Can We End Gerrymandering?
Probably not as long there is political advantage to be had but it sure would be nice.
The system is screwed up and has been for a long time. Tom DeLay was the most notorious of course but he wasn't alone.
Slate has a good presentation. Click on the title.
The system is screwed up and has been for a long time. Tom DeLay was the most notorious of course but he wasn't alone.
Slate has a good presentation. Click on the title.
posted by Granny @ 4/18/2006 02:07:00 AM
4 Comments:
At Tuesday, April 18, 2006 2:50:00 AM ,
David Cho said...
I agree with the article, but I think racial gerrymendering has played a big part too.
The Democrats, wanting to increase ethnic minority representation in Congress, advocated drawing districts to carve out heavily minority areas for black and Hispanic candidates. But the effect of doing so resulted in "whitening" of other districts which became Republican areas.
So talk about strange bedfellows. The Democrats and Republicans agreed, and the result is the GOP takeover of Congress.
At Tuesday, April 18, 2006 3:36:00 AM ,
Granny said...
Agreed of course. I saw something about a school district doing something along the same lines - in effect de facto segregation. ???
At Tuesday, April 18, 2006 3:43:00 AM ,
Granny said...
Just found it again and posted it.
At Tuesday, April 18, 2006 5:30:00 AM ,
Unknown said...
As I commented in a previous post, a district was gerrymandered to give a primary Hispanic voting bloc here in Houston.
A Congressional district was re-drawn a number of years ago to reduce the constituent population of a maverick Congressman (one who refused to play ball with the good ole boy cronies and insisted on representing the people. They did their best to try to cause him to lose the next election, but it didn't work. He's still there).
Gerrymandering is illegal but it remains alive and well.
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