Ever wonder how the Republicans have a House majority? This is from PBS News: The Morning Line Today in the Morning Line: New maps: By court order, Florida’s legislature passed new congressional maps Monday along party lines that Republican Gov. Rick Scott is expected to sign. Democrats are still likely to contest the maps, which could end up in the Supreme Court. A circuit court judge had ruled that by Friday, the legislature had to create new maps because the earlier ones violated state constitutional amendments that mandated “fairness” in redrawing congressional maps by using “city, county and geographical boundaries.” Instead, what got created by a majority Republican legislature were districts that stretched and snaked across a state and made Florida one of the least representative congressional delegations in the country. Of Florida’s 25 congressional districts, 17 are represented by Republicans. President Barack Obama won Florida narrowly in 2012 — 49.9 percent to 49 percent. If Florida was divided evenly based on those results, it would be 13 Democrats and 12 Republicans, a 10-seat swing. That’s an imperfect way to divide districts, but the statewide vote shows at least an approximation of the state’s overall partisan makeup. The judge will hold another hearing on the maps Aug. 20, just six days before the state’s primaries. “Thousands of ballots have already been cast [for the primaries]… and county election supervisors have said it would cost millions of dollars to re-schedule elections in the 23 impacted counties,” the Orlando Sentinel writes. A broader trend: Nationwide, Democrats are underrepresented by about 19 seats, according to the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman, who has devoted more time and energy to redistricting than almost anyone in the country over the last few years. In fact, his Twitter handle is STILL @redistrict. In 2012, despite Republicans retaining control of the House, Democrats actually won 1.4 million more votes in House races, or 50.6 percent. Why does that matter? Because if the congressional districts were divided based on that, Nancy Pelosi would still be speaker. Democrats would have about 220 seats, two more than needed to pass legislation on things like immigration, infrastructure, etc. But that’s not the way it works. Republicans over the last decade devoted a lot of time and energy to state legislative races and won back more governor’s seats than Democrats. That’s part of the game. As the New York Times’ Adam Nagourney wrote Sunday, “Republicans now control 59 of the 99 partisan legislative chambers, and have complete political control — both legislative houses and the governor’s mansion — in 23 states, while Democrats control 13. The total number of states ruled by a single political party, 36, is the highest in six decades.” Part of the problem for Democrats is that with migration to cities, they have become so much an urban party that they are easily clustered and drawn together. And Democrats are not guilt-free of gerrymandering. Just take a look at the Rorschach-test like drawing of Maryland’s third congressional district, which meanders and maneuvers through disparate parts of the state picking up Democratic voters and giving Democrats the ability to eliminate a Republican seat.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 14:19:10 +0000
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