DBWI: Gerrymandered Congressional Districts

Just read in the Daily Kos website of the Utah Senate's attempt to redraw the state legislative lines to create a majority Native-American district and split off the northern part of Salt Lake County into several rural districts.

My first reaction was: the Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state by a 3 to 1 margin and control both houses of the state legislature and all statewide offices. They won't be satisfied until they have 90 percent of the legislature.

Luckily, redistricting commissions exist in California, Arizona, Iowa, New York, Kansas, Mississippi and Indiana where the power to redraw districts has been removed by the politicians. Those states are exempt from the 2000 Voting Rights Act which sets strict standards for state legislators in drawing congressional districts. Thanks to this law, gerrymandering and other attempts to divide communities into numerous districts are a thing of the past.

Can you imagine if other states tried this with their legislatures and even tried to redraw Congressional district lines in such partisan fashion? Would the Democrats still be able to control the US House of Representatives if there were fewer competitive (and more gerrymandered) districts?
 
Just read in the Daily Kos website of the Utah Senate's attempt to redraw the state legislative lines to create a majority Native-American district and split off the northern part of Salt Lake County into several rural districts.

My first reaction was: the Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state by a 3 to 1 margin and control both houses of the state legislature and all statewide offices. They won't be satisfied until they have 90 percent of the legislature.

Luckily, redistricting commissions exist in California, Arizona, Iowa, New York, Kansas, Mississippi and Indiana where the power to redraw districts has been removed by the politicians. Those states are exempt from the 2000 Voting Rights Act which sets strict standards for state legislators in drawing congressional districts. Thanks to this law, gerrymandering and other attempts to divide communities into numerous districts are a thing of the past.

Can you imagine if other states tried this with their legislatures and even tried to redraw Congressional district lines in such partisan fashion? Would the Democrats still be able to control the US House of Representatives if there were fewer competitive (and more gerrymandered) districts?

I doubt the Democrats might be able to maintain their long-held base in Texas. The Republicans might use gerrymandering and their advantage in Hispanic communities to curbstomp the Democrats to the ground, or the Libertarians might use it to defeat the other two parties in Colorado.
 
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