Gerrymandering 101

"Gerrymandering," writes Michael Cooper in today's NY Times, "of course, is nearly as old as the Republic and is practiced with relish by both parties." Do either of those factors-- that it's not a new form of corruption and that but corrupt political establishments use it-- make it any less heinous or any more appropriate for the NY Times to treat the subject with anything less than the utter contempt and disdain it deserves? Monday morning we're going to take a look at how the Florida Republican legislature has carved up it's state's congressional district-- in direct defiance of a landslide win for a constitutional amendment prohibiting exactly what they've done.

The Times story-- which points out that "when urban and metropolitan areas are broken up and combined with rural areas, mayors say, fewer voices are left to vigorously push an urban or metropolitan agenda in Washington"-- meanders around GOP skullduggery in Austin, Toledo, North Carolina, and, mostly, Utah. All of these places are victims of the Republican bias against people who live in cities.

People who live in cities-- even cities in blood red states like Texas and Utah-- tend to be more of everything Republicans hate-- tolerant, demographically and socially diverse, educated, and, worst of all, free of the right-wing echo chamber dominated by Fox and Hate Talk Radio. So the GOP has systematically set about minimizing the impact of these voters by chopping up cities and swamping them with exurban and rural areas filled with backward, even primitive, people who tend to vote reflexively for Republicans. Liberal Asheville, liberal Austin, liberal Toledo and liberal Salt Lake City won't be sending any liberals to Congress any time soon, not if the GOP gerrymanders stand.

Cities have long been underrepresented in Congress, political scientists have found. As far back as 1963, when 31 percent of Americans lived in central cities, only 25.3 percent of the nation’s Congressional districts were situated mostly in central cities, according to a 1998 study by Harold Wolman and Lisa Marckini. By 1993, they found, the portion of Americans living in central cities had dropped to 28.2 percent, and only 21.4 percent of Congressional districts were primarily urban.

...When Utah gained a fourth Congressional seat this year, local officials in Salt Lake County hoped that their booming metropolitan area would dominate at least one of the new districts. They sought what they called a doughnut hole-shaped district, centered on the county. But their county happens to have the highest concentration of Democratic voters in the heavily Republican state, so the Republicans who drew the maps opted for what they called pizza-slice-shaped districts that contained pieces of Salt Lake County in the center and broadened out. In the end, the map they passed split Salt Lake County into three of the state’s four districts, stretching some of them into far more conservative, rural corners of Utah.

“We asked for a doughnut hole, we expected a pizza, and instead we got a plate of scrambled eggs,” said Peter Corroon, the Democratic mayor of Salt Lake County. “We are essentially urban areas that lose their voice under this kind of gerrymandering. What happens is, because we’re so lopsided politically, even if a Democrat wins in one of those districts, their legislative policies have to be so much focused on the rural areas.”

Salt Lake City was granted its plea to be kept whole — but instead of being paired with its suburban and regional neighbors, the city, which has a population of about 185,000, was placed in a rural-dominated district that stretches all the way to the Nevada and Arizona state lines.

Salt Lake City’s mayor, Ralph Becker, said he worried that whoever was elected to represent the district would be torn between the needs of the urban and rural areas, which are sometimes at odds. Salt Lake County has been expanding its mass transit system and trying to protect its watershed, Mr. Becker said, while many rural areas are pushing for more highway money and for fewer restrictions on the use of federal land.

“We now are combined with areas that have virtually no relationship to our issues,” Mr. Becker said.

The courts have already thrown out the Texas gerrymander and have moderated it slightly, though not nearly enough so that anyone would call it fair or non-partisan. North Carolina's, Ohio's, Wisconsin's and Florida's GOP gerrymanders all are being challenged in courts. And the Ohio Supreme Court, a very Republican court (six Republicans, one Democrat), ruled unanimously that the Democratic Party's plan to place a referendum on the ballot throwing out the disgraceful GOP map is perfectly fine.

The GOP-dominated legislature gave the 50/50 swing state a map that basically rewards the GOP with 12 of the state's 16 districts by concentrating huge numbers of Democratic voters in 4 districts, a similar tactic Florida and Texas use-- and something like what the corrupt Democratic Party bosses in Chicago do to Illinois. If the Democratic referendum passes, a court would drawn non-partisan districts which would likely yield 8 seats for each party.