Sherry’s calculated risk
How cynical are you? Here’s a test:
Last week, in anticipation of a federal deadline, City Councilwoman Sherry Dorsey proposed a plan to re-draw voting districts in the city. The plan would increase the percentage of black voters in her district. Was she:
A) Preserving the voting strength of black Atlanta, or
Playing the race card to try to ensure a victory when she runs for re-election this November?
Let’s take a closer look at her proposal. Turns out that while her own district would indeed include more black voters, the plan would also create an extra white-majority district.
That’s the way redistricting math works. Putting voters, be they white or black, Republican or Democrat, in one district means taking them out of another.
Council members had already approved a new map that had eight majority-black districts, three majority-white districts and one district split evenly — when Dorsey and a core of supporters introduced their own plan April 30. The Dorsey-friendly map — which swayed council members — resulted in four predominantly white districts, an increase of one over the plan that Dorsey had complained was cutting into black voter strength.
For her part, Dorsey has said her map has nothing to do with her re-election campaign.
So what’s your answer? ??