Philly ADA

The audio is a little rough but if you missed the debate the other night, here's the full video:

Last night, the first ever live ADA DA Candidate Questionnaire took place at the first Unitarian Church. The event was well attended and provided a first look at the field of candidates.

For more information about the debate, please check our the Inquirer's coverage. Also covering the event was WHYY, 6ABC and Fox29.

The one issue we take with the Inquirer's coverage is that although the candidates were provided with the questions ahead of time, the point was to give the candidates sufficient time to think deeply about the issues and provide thoughtful answers. Contrary to the unsubstantiated claims of Inquirer reporter Michael Matza, no instruction was given "not to joust with one another."

Embedded in the body of this post is a copy of the Redistricting Openness and Fairness Act that Rep. Babette Josephs intends to sponsor. Here at Philly ADA, we'd like to think that Rep. Joseph's decision to take action on this issue was at least partly the result of her involvement in last Thursday's forum addressing legislative redistricting in Pennsylvania.

In any event, we look forward to working with her to build a constituency to support many of the principles embodied by this act.

Embedded in the body of this post is a copy of a memorandum issued by Rep. Babette Josephs announcing her intent to introduce the Redistricting Openness and Fairness Act. In the memorandum, she explains that her support of ROFA is the result of her having "heard the clarion call from the citizens of our commonwealth about the need to reform the process of mapping legislative districts so that the interests of voters, and not elected officials, are protected to the greatest extent possible."

Last Thursday evening, over 150 concerned citizens joined the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action for a forum addressing the issue of legislative redistricting in Pennsylvania. Those is attendance listened to Rep. Babette Josephs, Rep. Josh Shapiro, Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and WHYY's Chris Satullo present their thoughts regarding how voters may advocate for a redistricting process that will reduce gerrymandering and open elective office to new officials committed to political reform. Based upon the interest demonstrated by those in attendance, work in Harrisburg has already begun to address this very important issue.

Rachel Maddow is the height of geek-chic. And Americans for Democratic Action is at heart just a bunch of geeks geeking out on politics. So, it makes sense the two would sometime cross paths.

Last night, at around the 9:40 minute mark in Rachel's opening segment, Americans for Democratic Action got a shout out from the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, a fairly impressive geek in his own right.

Discussing bipartisanship generally and specifically Republican Senator Judd Greg's appointment as Obama's Commerce Secretary, Dionne refers to Americans for Democratic Action as "a great old liberal group."

Build some momentum for 2009, this week we've got the Philly For Change Meetup for Wednesday night. Meet Councilman Bill Green and guests to discuss the Philly Budget.

7:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 4
Tritone, 1508 South Street, Philadelphia

Several weeks ago, I provided testimony to the Mayor's Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform on behalf of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action. The text of my testimony may be read here.

In response, I have been provided with a copy of the Task Force's aptly titled "Interim Report on the Progress of the Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform." Quite the mouthful, eh?

Two days until the big forum on Legislative Redistricting! Hopefully folks have spent their time studying up on legislative redistricting so they will come prepared to ask our panelists some tough questions.

In case you need a cheat sheet, we've put together a brief handout that we will distribute at the forum to help explain some of the issues we'll be hearing about. Copies will be available at the forum, but if you're dying to get you hands on one, here's a link:

As folks who regularly visit this site should know, the Philly ADA will be hosting a forum on legislative redistricting. WHYY's Chris Satullo is a panel member and today he publish a story on WHYY's blog "It's Our City."

His story begins:

"If the residents of any city in America should be familiar with the term gerrymander, it’s Philadelphians. Gerrymandering is the dark art of drawing the boundaries of political districts without any regard to logic or geography, but with a keen eye to furthering the election chances of a) incumbents or b) the political party that’s in charge of drawing the lines."

Later in the story, he refers to ADA as a bunch of "goo-goos."

For the full story, click here.