US House Redistricting: Indiana

[tmthforu94]

With a Republican Governor and Republican legislature, Republicans have an opportunity to create a gerrymandered map. However, several leading Republicans claim they are committed to a bi-partisan map, which isn't sitting too well with some, including myself. 10 years ago, Democrats gave us a terrible map to work with on the state level, and they completely ignored geographic similarities when creating the US House Districts. As long as Republicans return things to normal, we're looking at 6-7 GOP seats. The best possibility for Democrats right now is 3 solid seats, with 2 toss-ups.

It'll be interesting to see how this develops.

[tmthforu94]

Here's my first map of Indiana. I don't have Microsoft Paint, so I have to use another application, in which Indiana doesn't quite fit. Here are my three maps, one of Indianapolis.







On Southern Indiana, I tried to tie geographically similar regions together, making it similar to before 2000 redistricting. Evansville and Terre Haute are back to being in seperate districts.

Indianapolis is split up into four districts. I can't honestly say how this would play out, but it could hypothetically make 2-3 competitive districts.

The Gary District would be very strong Democrat. Teal, Yellow, Green, bright Blue, and light Purple all could potentially become competitive. Grey, Purple, and Red are Republican districts.

This would make the Indiana composition 5-3-1, Republican-Toss Up-Democratic.

[tmthforu94]

You complain about the Democrats ignoring basic geography when they drew the maps a decade ago, and then you propose that disgusting thing. Hilarious.

I really only know about Southern Indiana. I honestly couldn't tell you about the Northern part, because I've never been up there. I was referring to the South, where I live. Terre Haute and Evansville have little in common. Geographically, at least the grey, bright blue, and soft purple are an improvement.

[tmthforu94]

I got bored, so spent the last hour or two making this map. Something felt weird as I was nearing the end, since the Walorski district was getting too big, and I realize I only clicked for 8 districts instead of 9. But I'll post this anyways. Pretend for a minute Indiana lost a congressional district last cycle!



Crimson - Obama 62, McCain 37
Creamish White  - McCain 52, Obama 47
Teal - McCain 55, Obama 44
Purple - McCain 53, Obama 46
Yellow - McCain 54, Obama 45
Red - Obama 66, McCain 34
Green - McCain 54, Obama 45
Blue - McCain 53, Obama 46