Idea of the Week: Redistricting Reform

[ConservativeDemocrat]

DLC | New Dem Daily | January 7, 2005

Idea of the Week: Redistricting Reform

From practically the moment that Congressional district lines were redrawn prior to the 2002 elections, the DLC has joined a wide variety of other reformers in decrying the alarming trend towards a U.S. House of Representatives whose members are essentially elected to 10-year terms thanks to redistricting scheme that protect incumbents and radically reduce the number of politically competitive districts. As Jennifer Duffy and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report pointed out in Blueprint magazine, the number of competitive House districts dropped from 136 after the 1990s remap round to 45 ten years later.

That was no accident. Thanks to ever-more-scientific mapping software, and the gradual abandonment of such traditional redistricting principles as compactness and contiguity, it's become easy for House members, their friends in state capitals, and their political parties to cut incumbent-protection deals. And the results are not just a theoretical offense to good government. Today's House is fast becoming a perversion of the Founders' intent that it serve as the segment of the federal government most regularly accountable to the public will. When politicians choose voters, instead of voters choosing politicians, it's not surprising that you wind up with a legislative body characterized by irresponsible lawmaking (e.g., the explosion of red ink under the current Republican regime) and dominated by the ideological extremes.

Worse yet, the incumbent-protection racket is not limited to Congress, but is becoming common in state legislative redistricting decisions, where the temptation is made even stronger by the inherent conflict of interest when lawmakers draw their own lines. Exhibit A is California, whose latest set of maps not only eliminated competitive U.S. House districts, but also made every single State Assembly and Senate district relatively safe for one party or the other.

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The bottom line is that redistricting reform is good for democracy, and good for both parties. It should become an integral part of the insurgent reform message that Democrats embrace in every part of the country.

The full article is here.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[SharonAnn]

1. Check out the way Iowa does it. It's done by a nonpartisan

group. The shape of the districts is roughly rectangular and well-ordered. The geographic size depends on the population density.

And, I'm told they have competitive districts.