Comments on Advance Indiana™: Rokita's Redistricting Proposal: The Good And The Bad

Hallelujah to anybody supporting any shot at impar...

2009-09-12T13:55:35.014-05:00

Hallelujah to anybody supporting any shot at impartial redistricting. The legislature is unhappy with Secretary Rokita sticking his nose in this business? The same legislature with well over 80% incumbency retention rates by any measure & approximately 40% of races not even having an opponent? The same legislature that pretty much brushed aside Kernan-Shepard, lobbyist reform, illegal hiring, & ratification of tax caps- but managed to have some sort of coronation for sugar cream pie! If the ice cream man I hear driving through the neigborhood stumbles to my house with a plans to redistrict, that's a step up from our ace public servants. Secretary Rokita could be arm-in-arm with Van Jones, the hammmer and sickle in a crimson field flapping overhead, and he'd still have made more progress on redistricting than our beloved statehouse legislators- of both parties.

Kudos to a public official for sticking his neck o...

2009-09-11T01:47:35.567-05:00

Kudos to a public official for sticking his neck out on this site. Money well spent, IMHO.

Scott B, was that supposed to make us feel better ...

2009-09-09T20:08:52.589-05:00

Scott B, was that supposed to make us feel better - no new money? New, old, rotten, whatever - the fact is your office spent money (excessively as government is wont to do) that it had no business spending. Stop trying to defend waste.

Critics of Rethinking Redistricting have started t...

2009-09-09T14:27:15.739-05:00

Critics of Rethinking Redistricting have started to focus on the cost invested in this initiative.

In Tuesday’s Indianapolis Star article, the cost of the Rethinking Redistricting initiative was identified at a total of $110,000 - $50,000 for the development of the conceptual maps and $60,000 for the development of the website, creative, collateral materials, etc…

The key thing here is that the Secretary of State’s office spent no new money. As our office has usually been able to do, we were scheduled to give back over $300,000 from our budget to the state’s general fund. Instead, we reverted almost $210,000 and set the rest aside for this project, all blessed by the State Budget Agency.

But to fully complete the picture of the true cost of this initiative, there’s even more you should know. The $50,000 is a “contractual not to exceed” amount and the true cost of the maps will come in at a fraction, approximately two-thirds.

In regards to the $60,000 allocated to getting the message out to voters and taxpayers, less than half was used for the development of the Rethinking Redistricting website. The remaining amount was used to develop the necessary resources to help better alert and inform the public on this matter.

In his continued commitment to fiscal stewardship, Secretary Rokita turned in a biennial operating budget earlier this year for the Secretary of State’s office that is the same, unadjusted for inflation, as the budget approved for the Secretary of State in 1987. Under Secretary Rokita’s leadership, the Secretary of State’s office has been able to reduce costs by adopting innovative business practices and technologies to deliver services more efficiently. In fact, we were able to reduce the physical footprint of government by reducing the physical office size by over 30,000 feet this year alone.

The reality is that the redistricting process can and should be improved through a core set of criteria, increased transparency of the process, and the use of Hoosier common sense. It’s not rocket science, as the conceptual maps clearly show. That’s not to say the conceptual maps are the ideal but that they are at least a roadmap to something a whole lot better than what currently exists today.

Scott Bowers
Deputy Secretary of State & Chief of Staff
Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita

As an IT guy, it certainly is excessive. A client...

2009-09-09T11:50:17.726-05:00

As an IT guy, it certainly is excessive. A client of mine hired someone to re-design the website, and we're estimating the cost between $2-4 grand.

That being said, it's a relatively cheap deal compared to many other government gigs.

$60,000 for a website seems very high. Who got pa...

2009-09-09T09:12:31.733-05:00

$60,000 for a website seems very high. Who got paid to do that and what's their relationship?

These reforms are long overdue. They should be ad...

2009-09-08T22:56:35.673-05:00

These reforms are long overdue. They should be adopted, including independant commissions, without the silly felony. I agre with AI wholeheartedly. Wow.

Rokita spent $50,000 to draw three legislative map...

2009-09-08T22:39:29.145-05:00

Rokita spent $50,000 to draw three legislative maps for the entire state of Indiana. The City-County Council wants to spend $600,000 to draw one for Marion County only. That sounds like a bargain to me. Of course, you know the Marion County redistricting project will requiring the hiring of a politidcally connected law firm and a politically connected company to do the work.

I think the website does sound pricy.

Rokita is the chief election officer for Indiana. He's exactly the person who should be leading this reform charge. I don't think it's outside his scope of duties at all. I think it's refreshing to have a statewide elected official who is taking the lead on something like this.

I'm reminded of former Attorney General Steve Carter. Carter would work overtime to come up with reasons why he couldn't do anything about stuff that was repeatedly brought to his attention.

At the DOI, I had to deal with Rokita's and Carter's offices all the time. With Carter's office you could give them mortgage fraud cases involving people they regulate (real estate agents and appraisers) and they would never do anything about those fraudulent players. Rokita's office on the other hand would look into mortgage brokers who were involved in fraud. While inexperience with the complexity of real estate transactions often hampered their effort, at least the people in the SOS tried to do their job as regulators which was not the case under Carter. I'm hoping things will be different with Zoeller and there have been some encouraging signs.

Term-limited Todd Rokita is readying himself for s...

2009-09-08T20:09:15.560-05:00

Term-limited Todd Rokita is readying himself for some higher statewide office. Governor?
Senator?

Now he's planning to travel statewide touting his reform plans. That gallivanting will be paid for out of his office funds (taxpayers money).

Rokita's a politician cultivating an "anti-politician" image using taxpayers funds. Slick trick!