Posted on 09/29/2017 1:20:37 PM PDT by SMGFan
....In 2010, a nationwide Republican wave swept the GOP into the Wisconsin governor’s mansion and legislature, giving the party the power to redraw the state’s electoral map for the first time in half a century.
The result transformed Mr. Mason’s political life. The new District 62 separated him from most of his old constituents in Racine, Wis., and swept in rural and conservative precincts from elsewhere. He was stuck in a red district with just a comma-shaped sliver of blue.
..............
Republicans engineered similar moves across Wisconsin, erecting a firewall that helped protect the GOP’s majority of 60 seats in the 99-member Assembly. The new lines withstood a shift of more than 400,000 votes to Democrats in the 2012 state elections.
What happened to Mr. Mason is now part of a Supreme Court case that will decide the future of political gerrymandering, a phenomenon with a rich, bipartisan tradition. Since the founding of the republic, Democrats and Republicans have sought to redraw maps that increase their party’s electoral clout, largely by creating a greater number of winnable seats.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
It’s wrong only if Republicans do it.
When democrats do it for decades - no problems.
When republicans finally win and do it - the SCOTUS needs to ACT!
I wonder if MSN realizes what will happen to an arse load of minority reps, mainly in democrat districts, if Gerrymandering goes buh-bye?
Maps aren’t simply “redrawn” for a political goal, they are reapportioned based on recent census numbers, as is required. When Texas gained 4 new legislative seats and electors, a map HAD to be drawn. Guess who gets to draw it? The legislature, powered by the Party in charge.
I don’t know how this isn’t a political question. The Court needs to pass on it; there is no “minority” or other protected class that’s somehow being denied representation. Political parties in our Republic are not guaranteed representation based on the number of votes they get. That’s called parliamentary democracy and it’s not what we do.
Here is Presidential voting by ward in WI http://legis.wisconsin.gov/ltsb/gisdocs/ElectionMaps/2016_Republican_Presidential.pdf
The can recon on it all they want. Both parties love it, they only complain about it to play to their base, it’s never going away.
If it wasn’t for racially gerrymandered districts imposed by federal courts we might not have such luminaries as Bobby Scott D-VA or Hank Johnson and John Lewis D-GA.
since 2012 lot more GOP % http://legis.wisconsin.gov/ltsb/gisdocs/ElectionMaps/2012_Republican_Presidential.pdf
It’s only ‘gerrymandering’ when the *OTHER* side does it :-)
Older than either of the parties, the word goes back to 1812!
This is a pet peeve of mine. They should lay in, basically, squares. Come what may. The District in the Atlanta area is really shameful.
The same number of people contained within the smallest possible perimeters. The only exception should be if a line ran right though the middle of a home. It's sooooooo simple that even I could do it on my Mac Pro.
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