politics

Common Cause Massachusetts is hosting a Redistricting Olympics this summer. We will be taking citizen drawn Congressional, State House, and State Senate maps all summer, evaluating them, declaring a winner, giving out prizes and submitting the winning maps to the MA Legislative Redistricting Committee for consideration.

The purpose of the redistricting Olympics is threefold: to educate the public about the steps in the redistricting process, to initiate public participation in the political arena, and to pressure the legislature to draw the districts so that the citizens are appropriately represented.

Help show the legislature that redistricting is about our interests, not theirs. By participating in our redistricting Olympics and learning how to draw your own fair districts, you can acquire the tools you need to expose attempts by public officials to politicize the state’s new legislative maps.

For more information check out and/or email us at .

Participate in our democracy!

CommonWealth magazine came across an interesting lawsuit involving the Boston Public Library and Maryanne Lewis, a lawyer-lobbyist and former state representative who is considering a run as an independent for Congress. The BPL says Lewis was improperly awarded a secret consulting contract by its former president, Bernard Margolis, and that Lewis never performed any consulting or legal services. Lewis says she did the "government relations consulting services" she was hired to do and wants the $32,000 she is still owed on her contract. The BPL is not only refusing to pay but demanding the $46,000 Lewis has already pocketed. No one is talking for the record, which means we need help figuring out what's really going on here. For the full CommonWealth story, go to http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/News-and-Features/Online-exclusives/2010/Spring/No-show-job-flap-at-BPL.aspx. The address for CommonWealth is http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org