tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post7888691577157982501..comments2024-03-06T03:15:58.539-05:00Comments on <b>THE NEW REFORM CLUB</b>: Today on CONLAWPROFHunter Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14961831404331998743noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-20912352591485784472018-12-12T17:18:56.960-05:002018-12-12T17:18:56.960-05:00Gerrymandering is like porn. It can't be defin...Gerrymandering is like porn. It can't be defined rigorously, yet everyone knows it when they see it.<br /><br />Furthermore, a "fair" district map is going to have many geometric oddities, because fair borders would follow often-convoluted geographic elements such as river courses, or pre-existing political boundaries. (I.e. two Chicago suburbs are enclaves inside the city, along with part of unincorporated Cook County. Another pair of suburbs further out literally curl inside each other. here should the state legislative district boundary go?) There's no reliable way to distinguish such situations from gerrymandering.<br /><br />Also, gerrymandering isn't always partisan. Racial gerrymandering is considered a requirement, resulting in highly convoluted districts to assemble enough minority voters for "majority-minority" districts. A more subtle form is when the "old guard" in both major parties join together to protect their own seats against intra-party troublemakers, who get hived out into safe other-party territory (or pushed together, so they have to fight each other).<br />Rich Rostromhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13262703348236110420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-81055908734895926392018-12-12T13:59:19.079-05:002018-12-12T13:59:19.079-05:00As its first witness, the defense calls the Hon. M...As its first witness, the defense calls the Hon. Martin Frost, Representative for Texas Congressional District 24 from 1979 to 2005, who designed the Democratic gerrymander that kept the Texas delegation to Congress majority-Democrat for more than a decade after Democrats won their last state-wide election. Beldarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13404583858244777905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-6031494450996853082018-12-12T10:29:41.763-05:002018-12-12T10:29:41.763-05:00We are only a step or two away from declaring all ...We are only a step or two away from declaring all votes against the Democrats as illegal and immoral by the uncivilized and immoral. <br />"The constitution is designed to govern a civil and moral society, it is wholly inadequate for any other." The Progressive democrat, the socialist, the un American are the other.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-47485284316916405572018-12-12T10:05:59.474-05:002018-12-12T10:05:59.474-05:00Colorado has had a supposedly nonpartisan reapport...Colorado has had a supposedly nonpartisan reapportionment commission that first operated after the 1980 census. Did it solve gerrymandering? NOT.<br /><br />The “swing” members of the board are selected by our Chief Justice. In FOUR separate reapportionment efforts, the outcomes massively favored the party of the governor who appointed the then sitting Chief Justice. I oughta know about the first one. I was part of the team drawing district lines in 1981. For the next five elections, Republicans won an outsized number of legislative seats, including 2/3 of the House and Senate. <br /><br />Since then, Democrats have controlled the process with the help of members appointed by the Chief Justice. The election outcomes are dispositive. Regularly, Republican State House candidates collectively earned more votes than their Democratic opponents, but Democrats did much better than their vote totals would have suggested. In fact, as state legislatures nationally shifted Republican, Colorado was one of 4 states that, compared to the 1980s (before fancy computers made gerrymandering easy), moved to the Democratic camp. And our Supreme Court found “no foul” in these outcomes ... even praising the creating of one Congressional district because it pulled together counties, economically far from similar, that shared in an outbreak of pine bark beetles!<br /><br />This election voters decided to give the Chief Justice even more power in who ended up on the reapportionment panel. We shall see if outcomes result in fewer goofy results. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-36160502672085767642018-12-12T07:08:55.249-05:002018-12-12T07:08:55.249-05:00All the geometry in the world won't solve the ...All the geometry in the world won't solve the issue. It's a problem of people and community, not geography.<br /><br />If we were all just identical widgets in a great big machine (a very progressive view), then a mathematical formula to start in a densely populated center and simply build out in an equal fashion would work.<br />But, people are different. And communities are different. A single homogeneous community won't really struggle with this issue. A larger heterogeneous one will. If you can draw your lines by community, then you get real representation. (Hint, a county is too large a scale of governance if your population is large enough.)<br /><br />Which is why <em>federalism</em> - at all scales.<br />GWBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-38913467034323971452018-12-12T06:06:51.678-05:002018-12-12T06:06:51.678-05:00Surely there must be a mathematical formula that c...Surely there must be a mathematical formula that can tell you whether a given shape is becoming too ridiculous? I mean, districts should be roughly blobs, and you have some leeway for stretching and pulling, but maths should be able to set a limit for "too many bends in the boundary line" that can be agreed on by both sides, and any proposed district boundary can be checked against the mathematical formula.gurugeorgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06597737189350957927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-1148902874698526952018-12-12T03:31:48.086-05:002018-12-12T03:31:48.086-05:00Democrats have a moral schizophrenia--an obsession...Democrats have a moral schizophrenia--an obsession with "fairness" but a self-dispensation for anyone who does whatever it takes to ensure it.<br /><br />Since the world is unfair, things like gerrymandering are manifestly fair as long as they're done by those on the side of fairness.Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-16128606422274004782018-12-12T02:37:17.489-05:002018-12-12T02:37:17.489-05:00California Republican Party.
Apart from that, it ...California Republican Party.<br /><br />Apart from that, it seems to me that whenever "nonpartisan" commissions are charged with drawing district lines, they always seem to do so in a manner favorable to Democrats. I agree with Unknown.a bee ee?noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-16805107977362916882018-12-12T01:21:25.834-05:002018-12-12T01:21:25.834-05:00What is CRP???What is CRP???Seth Barrett Tillmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15597182448693278803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-80550565843677160042018-12-12T01:08:16.350-05:002018-12-12T01:08:16.350-05:00I once read an article saying redistricting to hel...I once read an article saying redistricting to help your party is a reasonable outcome of winning the election at census time. Or as 44 said, "elections have consequences.” You're also right about citizen commissions, the last California redistricting was recently attacked as a stealth Democrat maneuver disguised as non-partisan. Maybe, and maybe CRP is the best description of the dead elephants.bugscawfeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13413924857837172438noreply@blogger.com