Curses, Foiled Again

 

NY Congressional districts

ger·ry·man·der

/ˈjerēˌmandər/

manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.

achieve (a result) by manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency.

For the past several weeks the phone has blown up with calls from candidates for yesterday's primary election. They were from obvious local numbers so I answered them. Monday night I even got sucked into a town hall supporting one purported candidate for Congress.

He seemed to speak in a stilted, scripted, manner, and although he said things I liked he did not say them well. However, when I did a bit of research into his background and that of his opponent, I discovered that he is a businessman, while his competition went straight into politics from college.

Nuff said.

I went down yesterday to vote my conscience only to find, (much to the laughter of myself and the bored poll staff) that there was no primary for my party in our district.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday! I even got my brother to come down from camp to vote. He lives just  few miles west of us and actually had somebody to vote for, only not the guys who have been pestering me.

Repeat epithet above only with more exclamation marks,

Turns out, which I knew, but didn't really understand how it affected me, NY has been redistricted not once but twice...once by the powers that be, and once by the courts when those powers overstepped.

The county where we reside was not only cut in half by this action, but was chopped in an interestingly jagged line. Thus, I am sure that even the politicians who have been plaguing us didn't know which side of that line we live on.

No worries. After peering at a number of maps we figured it out...I think....

Meanwhile, I'll bet the weeks between now and November will be interesting telephone-wise. We will probably get calls from every congressional district in the state, just to be sure we don't get missed.

Nevertheless, it is always nice to visit the poll workers around here...pleasant local folks we much enjoy.

Stay strong, my friends, The worst best is yet to  come.

Cut 'er up, buttercup