That was a part of one of John Edwards' answers to the Common Cause questionnaire about how he would reform the political system. The question dealt with gerrymandering.
Both John Edwards and Barack Obama answered the questionnaire.
Hillary Clinton either feels like she is so entitled to the nomination or so comfortable with the current system that she believes will coronate her, that she didn't bother.
John Edwards tended to be much more specific than Obama.
For example:
Issue: Presidential Public Financing System
Question I-A:
As President, would you support and work to enact legislation to strengthen, keep the
same, or repeal the presidential public financing system?
Strengthen _ Keep the same _ Repeal _
EDWARDS: I would strengthen the public financing system. I believe that the system
for financing American elections is rigged to amplify the influence of powerful and
wealthy individuals as both donors and candidates. Few top-tier presidential candidates
accept public financing, and candidates rely on wealthy, well-connected “bundlers” to
help them raise tens of millions of dollars. The Internet has enabled a boom in small
donations from regular people, but wealthy donors and bundlers still supplied nearly 80
percent of candidate contributions in the first quarter of 2007.
The first step toward getting the policies we want is to put regular people back in charge
of Washington. As president, I will create a new Grassroots Presidential Financing
System to empower regular Americans in a potentially universal public financing system
for presidential campaign.
Right now, any individual can donate up to $2,300 to a campaign. That means candidates
are spending their time glad-handing with the tiny fraction of Americans who can write a
$2,300 check. I will rewrite the rules to put small donors in charge by matching the first
$100 of donations at a rate of eight to one, making two $100 donations as valuable as a
single $1,000 donation. I will also reduce the maximum contribution from $2,300 to
$1,000 per person to better reflect the incomes of most Americans and update the
campaign spending limits to attract all candidates in to the system.
OBAMA: Strengthen
Issue: Voter Protection
Question IV-B:
As President, will you insist that the Department of Justice vigorously enforce the Voting
Rights Act and other federal laws in order to curtail practices and procedures that have a
disproportionately negative impact on the political participation of minority, low-income,
disabled, and elderly voters?
Yes _ No _
EDWARDS: Yes. America ought to set an example with the most trustworthy, inclusive
and secure election system in the world. But recent elections have exposed major flaws,
from insecure voting machines to laws and practices that disenfranchise citizens. Forty
years after the Voting Rights Act, we still have work to do to ensure a meaningful right to
vote for every American regardless of their skin color.
I will secure Americans’ voting rights by requiring the use of paper ballots verified by
voters. Voting machines will ensure access for people with disabilities and foreignlanguage
speakers, use transparent and publicly accountable open-source software, and
be verified by mandatory audits.
I will also enact a new law making intentional interference with the right to vote a federal
offense and providing tough penalties for political parties, officials and individuals. I will
establish a Department of Justice task force to investigate patterns of dirty election tricks
nationwide. To eliminate concerns over the partisan administration of elections, I will
prohibit chief state election officials from publicly supporting federal candidates.
Finally, I will restore the right to vote in all federal elections to ex-offenders who have
served their sentences and support the right to Washington, D.C. residents to have voting
representation in Congress.
OBAMA: For too many elections, misinformation and intimidation have kept thousands
of Americans from voting. During the 2006 election, for example, thousands of Latino
voters in Orange County, California received letters telling them that immigrants who
voted would be jailed – implying that this applied to naturalized citizens. In Maryland,
voters received fabricated sample Democratic ballots that featured Republican candidates for governor and senator. And in Virginia, voters were phoned by a fraudulent “Virginia
Elections Commission” claiming they were ineligible to vote. These tactics most often
target vulnerable communities, such as minorities, the elderly, and the disabled.
That’s why I introduced the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Act. The bill,
which recently passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, will make voter intimidation and
election misinformation punishable by law, and contains strong penalties for those who
commit these crimes. Furthermore, it would establish a process for providing
misinformed voters with accurate information so they can cast their votes in time.
Issue: Once-A-Decade Redistricting
Question V-A:
As President, would you support federal legislation prohibiting states from redrawing
valid congressional district lines more than once a decade?
Yes _ No _
EDWARDS: Yes. Mid-decade redistricting has been shown to result in partisan conflict
and outcomes. Voters should be choosing their representatives—not the other way
around.
OBAMA: I opposed the partisan mid-decade gerrymandering that Tom Delay engineered
in Texas. I believe that mid-decade redistricting is rarely justified. There may be some
exceptional cases, such as a natural disaster, that create population shifts that may
warrant mid-decade redistricting. But I do not support state efforts to redraw otherwise
valid congressional district lines more than once a decade.
Here's the link to the full questionnaire.
Enjoy.