2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumRepublicans Foil What Majority Wants by Gerrymandering
By Chris Christoff and Greg Giroux - Mar 18, 2013
Michigans 14th congressional district looks like a jagged letter S lying on its side.
From Detroit, one of the nations most Democratic cities, it meanders to the west, north and east, scooping up the black- majority cities of Southfield and Pontiac while bending sharply to avoid Bloomfield Hills, the affluent suburb where 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was raised.
Its unusual shape is intentional. Michigan Republicans, seeking to maximize their political strength, drew the district lines -- and the residential patterns of Democratic voters made their job easier.
Michigan (CONSSENT)s 14th district underscores how Democrats across the U.S. are bunched in big metropolitan areas, resulting in the partys House candidates often winning by wide margins on Election Day while Republicans capture more seats because their voters are spread out.
Its a prime reason Democrats fell 17 seats short of winning a House majority in 2012, even as their congressional candidates drew about 1.4 million more votes than Republicans nationwide, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. And it will hinder the Democrats from regaining control of the chamber in 2014. Currently, there are 232 Republicans and 200 Democrats in the House, with three vacancies.
MORE...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-18/republicans-foil-what-most-u-s-wants-with-gerrymandering.html
Blue Owl
(49,934 posts)But somehow, they'll keep finding ways to fuck us...
Buffalo Bull
(138 posts)You are absolutely correct. In western New York we had a wonderful congresswoman, Kathy Hochl who won her seat in a district with a GOP majority. Her district was contorted into an unrecognizable shape, and was to be even more GOP leaning. A millionaire who was a disaster as Erie Co. Executive was brought in and Hochl lost her seat by the slimmest of margins.
The Texas congressional delegation is perhaps, the prime example.
If you can give the devil his due the GOP made the most of their opportunity to play hardball politics.
Don't forget hardball includes bean balls and spikes up slides.
Just ask James Carville.
former9thward
(31,805 posts)The VRA requires the creation of 'majority-minority' districts to ensure the election of minority representatives. This means district mapmakers must cram large numbers of Democrats into minority districts to ensure the election of those representatives (usually the districts have to be at least 70% Democrats). This leaves Republicans that can be spread around to other districts where they are just over a majority. Example: Let say you have 300 people (160 Ds and 140Rs) and you want to create 3 districts of 100 each. One district is 70 D and 30 R. The other two are 55 R and 45 D each. So in this example you get 2 R districts and 1 D district even though Ds out number Rs in the area 160 to 140. This is simplistic but it is how it works in the real world.
LeftInTX
(24,560 posts)Section 5 applies to states under Section 5. In Texas our redrawn districts need to be pre-approved by the justice dept. It's a long tedious process.
former9thward
(31,805 posts)Good article on this: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20041007_hayden.html
Myrina
(12,296 posts)The GOP gerrymanders, droves of Dems move in & take up residence to take back the district. The GOP can only re-district so many times until they realize we're on to their scheme. Then what?
Here, there any everywhere, not unlike folks who discussed moving to Ohio in the run up to 2004 (even though it didn't stop Blackwell from flilpping the state for Dimson) ... ??
high density
(13,397 posts)With a close 50/50 electorate, gerrymandering clearly works. As that tilts toward 60/40, it's going to get harder for them to retain the power to sustain the gerrymandering, and the lines drawn matter less anyway.