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GOP Looks To Redistrict Itself Back Into Power »

Posted by: Aidenag 2 months ago

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For months, a sense of dread has been percolating within Republican circles over potentially massive congressional losses in 2008. Facing the possibility of a more pronounced minority status in the House and more than a couple seats lost in the Senate, the GOP has begun setting its sights on a contingency plan: redistricting.

Read Full Story at huffingtonpost.com

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Comments So Far: 41

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Klarissa2 months ago

that will balance out all of the illegal immigrant voter sign ups at the Los Angeles rally last year.
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  Aidenag2 months ago
  
  So you think gerrymandering is ok?
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    Klarissa2 months ago
    
    since when have districts not been jerrymandered??
    Of course I don't think it's ok.
    Californians are trying AGAIN to pass a law that takes the districting out of the hands of the legislature and puts it into a commission. (think results of a Democrat controlled legislature)
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      cptnkrk2 months ago
      
      I lived in a district that was only 1 mile wide at one point it looked like a wilted barbell set. Courtesy of the Indiana Democratic party. Wanted to lump the union votes in a couple of cities that were too far apart so they kind of stretched it out, bent it, twisted it etc...
      Gerrymandering is the privilege of whoever is in charge at the moment.
      Is it right? Not really, but it is the way it happens.
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        scott42612 months ago
        
        Point taken. But can you name a gerrymandered district that has become so in the last 40 years at the hands of the Democrats?
        I don't think so...
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        DropkickaLib2 months ago
        
        Not so. State legislatures have a free hand to redraw districts and since more legislatures are dominated by Dems, clearly they have the most opportunities to engage in gerrymandering.
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        obiefrommuskogee2 months ago
        
        Texas was a clear exception, when the legislators demanded that districts be redrawn in an intervening year, when they weren't slated to be redrawn until 2010.
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        DropkickaLib1 month, 4 weeks ago
        
        A lack of redrawing districts in the face of changing population patterns is another form of unfair representation.
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        cptnkrk2 months ago
        
        The one I am talking about was done at the last census. So it was in the last couple of years.
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        libsRfunny2 months ago
        
        "But can you name a gerrymandered district that has become so in the last 40 years at the hands of the Democrats?"
        Many districts in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Boston, pretty much any district in any large liberal city. You would do best not to pretend to think.
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        Beau78902 months ago
        
        LibsR, the districts in Illinois were drawn by the Republican-controlled state legislature after the 2000 census. In fact, at least one liberal Democratic U.S. representative lost his seat when Democratic districts were combined.
        Can we just agree that both parties gerrymander? And that what Congress should be thinking of is a way to draw up rules that would apply to all state legislatures to disallow increasingly specific computerized legislative district mapping? Maybe using a formula that takes into account both population and natural boundaries?
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        JoseMadre2 months ago
        
        "Point taken. But can you name a gerrymandered district that has become so in the last 40 years at the hands of the Democrats?"
        Look at California after the 1980 census for a perfect example of a Democrat gerrymander. Not only did the Democrats go from a 22-21 to a 28-17 lead, but only 1 seat changed hands for the entire decade.
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        scott42612 months ago
        
        California is a liberal state. Have you been asleep since 1967?
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        JoseMadre2 months ago
        
        The GOP carried the state in 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, and 1988; GOP candidates won the governorship in 1982, 1986, 1990, and 1994. I consider Arn-dolt a lib, so I don't count him.
        Your "1967" quip is sort of stupid.
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        scott42611 month, 4 weeks ago
        
        Arnold is a moderate, at best...
        And you are right about the presidential candidates (which may show just how off the beam the Republicans are right now...).
        McSame has absolutely zero chance of winning CA...
        And why is the 1967 "quip" stupid? That is the year of the summer of love. And you and your ilk may find that reference and everything it represents stupid, but I and millions of others do not. Nothing is funny about peace and love. IMO, that is exactly what is needed now...
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    NoSpinDave2 months ago
    
    "So you think gerrymandering is ok?"
    Umm, this has been a practice BOTH parties have used when given the opportunity for many years. To suggest this is a "Republican Issue" is the HEIGHT of intellectual dishonesty.....not that I expect anything less from you.
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      Aidenag2 months ago
      
      Where did i suggest this was only a "republican issue" Alwaysspindave? This instance of it just happens to be about the GOP.. GOP strategists, and a Spokesmen for GOP governors was interviewed for the article saying this is the plan for them in 2010...
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      UnusualSuspect2 months ago
      
      AsMuchSpinAsAnyoneElseDave...
      "So you think gerrymandering is ok?"
      How on earth could you take Aiden's statement as suggesting it is only a Republican issue? No mention of Republicans, no mention of Democrats...a simple question is asked of Klarissa, and you blow it all out of proportion...
      Get a grip, man...worry about the huge losses the Republicans are going to have this year, not several years from now...
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        cptnkrk2 months ago
        
        Umm the title of the article, "GOP looks to redistrict itself . . ." Seems to indicate that it is the GOP that is . . oh never mind.
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        libsRfunny2 months ago
        
