Joe Schwartz Explains Proposal 2; Remembers McCain

Michigan voters will consider Proposal 2 on November 6th.  That's the plan that would change how our legislative districts are drawn, and former Congressman and State Senator Joe Schwarz of Battle Creek helped craft the plan.

Schwarz was a guest on the 95.3 WBCK Morning Show with Tim Collins.   He explains the history and definition of "Gerrymandering".  It was started by an actual signer of the Declaration of Independence, Elbridge Gerry.   Schwarz says one district ended up looking like a salamander and somebody came up with the term "Gerrymandering".  Ever since, the political party in power has used it as part of the "spoils system" to craft districts to keep their party in power.   Schwarz says that under the new plan, if adopted by the voters, anybody in the state could apply to the Secretary of State to be part of a 13-member body that would take over the job of drawing the boundaries for legislative districts for both state and federal representatives.  The group would be made up a balance of people of declare themselves to be Republican, Democrat, or Independent.

Schwarz also talked at length about his friend, the late Senator John McCain.  Both men served in the Navy and in Vietnam.  Both were Republicans who didn't always tow the party line.  Schwarz says he met McCain in the 90's and worked and traveled with him quite a bit, and Schwarz ran his Michigan campaign in 2000.  "He always did what was right in his mind, and that, of course, was not always the same opinion that others had on any certain issue," said Schwartz of McCain. "Somebody said the other day 'not always right but never in doubt'.  That would be John, but I consider it one of the great privileges of my life to have known John, to have been close to him during my time in the Congress and during the time he was running for president in 2000 and 2008.  We have lost a true patriot in John's passing."