THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 30 lines
Regarding the Feb. 8 story, ``Court rejects black majority district,'' one possible solution to this problem is to increase the number of congressmen. Right now, each of our 435 congresspersons represents 575,000 people.
In the Constitution, it says ``the number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 30,000.'' At that rate, we could have as many as 8,333 representatives. However, why not have the same number of congresspersons as there are state legislators? Virginia has 100, North Carolina 120, or one representative for every 50,000 people; this would give us 5,000 congresspersons.
Advantages: Congress would more accurately reflect the will of the people. The average citizen would have access to his congressman. Smaller congressional districts would result in many naturally occurring black majority districts. Decentralization of the Washington power structure would lessen the ability of big money lobbies to easily sway legislation.
It would be more complicated to pass laws (we have too many already). Campaign financing would assume less importance as election issues become more localized.
Disadvantages: We would have to eliminate a large number of congressional staffers to make office space available for the new congresspersons. Do we need 100 state legislators, but only 11 U.S. congressmen?
JOHN SAMS
Tyner, N.C., Feb. 9, 1997