        "Umm the title of the article, 'GOP looks to redistrict itself . . .' Seems to indicate that it is the GOP that is . . oh never mind."
        That's because the Huffington Post is a Democrat attack dog, which is fitting since its owner is so damned rabid.
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        NoSpinDave2 months ago
        
        "Umm the title of the article, "GOP looks to redistrict itself . . ." Seems to indicate that it is the GOP that is . . oh never mind."
        I thought that was pretty obvious too, but I guess I am giving too much credit to our liberal friends. I will not make that mistake again.
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        UnusualSuspect2 months ago
        
        .
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    DropkickaLib2 months ago
    
    Only when Dems do it, right? What constitutes gerrymandering is a source of disagreement, to say the least.
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    libsRfunny2 months ago
    
    "So you think gerrymandering is ok?"
    Gerrymandering is illegal. But only a naive fool would think Democrats don't do it. It's always funny to see the Democrat spin from the Huffington Post, AKA the DNC West.
    The state legislatures are the ones that draw up the districts, not the governors. And the law says it has to be done with the least amount of change possible. But both parties generally agree on them so they can narrow their focus in state elections on a very few vulnerable seats/districts while knowing the other seats are assured either Democrat or GOP representation.
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- Luis-CiferComment removed: User banned.
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jaxguy2 months ago

I think this idea came straight from the playbook of the criminal Tom Delay.
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  NoSpinDave2 months ago
  
  "I think this idea came straight from the playbook of the criminal Tom Delay."
  Stop stealing my avatar!
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jordan112 months ago

At it again, I see. Anything for power. Gotta have power. I'll bet they're foaming at the mouth at the thought of losing power. All those plans. All that money, slipping away. They must be desperate.
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Klarissa2 months ago

This is a Huffington smear - all about 2010, not 2008.
Rumors, rumors.
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  antibrainwasher2 months ago
  
  A smear? Tell that to the Texas legislature who were thrown out by Delay, before Delay was thrown out for being a criminal.
  Redistricting is pure Rovian doctrine, the kind good republicans eat for breakfast lunch and dinner.
  Support your local republican, because partisanship should always come before what is best for the country.
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    NoSpinDave2 months ago
    
    "Redistricting is pure Rovian doctrine, the kind good republicans eat for breakfast lunch and dinner."
    You are either showing your age or your ignorance, either way this has been a practice used by BOTH parties since WAY before any of the current Republicans took office, but hey, we cant let the FACTS get in the way of a good smear!!
    You really should study up before you talk next time.
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      antibrainwasher2 months ago
      
      The off-cycle timing of the Texas redistricting fight, as well as the farcical drama of the fleeing Democratic legislators, made the saga look like a colorful aberration. But the results of that altercation merely replicated what happened, after the 2000 census, in several other states where Republicans controlled the governorship and the legislature. Even in states where voters were evenly divided, the Republicans used their advantage in the state capitals to transform their congressional delegations. In Florida, the paradigmatically deadlocked state, the new district lines sent eighteen Republicans and seven Democrats to the House. In the Gore state of Michigan, which lost a seat in redistricting, the delegation went from 9-7 in favor of the Democrats to 9-6 in favor of the Republicansâ;;even though Democratic congressional candidates received thirty-five thousand more votes than their Republican opponents in 2002.
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        antibrainwasher2 months ago
        
        (The Michigan plan was approved on September 11, 2001, so it received little publicity.) Pennsylvania, which also went to Gore, had one of the most ruthless Republican gerrymanders, and it is the one being challenged before the Supreme Court.
        NSD, don't let the fact that southern conservatives used this gerrymandering tactic to negate the black vote during jim crow slow you down. Keep right on waving your chinese made 'merican fleg. Your a great republican NSD.
        Vote republican to elevate NSD to a policy making position in McSeniors cabinet. Cause can't you feel it, NSD puts the good of the country ahead of his hatred for non-right wing americans.
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  - Luis-CiferComment removed: User banned.1 Reply
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      antibrainwasher2 months ago
      
      free country so far.
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Tcaros2 months ago

After the voters get done with the GOP, the ones lucky enough to win re-election will be glad they weren't kicked out the door. They'll be busy trying to redefine the GOP rather than some end-around ploy which will ****** more voters off.
There's a real voter backlash coming due.
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JoseMadre2 months ago

Both major parties do the same things and push it the legal limits. We heard more about the GOP because they controlled more governorships and state legislatures last time. Massachusetts split Margaret Heckler's district in half for the 1982 elections, and 25% of the Democrats pickup that year was the result of the "Berman Plan" in California.
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  JoseMadre2 months ago
  
  Good grief, guys. How does that warrant negs? Simple, easily verified facts. You're hopeless leftitards.
  Now that warrants negs.
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gbilly08Comment removed: User banned.
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cloud152 months ago

Gerrymandering was started by Elbridge Gerry in 1812. He was part of the Democratic-Republican Party. Imagine that....
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walden31 month, 4 weeks ago

How else could Republicans win?
They're getting more desperate as demonstrated by: the Brooks Brothers riot, Bush V. Gore, micro-targeting, the games with the machines in Ohio in 2004 and aggressive gerrymandering.
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Aidenag

Photographer by day, news junkie by night. My main areas of interest are politics and the environment. If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions ...

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