Posted on 06/28/2011 8:31:40 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- Democrats hoping to regain the majority in the House in 2012 might get a strong head start in California, where voters have handed the authority for drawing political boundaries to an independent citizens' commission.
Analysts studying the panel's work are predicting that three to five seats now in Republican hands will move into the Democratic camp in next year's general election. Such a swing could give Democrats an edge toward the magic number 24 -- the number of GOP-held seats they'll need to win if they are to regain the House majority.
Republicans account for roughly 31 percent of California's voters and 36 percent of its congressional delegation -- at 53 members, the nation's largest. Democrats comprise 44 percent of the state's voters and 62 percent of its congressional delegation. One vacancy in a Democratic-leaning district will be filled after a special election in July.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
No one here is shocked, are they?
And in states with large Dem House delegations, e.g. New York, they are losing seats, and states like Texas are gaining seats. California is a small drop in the bucket, and in the end, little effect overall in the count of seats.
Does it really matter? California already has slipped off the banana peel into hell anyway.
California is the crap pile of rotten communists liberals that have such a limited capacity their brain are in deep freeze. Dumb dodo brains are destroying themselves.
Can we just give California to Mexico and call it even?
Georgia is also gaining seats. I believe 1 or 2.
Pennsylvania is losing one seat and it will be a Democrat one since Republicans run things here.
The old Jack Murtha district gets cut and boundaries are redrawn in the remaining 18 districts.
The new lines may help the GOP gain district (the 4th).
The party in charge after the census in each state does the gerrymandering.
Pennsylvania: Yeah, but I wouldn’t trust that Gleason guy with the GOP’s best interests in PA.
Nationwide, though, I’d heard that we’ll gain 14 GOP electoral votes.
Anyone?
Between California and Illinois alone, the Democrats can probably gerrymander up to 10 seats their way (3-5 in California, and 4-5 in Illinois). In places where the GOP has control, the legislators are drawing the districts in a far more conservative way, thus limiting the potential for the GOP to pickup seats. For instance, in Georgia instead of drawing a massively gerrymander GOP map, the Republicans are opting to strengthen incumbents. They are doing the same thing in North Carolina.
In essence, the Democrats are drawing districts with the goal of maximizing the number of seats they can get out of the deal, even if the means the ultimate winner of the seats will be in more marginal districts. The GOP is taking the opposite approach, and is drawing districts that are designed to protect incumbent members, and make other districts less marginal.
Wishful AP thinking. There’s no guarantee GOP House seats will be lost. Democratic seats could just as easily be imperiled as many of them are highly gerrymandered. Does an election cycle go by where the AP isn’t predicting disaster for the GOP?
I agree. I wouldn’t want to be a newbie in politics with ‘D’ behind my name.
Here in Missouri, the RATS will lose a seat. It was the old Dick Gephardt seat gerrymandered for him. Over the years as Union have lost power the seat has been targeted. The last election the Carnahan RAT won with a plurality. Rats only control St. Louis and KC, while GOP will hold the rest.
Dem Controlled California economic collapse could imperil DEM Party
You got that right. Texas is getting 4 more seats, I think, and they are redistricting as well, so you could see the GOP gain 5-6 more seats in Texas to offset any Dem gains in California.
Sometimes when liberals get too greedy gerrymandering, it comes back to bite them in the butt.
This might be the case in California.
Sometimes when liberals get too greedy gerrymandering, it comes back to bite them in the butt.
This might be the case in California.
California is being meaningfully DE-gerrymandered by a non-partisan commission. It will remove some safe Republican seats which did little more than allow incumbents in the California GOP to be lazy, and create a bunch of districts that good Republicans can win with a solid message and effort.
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