Creative way to add two Senate Seats for Dems.

[yebrent]

Divide California into two states.

Northern California and Southern California.

Ta-Da!

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Love it!

[karynnj]

2. There was a time in CA history when they wanted to do this

but they were denied permission from congress (I think - one of my kids chose CA when they had to pick a state for their first reseach report in 5th grade. (the other 2 chose HI and VT - all good blue states)

[davidinalameda]

3. actually, it probably wouldn't work

the cut off line would be somewhere south of San Francisco

you still have heavy Repuke areas like San Diego and Orange that would allow the new southern state to elect Repukes

[yebrent]

11. I'm not so sure.

California is more divided politically, east vs. west. That is why I specified Northern California and Southern California. It would be closer in socal, but I think the Dems could still pull it off with good candidates. Plus, LA and San Diego become more Democratic every day. In 2004, LA county went 63% to 36% in favor of Kerry. San Diego was closer with 53% Bush and 47% Kerry.

California 2004 Election Results

[Awsi Dooger]

19. Yeah, east/west

When I leave Nevada and drive into California it's obviously GOP leaning until I near the coast. We wouldn't want to bank on the smaller rural counties. Just check out that link and look at Bush's huge percentage in counties with let's say 100,000 or less votes.

Still remarkable to me that a county with the population of San Diego can vote so heavily GOP, even if it's becoming slowly more even. The Anaheim area also. If we can swing those counties steadily our way it could guarantee California's 50+ electoral votes in anything but a GOP landslide.

[yebrent]

20. San Diego was a US Navy town.

Now, not so much.

[coloradodem2005]

4. Another creative way to add two senate seats for Dems.

Make D.C. a state.

[downwitbush]

8. D.C.

that is a good idea
after all, people live there.

[Hippo_Tron]

24. Wanna add 11 electoral votes to that? Make DC part of Virginia

Virginia went to Bush only 55 to 45, much less than other southern states. Adding DC to its electoral populace would make it a blue state.

[Awsi Dooger]

27. I'm not sure that would do it

I've looked at the numbers via my Excel spreadsheets since '96, enough to know we only net 160,000 or 180,000 votes in D.C even at 90-10 or thereabouts. Virginia has upwards of 3 million votes so the D.C. numbers won't be enough to erase an 8 point margin, like Virginia had last year at roughly 54-46. But it's true Virginia is slowly creeping our way. Add D.C. to the Virginia numbers and a Mark Warner would definitely carry the 11 electoral votes, if fantasy is allowed.

[Hippo_Tron]

29. You have to add on some because their votes would actually count

I would imagine that DC has a fairly low turnout because everybody knows that their vote doesn't count.

[Awsi Dooger]

30. That's probably a fair point

I never looked at DC turnout because the electoral votes are obviously taken for granted

[ISUGRADIA]

5. Then Texas will divide into 5 states

as they can legally do based on their treaty of admission as a state and gain the Repubs 4-6 more seats.

[jobycom]

6. Then Texas could annex Oklahoma! Two less Repubs. Or better

Let Oklahoma annex the top half of Texas. The south half would likely go Democrat.

[wallwriter]

7. The Repukes have outflanked us in electoral shenanigans every time.

Hello! Tom DeLay!

[quaoar]

9. Make Puerto Rico a state

2 more.

[longship]

10. Southern Cal would elect two Repugs

SoCal is quite conservative.

[yebrent]

14. Adding the 2004 totals of the three most populated counties in SoCal.

LA:

Kerry - 1,907,700
Bush - 1,076,200

Orange:

Kerry - 419,200
Bush - 641,800

San Diego:

Kerry - 526,400
Bush - 596,000

Total:

Kerry - 2,852,300
Bush - 2,314,000

KERRY WINS!!

[longship]

17. Thanks for that. I needed it.

But two Dems would not be a shoe-in here.

[yebrent]

18. You are right, they would not be.

I'm just messing around, trying to get people to think outside the box. I have a feeling that our form of representative government is going to need to make some big systematic changes in the next 10-20 years to survive as a democracy.

[davidinalameda]

28. you might get two more DiFi's

I'd be more than happy to ship her to LA if the state ever did divide

[quaoar]

12. Or how about

merge Wyoming, Utah and Idaho into one state. That eliminates four Republican senators.

[TransitJohn]

26. NO!

I'll admit, we Wyomingites send some real dullard GOPers to DC, but we have nothing in common w/ Utah and Idaho, and want nothing to do with them.

:)

[whistle]

13. That is neat, but unfortunately, that's the only state in the U.S.

...where that would work.

A better solution would be to make congress proportionately representative of the populations in every state in the House, make Gerrymandering illegal and increase the number of senators per state to three (3).

[yebrent]

15. I agree with your first two, but why three Senators per state??

That makes things even worse for the Dems, and it would be absolutely horrible for California. It already makes me sick that Cochran and Lott have as much of a sway in the Senate as Boxer and Feinstein.

[whistle]

23. How about one senator per state...or maybe, like the UK's

...House of Lords, give them no power to vote on anything, only to advise and try to sway a representative parliament. What passes for representative government now in this country is a total shame and abuse by the majority.

[yebrent]

16. There really should be an amendment to the Constitution.

That if a state becomes to small of a percentage of the total population, it needs to merge with a neighboring state, and if it becomes to big of a percentage of the population, it needs to divide into two. Just my opinion, but the longer our Country goes on, the more screwed up the representation will be.

[ISUGRADIA]

21. Can't do that by amendment

that would violate a state's senate represenatation and no amendment can do that. All states must get equal senate representation. States can divide (VA into VA and WV in 1863) but cannot merge.

[theboss]

22. It's not even clear that is constitutional

And I say that as a West Virginian. It took a revolution to do that.

[Yupster]

25. A state cannot be made from the territory of

another state without the affirmative vote of the state legislature ceding the land for the new state.

That's in Article IV Section 3.1 of the Constitution.

Of course the Virginia legislature never agreed to the carving out of West Virginia, so screw the Constitution I guess.