Gerrymandering not so bad for Democrats this time around

[applegrove]

except for people of colour

The 5-Minute Fix at the Washington Post (email)

"SNIP......

Republicans already maxed out at gerrymandering: Republicans are really good at gerrymandering. The Constitution requires that congressional and state legislative maps get redrawn every decade, based on updated census data. Most states let state legislatures do that. And Republicans swept into power in 2010 in statehouses, just in time to take control of the process last decade. (They kept hold of that power in 2020.) And they carved and sliced and diced up districts so well that there isn’t much more they can do, says the Brennan Center for Justice.

Courts are overturning some GOP-drawn maps: In many key states, Democrats’ only recourse has been to sue over the maps. So far that’s been working out well for them. Judges in Alabama threw out maps there, saying Republicans packed Black voters into one district rather than drawing several that reflect the population. The state Supreme Court in Ohio threw out Republicans’ maps for being too partisan. Many more lawsuits will be coming across the country as Democrats pounce on GOP-drawn maps.

But going to the courts isn’t a perfect strategy for Democrats. These lawsuits can take a while — in the last go-round in North Carolina, the two sides spent the entire decade fighting over maps. And in the interim, many elections will be held using these maps, including November’s midterm elections.

Democrats gerrymander, too: Democrats in Congress spent a year trying to ban partisan gerrymandering. But Democrats in the states have been using it to their advantage where they can. Colby has written a lot about how Democrats in Illinois and New York have stretched or are considering stretching liberal cities into as many congressional districts as possible. There’s a push in the party to do more of that — to “fight fire with fire,” as one Democrat said.

But gerrymandering is particularly bad for people of color: Colby and Harry have analyzed maps passed so far and found that Black and Latino voters in particular have lost out on representation as legislators gerrymander them into districts that dilute their votes.

......SNIP"

[Emile]

1. Indiana redrew the map and pretty much guarantees the

Republican party will be the majority for the next 10 years!

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Gerrymandering has one additional benefit

Once all the tilt has been wrung from the map, the majority voters think it's a gimme. If we ever turn out like 2020, we might win a few of those.

[applegrove]

3. That's true too.

[gab13by13]

4. Here we go, a bothsiderism thread,

21 Congressional Democrats are retiring, a lot of them because of gerrymandering. Jim Cooper who has won landslide elections in Nashville is retiring. He was just on Nicolle and said they gerrymandered away his district. A sure fire Democratic victory has been gerrymandered away. In Texas they combined Sheila Jackson Lee's district and Al Greene's district.

With attitudes that suggest that GOTV can defeat crony gerrymandering people better pray for a bunch of miracles.

I have been shouting for years about what I see in my home state of Pa. Every election year more people in Pa. vote Democratic and Republicans keep gaining more seats. I freaking see it happening and Pa. was based on the 2010 gerrymandering, Lord help us in Pa. once they redo the 2010 districts. Thank god we have a Democratic governor because he just vetoed the first redistricting map that the Magats drew up. They will come back with another and another.

GOTV folks, and we may have to vote 4 or 5 times.

[Blue Owl]

5. I'm not sure exactly how it would work...

But I'd love, love, LOVE to see the GOP's gerrymandering backfire and blow up in their fucking faces...