i just did a search and found no threads on this topic. i'm reading right now for class about the texas redistricting story from 2003 and i'm finding it very interesting. what do you think of the issue? are there good reasons for redistricting?

amount of HoR seats per seat changes every census, for one.

not sure on statehouse stuff though, but i assume one party led it initially so the other party should get a chance as well is the thought, or somethin like that.

This was the movement led by Tom Delay which gerrymandered my beloved Nick Lampson out of Beaumont in favor of Ted Poe and the suburban yuppies in northern Harris County, right? I was one pissed off 20 year old when that happened.

i mean i have no idea about this texas story

I was actually just thinking intensely about this not too long ago, and I think I procured a map on some of the details. I'll see what I can dig up tomorrow morning.

Actually, it didn't take that long to find, so I'll just post it up quickly.



The states that are grayed out only have one rep, so redistricting by definition is not an issue there.
The states in green don't do their redistricting via the legislature, but by bipartisan independent boards, so for the most part they can be ignored as well.
The states in blue are currently completely controlled by the Dems.
The states in orange have a legislature controlled by Dems but a Republican governor.
The states in light pink have a Democratic governor and one of their legislative chambers controlled by the GOP.
The states in dark pink have a Democratic governor and both of their legislative chambers controlled by the GOP.
The states in dark red have a Dem-controlled legislature but a GOP governor that's not up for election until after 2010.
The states in bright red are completely in GOP control.

I think the conclusion that I drew is that while the Dems have a better chance of increasing the number of states where they will have complete control, the three states that stand to gain the most seats in the House (Texas, Georgia, and Florida) are all in safe GOP control.

Um, yeah. The population shifts around. It's a necessity.

Now, I assume you're talking about gerrymandering districts. Since our federal republic system of government apportions representatives in Congress based on discrete geographical districts, the only way to have the make up of the Congress on a state or national level approximate the relative power of the parties is to divide the districts in such a way that the number of representatives from each party will approximate the strength of those parties in each state. So if voter registration in a state is 35% Dem, 30% Rep, 35% Ind, then the districts should be about 35% Solid Dem, 30% Solid Rep, 35% competitive, or as best you can approximate that. Any district map that is far removed from that scheme is questionable.

for local elections (up to state level) of councils/chambers (not for Governor or Mayor. Instant run-off I believe is the fairest system for single posts), I think proportional representation is the best system. yes it requires compromise, but that's not a bad thing. and it allows 3rd party or independents to get represented too.

On a national level otoh, it's more tricky because it's generally more unstable.
But considering your system, you could even have the House as a proportional entity (within each state, not nationally) whilst keeping the Senate as is.
Would also help on cutting pork barrel since representatives wouldn't be able to make individually claim to a district benefiting from them, and it'd virtually eliminate gerrymandering.

It doesn't makes a huge difference in a place with a de facto 2-party system, at least not at first, but it's more representative..

A question that I have about this is whether or not a state could elect all its reps via proportional representation. I first thought it would be unconstitutional, but after scouring Article I, now I'm not too sure.

Of course, it would only work for states that had more than 2 reps.

yeah, Wyoming would still have to use a non-proportional system.
I don't know about constitutional, just about sensible... I wish there was more proportional and run-offs here too..first past the post is a really ridiculous, and highly undemocratic since the majority often loses, system.

I maintain that gerrymandering is NOT a bad thing, and most likely ensures that like minded people are properly represented. It's not fair to everyone, but it really optimizes the electoral process.

I somewhat disagree, I think it just forces people into, as Kris puts it, the "Red Team vs. Blue Team" mindset.

The best way to get like minded people properly represented would be proportional representation, as mentioned earlier in this thread I just bumped and moved your post into.

North Carolina is now completely controlled by the Republicans (for the first time in 140 years).

Yeah, I'm going to have to redo that map. In addition to Florida, it sounds like California also passed an initiative to set up an independent panel. That could be huge news in favor of the GOP, especially since it looks like George Soros was trying to defeat it:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-0 ... -says.html

What's explicitly wrong with a red team versus blue team mindset? I suppose I really don't fully understand how the implementation of proportional representation would work...

More than the red v. blue issue, isn't it troubling that each party has "safe seats" because of the way the districts are drawn?

I dunno. I can come up with arguments for both sides. I don't know if I mind districts that are drawn in such a way that they'll usually be Democratic or Republican. But I know I don't like the sitting legislature doing the drawing.

What if I want what the Green Team or the Yellow Team advocates, instead?

I don't particularly care for PR because you vote for parties instead of people, but say you had a state with 10 seats. Say Party A and Party B each get around 40% of the vote with both of them winning a plurality of five of the districts each. Say also that Party C gets around 10% of the vote in all ten districts. In our current system, Party C is screwed, but in PR they'd get one seat.

So say the team you vote for gets aroun 4-6 percent of the vote GH.

Would they still get some representation?

Depends on the number of seats the vote contains. If it's 100 seats, then they get 4-6. If it's only 10, then they may not get any.

It used to bother me, but a conservative in New York, who justified Democratic gerrymandering convinced me that it wasn't that big of a deal. I talked about this years ago, but Louis Slaughter's district was MEGA redistricted to encompass as many poor urban African Americans as possible. In doing this, the reconnoitered her district block by block through the city of Rochester, and then ran a small strip all the way across Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls and Buffalo and then did the same thing. While I feel bad for the people who live along the shoreline who are most certainly Republican, the African Americans get able representation. And in the process of this, the ruling legislature, including the Democrats in this case, did everything they could to keep Republicans out of their districts, but left us alone to ourselves. My old district never stands a chance of going Democrat because of the lines Democrats have drawn up themselves. The result in my seriously gerrymandered state is that heavily Democratic areas are represented by Democrats. And heavily Republican areas are represented by Republicans. And I just don't see the problem with that.

I understand what this proportional representation is, and I don't like it. Not one bit. And it's specifically because you're voting for the party and not the representative. I want to be able to elect people who live in my area, and know my areas concerns. The last thing that I want to do is elect the "Republican Party" and have some down state blue blooded Republican who knows absolutely nothing about the problems concerning rural western New York to represent us.

Leave it as it is. I get a representative who understands my districts needs.