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A big year for a party at the national level affects races further down on the ballot; the Democrats picked up many state legislative seats in their own mid-term blowout in 2006. But this year’s Republican sweep, which by some estimates gained the GOP as many as 700 state-level seats, came at the best possible time. That’s because in 2011, U.S. states will redraw congressional districts based on census information. And state legislatures, along with governors, usually have a big say in how those maps are drawn.
Naturally, they try to draw up districts that maximize their parties’ chances of winning. That’s why conservative Texas sent an inordinate number of Democratic congressmen to Washington until Republicans took over the state legislature in 2002 (and pushed through a controversial redistricting scheme that indirectly led to a jail sentence for its mastermind, representative Tom DeLay). Ed Kilgore, a writer for the website The Democratic Strategist, pointed out that the Grand Old Party won more House seats in 2010 than its share of the popular vote would imply, and that was because of Republican-friendly maps that were drawn up by legislatures in states like Texas and Florida. “The advantage they obtained during the last round of redistricting endured to the end,” he said.
Originally posted by mr10k
The only way the system can change is if the current system is destroyed, and building a new system will take a long time. Do the math.
Originally posted by intrepid
Originally posted by mr10k
The only way the system can change is if the current system is destroyed, and building a new system will take a long time. Do the math.
OK. So are you upping to help bring change about then?