusetts, and is a critical bulwark against potential restrictions and rollbacks by SCOTUS.

But we can learn something from Baker’s veto. He objected specifically to one provision in the Act: the lowering of the age at which women can seek abortion without parental or judicial consent, from 18 to 16. It’s a common objection — that teenagers’ undeveloped and un-myelinated…

It’s been said, by New York State’s former Chief Judge, no less, that a grand jury would “indict a ham sandwich.” So why not Breonna Taylor’s killers?

Forgive me if you’re a lawyer type and this is Legal 101. But for English majors like me — woefully uneducated about the grand jury process — I’ve gleaned the following from a lawyer friend. I found it helpful in understanding how, procedurally speaking, this utterly counterintuitive, inhumane result came about. …

Over the past three years, I’ve been proselytizing for Sister District Project to anyone who will listen (and quite a few who won’t). Why? Because SDP understands a truth long grasped by the right: state elections matter.

Our elected state Representatives and state Senators pass laws that wield immense power over our daily lives. State laws largely govern policing, for example. State laws determine district maps, and ensure election protection (or suppression). State laws guarantee access to healthcare, reproductive and otherwise. State laws allocate funding to protect the environment, finance public education, and safeguard small businesses. …

There’s a reason we here at Sister District Project MA-RI are working like busy bees to get three candidates elected to the Florida House in November. With the exception of one year, the GOP has maintained trifecta control of the state House, Senate, and Governorship since 1999… and look where that’s gotten us:

COVID-19 Pick a day, any day: when it comes to coronavirus cases, Florida has been breaking records all summer. 15,300 — the highest number of new virus cases reported by any US state in a single day (July 12). 1,230 — a state record for COVID-related deaths…

TIME FOR SOME GOOD NEWS. Am I right?!

Just a few years ago, the commonwealth of Virginia was in a sorry state. The Old Dominion had cemented its status as one of the worst-gerrymandered states in the nation, with several illegal-racial-gerrymandering cases on the books to prove it. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton won over Virginia voters in 2016 by more than 5 percentage points, an entrenched Republican majority prevailed in the state’s General Assembly, systematically diluting the votes of citizens of color and stonewalling everything from Medicaid expansion to gun-safety legislation.

No longer.

Backed by the hard work…

The U.S. Constitution mandates a complete count of all persons living in the United States every ten years — a process known as the decennial Census.

— House Committee on the Budget, 2019

[Note: This is a long post. The good news is, with the exception of this sentence, it WILL NOT MENTION Covid-19. There, done. Now, back to scheduled programming.]

Welcome to 2020: A leap year! The one-hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage! The ouster of Donald Trump from office (a girl can dream)! And… the US Census!

If you’re like me, over the years you probably haven’t given the…

gerrymander: to divide or arrange (a territorial unit) into election districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage — Merriam-Webster

Here at Sister District Project MA-RI, we [heart] Pennsylvania. The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Philly Cheesesteak — what’s not to love?

Well, here’s something: gerrymandering. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Pennsylvania is one of the top three worst-gerrymandered states in the country (North Carolina is number one).

As in all US states, current Pennsylvania district maps stem from 2010, the year of the most recent US Census (after every decennial Census, states use…