If the allegations are true, the effort by people associated with Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign to recruit another Dan Sullivan to run against Alaska’s Republican Senator Dan Sullivan deserves condemnation as an attempt to confuse voters.
But those who condemn that tactic should apply the same democratic standard to partisan gerrymandering.
Widespread partisan gerrymandering is the more serious threat to self-government. Its goal is to render as many of the opposition party’s votes as possible meaningless by packing its voters into a few districts or splitting them among districts where they are outnumbered. Voter deception seeks to distort an individual choice. Gerrymandering seeks to distort the system and preserve that distortion across elections.
Its deepest offense is not simply giving one party an unfair advantage. It is making it harder for voters to remove the politicians responsible. Voters may recognize the manipulation, oppose it, and still struggle to overcome boundaries designed to weaken their influence.
Neither practice becomes acceptable because the other exists. The principle should be consistent: voters should choose their representatives, not have their choices manipulated by those seeking to gain or retain power.
Terry Hansen
Grafton, WI
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