Blue states with Rethug Reps that we need to Gerrymander out

[Takket]

The Supreme court has declared that gerrymandering based on partisan politics cannot be challenged in the court.

This will lead to the continued disenfranchisement of Dem voters in states with rethug legislatures.

but... this is also a two way street.

Below are a couple solid blue states with multiple rethug reps. These is no reason these districts cannot be redrawn to contain all the rethug voters to reduce them down to one rep.

California: 7 rethugs including Nunez and McCarthy. Potential gain: 6 house seats.
New York: 5 rethugs including Pete King. Potential gain: 4 seats.

Might sound absurd but this is not joke. The rethugs will be doing this even worse than before now and the chances of losing the House are going to go up if we do nothing, because our votes simply aren't going to count.

In the meantime, I'm hoping in ALL states (that don't have them already) there will be ballot initiatives to wrestle district drawing from the legislature and put it in the hands of private commissions.

[FBaggins]

1. Not quite how that works

It "sounds absurd" because it IS absurd. Gerrymandering doesn't mean that you can make all but one district go blue.

There are 53 congressional districts in California... and we already control 46 of them. All but one of those red districts is already solidly republican.

IOW... if you think that Democrats haven't already been using gerrymandering to produce as many blue districts as we can... you're fooling yourself.

[bluecollar2]

3. Trust me

If you want to see.red districts turned blue all you need is to take a look at Texas in reverse.

That map looks like Calder painting.

[FBaggins]

4. You just defeated your own point

36% of the congressional districts in Texas are blue. Only 13% of California congressional districts are red.

If California were to try "Texas in reverse", we would lose a dozen seats.

[bluecollar2]

5. The point I was trying to make

Is that gerrymandering has no logical limits. When Republicans took over control of the state house in Texas they redrew maps in some very creative ways.

Check out the map.

[FBaggins]

6. I understand. And my point was that your point is incorrect.

It is absolutely not true that "gerrymandering has no logical limits".

If it were true... what explanation do you have for why there are 13 Democrats representing TX in the House instead of far fewer? Or 67 Democrats in the TX House of Representatives?

Republicans were just too nice to stretch gerrymandering without limits?

Of course not... because there are limits to what gerrymandering can achieve.

[TwilightZone]

7. Sure it does.

You can only work with what's available. In a state where 70% of voters are Republicans, for example, you're not going to be able to create a bunch of blue districts. Utah's not going blue.

In your Texas example, while it's true that the districts are drawn in ridiculous ways, it's done so because, in general, urban TX = blue and rural TX = red. By grouping one part of an urban area with a bunch of rural/surburban ones, the Rs consolidate the Democrats into a smaller number of districts. They can't redistrict them all away, however, because of the number of urban Dems. So gerrymandering does, in fact, have limits.

[pecosbob]

2. Is it A way, or THE way?

Five states just passed non-partisan redistricting measures in 2018. I would be the first to agree with you that only Dems seem to care about rules or norms anymore and every time we do something like this, Rs will always immediately take advantage. For every action we take to enfranchise Americans, they will take two to disenfranchise them.

But if we wrestle with pigs we risk coming out of it smelling like one in the end.

[gratuitous]

8. Oregon could easily re-district its lone Republican out of the House

Greg Walden would have to go get a real job if the Oregon legislature decides to jigger the new district maps and force a Republican minority for his district. In fact, I believe Oregon is in line to get a sixth seat in Congress, so a fresh map could easily be managed to make the entire Oregon House delegation Democratic.

[Gothmog]

9. We also need to flip some red state legislatures

In 2018 Texas Democrats picked up 12 state house seats and need 9 more to take control of the Texas House. The party is targeting a number of seats including two in my county. I just gave to one candidate running for a targeted house seat. We need to flip control of the Texas house to block GOP gerrymandering efforts