Talk Elections

Will the legislature enact a Maine/Nebraska style CD split for the presidential election of 2008?

Oh no...
Oh God No...
Oh Dear God No...

PA-13 is bad enough as it is with only one measly House seat up for grabs...I shudder at the horrid possibilities if it were to gain an electoral vote of its own...

They didn't do it before 1996, 2000, or before 2002 for 2004.

While the GOP might lose PA-13; it would definitely win PA-9.  It would be a net plus for the GOP.

Yes. That would be a good thing... unless both parties start gerrymandering like drunken sailors. That might make things interesting... :P

That's one thing I don't get. Politicians always talk about partisanship, yet they are bipartisan on gerrymandering. The Gerrymander will never be an endangered species.

I would probably vote for the amendment even if it cost Democrats EVs in the long run.  It is the right thing to do as it puts power closer to the poeple.

I'd only support it if they re-draw the congressional districts; the current ones are disgusting

I certainly hope not. A good GOP campaign can win PA, but even if the state popular vote was something like 55-45 GOP, there would be a 6-7 CDs that we couldn't win.

If it was 55-45, you'd win everything but PA-1, 2, 13 (probably, because it would probably be a pretty populist-lean Republican) and 14.

Haha.... they tried that here in Texas. Maybe you remember our Democrat representitives leaving the state to protest. Thats a messy situation, but quite funny when you come to think of it.

Oh, grow up. No one forces you to read what we say.

If it was an electoral vote of it's own, the only candidates who could win it would be McCain and maybe Romney. It wouldn't attract as much attention as a House race.

And while it was brought up, we probably won't do it.

I'll have to look at the PA-11 results again, but you're right with 4-5.

Isn't the problem that a state that reduces itself to like 5 EVs (since the rest would be secure for either party) makes itself much less politically relevant? It doesn't matter as much for small states like Maine or Nebraska, but a major battleground like Pennsylvania most likely wouldn't go for it.

I dislike the idea myself because a) it seems to produce less democratic results (it would have increased Bush's margin over Gore and, I think, produced a Ford victory in 1976) and b) it makes the political process even more vulnerable to manipulation (i.e. gerrymandering).

Bah Penn is already gerrymandered for the GOP.

Either every state needs to do it, or none of them do.

That being said, I do think it would be friggin awesome if the Dem-leaning states did it while GOP-leaning states kept the winner take all EV's :)

I suggest you re-draw the congressional districts; the current ones are disgusting.

WA's congressional districts may not make a lick of sense, but at least they are fair and reasonably competitive.