is gerrymandering easier for Republicans?

[ButterflyBlood]

it looks like it is. look at Florida for example. it's a 50/50 state, but the Republicans have 2/3 of the House seats and 2/3 of the legislative seats. However I was today thinking of how we could gerrymander my home state of Minnesota, a slightly leaning Democratic state, and I realized it was tough. Right now we have 3 Democratic districts, 3 leaning Republican districts, and 2 Republican districts. We have a split delegation because one of the Republican districts is held by a DINO. however the best I could think of was creating 4 Democratic districts, 1 leaning Democratic district, and 2 Republican districts. So does the GOP have an easier time?

[Cleita]

1. My experience is that it seems to be as easy for Democrats

as Republicans. I think it should be stopped personally.

[ButterflyBlood]

2. I think it's easier for Republicans because...

Democratic voters are more clustered together. It doesn't matter if a seat is 60% or 80% Democratic, the result is the same, 1 Democratic seat. So we have the problem here of most of the Democrats living in the Twin Cities. I think a good thing would be to take the current two Twin Cities districts and make them 3, one would have part of Minneapolis, some Democratic inner suburbs and take in some conservative suburbs to neutralize them, one would have the rest of Minneapolis, part of St. Paul and some Democratic suburbs, and the last one is the rest of St. Paul and like the first districts. Basically the best we can do is cram suburban voters in with Democratic inner city areas. If all the Democrats in Baltimore were more spread out, the Democrats in Maryland could probably gerrymander another Democratic seat, giving us 7 out of 8.

[seasat]

4. I'd agree with that ButterflyBlood

That is exactly how the Republicans did it here in FL. I'd also add that Democrats tend to take into account such things as minority votes while Republicans could actually care less. The way they split Florida is gross. Did y'all see the district that included part of Lake Obechobee? I think that some of our Democratic US reps may have tried to run for Governor in 2002 but they stayed out to fight for their seats to keep the few Democratic seats left from being Gerrymandered away. To heck with the idea of a constitutional amendment regarding marriage. We need one that sets a fair standard in redistricting. I think it should be based on population, contiguous area, and demographics not voter registration. Some states do that now. With current GIS software and the mounds of data we have, it would be easy to set up districts using a set formula.

[ButterflyBlood]

3. kick

:kick: