{"id":9254,"date":"2015-05-10T16:32:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T16:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9254"},"modified":"2015-05-10T16:32:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T16:32:38","slug":"does-election-diminish-need-to-rethink-voting-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9254","title":{"rendered":"Does election diminish need to rethink voting plan?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Elisha Demerson’s election to the Amarillo City Council made history.<\/p>\n

It also might have taken a bit of the bite out of those who think the city should revamp its voting plan to create a single-member district for its council members.<\/p>\n

I am continuing to consider that a change in the city’s voting plan is in order.<\/p>\n

My long-standing support of the city’s at-large system continues to waver, even though Demerson’s election as an African-American candidate in the current system might augur against such a change.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/2013\/12\/22\/re-thinking-single-member-districts\/<\/p>\n

I’m not keen on creating four single-member districts, while electing the mayor at-large. If I were King of the World, I’d consider<\/em> expanding the council by two places, giving it six council member and electing two of the six at-large while dividing the city\u00a0into four wards.<\/p>\n

Other cities have done something like with varying degrees of success.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Demerson’s victory is a ringing triumph for those in Amarillo who’ve declared that it’s virtually impossible for a minority candidate to win an at-large contest. The city’s black population comprises less than 10 percent of the total.<\/p>\n

But think also about this: While Demerson was defeating incumbent Ellen Green in Place 1, Lilia Escajeda — the council’s sole Hispanic member — lost her seat to challenger Randy Burkett.<\/p>\n

Does her loss lessen the joy that minorities are feeling today over Demerson’s victory?<\/p>\n

Hey, I’m just askin’.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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Elisha Demerson’s election to the Amarillo City Council made history. It also might have taken a bit of the bite out of those who think the city should revamp its voting plan to create a single-member district for its council members. I am continuing to consider that a change in the city’s voting plan is … Continue reading Does election diminish need to rethink voting plan?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[288,492,1556,1563,2793,3836,4279,5139],"class_list":["post-9254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-political-news","tag-amarillo-city-council","tag-at-large-voting","tag-elisha-demerson","tag-ellen-robertson-green","tag-lilia-escajeda","tag-randy-burkett","tag-single-member-districts","tag-voting-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}