District elections for Hazleton

According to an A.P. report, the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to rule that at-large elections for Hazleton city council members violate the voting rights act.  Hazleton is about 2/3 Hispanic (mostly Dominican), although the voting age population is only about 43% Hispanic.  No Hispanic has ever been elected to the city council.

If the town is divided into districts, there is a good chance that at least one and maybe two of the districts would elect Hispanics.  

I was part if a campaign to divide San José into districts.  There were seven council members elected at large, none of them Latino.  I supported the district system for a different reason than ethnic fairness.  I wanted a council member who was mine.  Under the existing at-large system, who do you appeal to?

The campaign, run by Dr. Terry Christensen of the San José Pol. Sci. Department, was brilliant.  The maps were drawn before the measure was put on the ballot.  Potential candidates who lived in a district had an incentive to campaign for the measure.

It passed, and indeed Latinos were elected.  And I had my councilman, a guy named Tom McHenry.  Housewives were also elected from the smaller districts.  The elections became less partisan, depending more on face-to-face campaigning.  Candidates spent less money.  Instead of mailers to all of San José, you only needed to send your campaign mailers to 10% of the voters.  

So yeah, I like district elections.  The bigger the city, the more important they are.  As far as the Hispanics in Hazleton are concerned, however, if they wait a few years and register a few more voters, they could take all five seats.  Then the Anglos would be campaigning for districts.