Courts handle New Mexico congressional maps
Source: Associated Press
Courts handle New Mexico congressional maps
By BARRY MASSEY
Associated Press March 30, 2014
SANTA FE, N.M. New Mexico's three congressional districts have changed very little in the past two decades; but when they have, state courts not the Legislature or governor have redrawn the boundaries.
State district court judges in 2002 and 2011 adopted "least change" redistricting plans that only slightly altered district boundaries to equalize their populations to conform with the legal requirements of one-person, one-vote.
Redistricting didn't alter the political tilt of the districts. One factor is that redistricting took place with divided government in New Mexico a Democratic-controlled Legislature and Republican governors: Susana Martinez, who took office in 2011, and Gary Johnson, who served in 1995-2002. Neither Democrats nor Republicans had absolute control over the remapping process.
The 3rd District of northern New Mexico is heavily Democratic. The 2nd District of southern New Mexico has been reliably Republican in its voting performance despite Democrats holding an edge in voter registration and a large Hispanic population. New Mexico's rural Democrats tend to be more moderate to conservative than their urban counterparts.
Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2014/03/30/5452908/courts-handle-new-mexico-congressional.html#storylink=cpy
progree
(10,920 posts)The 2012 election should have been a good one for Democrats running for Congress in North Carolina. They received a total of 2.2 million votes about 81,000 more than their Republican opponents. But when those votes were divvied up among the state's 13 House districts, Democrats came up short. Way short.
Republicans won 9 seats and Democrats only 4.
How did Republicans pull off this unlikely feat? State lawmakers set the stage when they redrew the boundaries of congressional districts following the 2010 Census.
More: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-uses-historic-win-remake-north-carolina-map-040259733--election.html
Judi Lynn
(160,631 posts)Hugin
(33,207 posts)The southern 2nd district is heavily Gerrymandered. To compensate for a large university town and the minority vote it totally encompasses the southern 2/3rds of the state inching up to nibble on the very conservative burbs of ABQ. How else would it be a safe district for the likes of the tea bagger Pearce when I know many REPUBLICANS who can't stand the guy? The current Governor was unable to carry her own county which is in that District when she was "elected".
Wabbajack_
(1,300 posts)Won the second district for a single term in 2008 when Pearce ran for the Senate, so it's not totally "safe Republican".