By
William A. Gralnick
We’ve been here before. That would be about 10 years ago. We’ll probably be here again–in about 10 years. It is time for everyone to know a political term that shapes, or misshapes our politics. It is a term synonyms for which are pettifoggery and corruption. It is gerrymandering. It is named after a founding father, governor of Massechussettes, signer of the declaration of independence, and long ago vice-president.
Elbridge Gerry, the governor who signed the bill creating the misshapen Massachusetts district, was a Founding Father: signer of the Declaration of Independence, reluctant framer of the Constitution, congressman, diplomat, and the fifth vice-president. Long, thin, and squigly, the district looked like a salamander. Knock off “sala” and add Gerry and there you have it: Gerrymander.

Not a puzzle piece–an Ohio Congressional District
Well-known in his day, Gerry was a wild-eyed eccentric and an awkward speaker, a trusted confidant of John Adams and a deep (if peculiar) thinker. He could also be a dyspeptic hothead—a trait that got the better of him when he signed the infamous redistricting bill. No wonder such a one could come up with a plan that has been the goal of majority party every ten years.
Why every ten years? Because every ten years, by law, the census is taken. Because the numbers in the House of Representatives and Senate are fixed (435 and 100), everywhere a seat is mandated in a congressional district by the census to be added means it has to be subtracted from from another district in that state. It is a process controlled by the majority party in a state’s House of Representatives. So far so good. Now to the meat of it.
“The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.”
Article 1 Section 2 United States Constitution
The goal in a presidential election is to win as many congressional districts as possible. If they add up to popular vote victory then the state’s vote puts the win in the electoral college. That makes “winning the census” pretty damned important. For this census, “crucial” would be a better term because the majorities held by one party are so thin they could be called razor-thin.
There is a political adage that no one gives up power willingly. That is a simple reason why we still have gerrymandering. In the past two decades the courts have become players in this game and have disallowed some redrawn districts because they were frankly so skewed that a blind person could see the peculiarities.
Political cartoon of first gerrymandered district (Smithsonian Institute)
There is however another issue. That is parties aiming at the wrong target. For reasons too arcane to explain here, state legislatures are often Republican. That is by a 2-1 margin, though many are in states with lower numbers of electoral votes. More importantly, the Democratic focus is usually squarely on the Federal offices. The Republicans, for exactly the reasons herein explained, have been gobbling up state legislatures like salamanders gobble up bugs. But for an assuredly large number of court appeals, you are now going to watch the building of an electoral college map that will make it very difficult for the party in power to remain in power. That’s ok. That’s politics. The distressing thing, going back to synonyms, is that the process is “corrupt,” “a distortion of democracy.” It is another method to usurp power from the people.
Part of the difficulty in creating the end to this, is that on occasion the bad has been used for the good. When the timing on the political clock has been in favor of centrist to left power-brokers districts have been created to give power to minorities. There is a district right below mine that is famous. Black people, who were the servant class long ago were spread along a thin strip of political land that ran through several congressional districts. A district was created that knitted them together into a new district held for years by the recently departed Alcee Hastings. Good you say. Well, yes but… The other side of the picture is that now the opposition will try create enough districts to outweigh that one shinning use of gerrymandering even it is undemocratic.
That’s where we are now. It will get uglier as the redistricting committees begin their work and the courts get ready for a rush of cases.
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