Posted on 12/04/2006 1:33:47 PM PST by Princip. Conservative
A clear majority of Ohioans who voted in the Nov. 7 election preferred a Democratic congressional candidate.
So did Franklin County voters, where Democratic House candidates drew in excess of 10,000 more votes than Republicans.
The result?
While Democrats won nearly 53 percent of the congressional votes statewide, only about 39 percent of Ohioans will be represented next year by Democrats in Congress.
That’s the biggest so-called "wrong winner" disparity in the country from the 2006 midterm elections, says the nonpartisan FairVote.org.
Aided by gerrymandering — the drawing of districts to favor one party — Republicans captured 11 of the state’s 18 congressional seats, assuming that GOP Rep. Deborah Pryce, of Upper Arlington, survives a recount in the 15 th District. If she does, all three House members representing Franklin County will be Republicans.
(Excerpt) Read more at columbusdispatch.com ...
Then Ohio lost a seat in the 2000 census. The Dems agreed that it would be Traficant's district that would be eliminated. Then the Republicans started snipping and cutting "just a little", dumped some of (Dem) Dayton out of the 3rd district and added some of the (Republican) outer suburbs so for now the district is mostly (but not absolutely safe) Republican. The Dems in the state house howled about being cheated.
Before the redistricing in 2004, the DemocRATS controlled 60% of the Texas congressional delegation despite getting only 40% of the vote. What was fair about that? Now Republicans have 19 out of 32 seats. That's pretty much in line with how people in Texas actually voted.
"The problem in Massachusetts isn't the lines, it's that we can't find anyone worthwhile to run."
Are you sure? I find that a little hard to believe, even in hardcore Dem Massachusetts.
In literally EVERY state (and especially places like Washington) state races are largely decided by corrupt, concentrated parasite nests (cities).
Well, there are more factors than that. We don't have any chunks of Republican territory big enough to form a district, so every district is at least competitive for the Democrats, if not outright favoring them.
We've been decimated in the legislature. We have no bench. Conservatives run in the Democrat primaries because they have a better chance of getting elected to higher office. In the past, conservatives (albeit pro-union) ran the legislatures. No one knows what our party stands for because the Democrats stand for every conceivable opposing view.
So we have no bench, and after many years of failure to advance against Democrats, no good candidate thinks it's a good use of his money or name.
What a bunch of psychobabble. Sore Loosers once again. Thank God the GOP still controls the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate. This sounds like the same argument against the Electoral College.
the new gravitas:
"wrong winner"
When democrats gerrymander, its a right winner despite the same lying with statistics argument.
This paper must have hearalded the 4% unemployment of Bill Clinton and was "WE ARE DOOMED" with the 4% unemployment under GWBush.
You'd pay them a small sum, so they would still have to work for a living (or at least small enough so it wouldn't be a career), and the house would have to come up with ways to to their business better. We have the technology so they don't all have to be in the same room in order to meet together.
You really need to have representatives for small numbers of people in order to AVOID the factions that we have today. The parties would be weaker if they had to get 2000 elections taken care of instead of only 435.
Note that, as it is, there can be surprises in house elections because it IS hard to keep track of even a few hundred thousand voters, but imagine trying to track 10,000 voters in 2000 places -- polls would be almost meaningless, it would be much easier for people who simply are hard-working citizens would good ideas to actually GET ELECTED (because you could literally knock on EVERY door in your district before the election).
I love state elections precisely because you just have to reach 20,000 voters, and so money isn't quite as important.
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