The Secret of How the GOP Has a Lock on the House for the Foreseeable Future.

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/secret-how-gop-has-lock-house-foreseeable-future



If somewhere in the recesses of your mind you were wondering how, despite President Barack Obama’s re-election victory and the Democratic Party’s gains in the Senate, Republicans continue to control the House of Representatives, think redistricting.

Redistricting is the process that adjusts the lines of a state’s electoral districts, theoretically based on population shifts, following the decennial census. Gerrymandering is often part and parcel of redistricting. According to the Rose Institute of State and Local Governments at Claremont McKenna College, Gerrymandering is done “to influence elections to favor a particular party, candidate, ethnic group.”

Over the past few years, as the Republican Party has gained control over more state legislatures than Democrats. And, it has turned redistricting into a finely-honed, well-financed project. That has virtually insured their control over the House. “While the Voting Rights Act strongly protects against racial gerrymanders, manipulating the lines to favor a political party is common,” the Rose Institute’s Redistricting in America website points out.

ProPublica’s Olga Pierce, Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer recently reported, in a piece titled “ How Dark Money Helped Republicans Hold the House and Hurt Voters,” that “Republicans had a years-long strategy of winning state houses in order to control each state's once-a-decade redistricting process,” That strategy helped the GOP put a hammerlock on its goal of creating safe Republican districts that would allow it to control of the House.

[JoeyT]

1. Yep, sounds about right.

My state went almost 40% for Obama, but 6 of our 7 representatives are Republican.

My district is the sole Democrat, and if you compare her district with the area/counties that voted for Obama, they're almost exactly the same.

[buzzroller]

2. Democrats votes become easier to waste by natural and gerrymandered packing

Even with fair districts drawn by a computer, a study has shown that Republicans have an advantage because Democrats tend be more concentrated geographically. This came up during Florida's successful effort to pass a fair districts provision of the state constitution.

On top of this natural advantage, the Florida Supreme Court, in my opinion, gave the R's a pass and let them get away with more than they should have. Nevertheless, R's do have a natural advantage according to the study, so we have to win in even greater numbers. Democrats need to win control of many more state legislatures.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-09-27/news/os-redistricting-future-analysis-20100926_1_florida-voters-democratic-voters-political-maps

[spanone]

3. they have cheated. gerrymandered their districts.

[HereSince1628]

4. This isn't very secret. But there IS a new low-flying threat associated with it

The rw boiler plate factories have figured out that they can control the presidency exactly the same way.

The R's want to do to the electoral college what they've done to congressional and legislative districts.

The push is on to require electors to be chosen to represent the outcomes of the votes in gerrymandered the districts.

If/when they succeed, kiss democratic presidencies good-bye.

[marmar]

5. And people still crow about this being a "democracy".

nt