State Legislature Redistricting

[Bacon King]

Is there really any possibility the two MS chambers will be able to compromise on their maps?

[Bacon King]

Current draft for the new Louisiana House map.

(here's the old map for comparison

-New Orleans delegation reduced from 25 members to 19
-Three new black-majority districts added by the redistricting committee (to a total of 30), but one was later taken out in a partisan vote on the House floor; Legislative Black Caucus Chair has promised to sue over it.
-the pairs of Democratic incumbents will be running against each other
-recent party switcher Bubba Chaney was saved from being cut out of his district by the House GOP leadership's intervention

[Bacon King]

They sort of went out of their way to screw with the Republican Northeast counties.

I don't know New Jersey geography very well, but, those changes might have been necessary to put in the new minority districts?

[Bacon King]

On the successful-gerrymandering side, they have successfully created a D or at least more likely to flip seat in Monmouth County in LD11 while at the same time pitting star incumbents Jennifer Beck and Sean Kean against each other there.

I would expect someone to move. The 12th I believe would be vacant and Republican leaning.

It's actually Kean and Singer paired in the 30th, since Kean (apparently) lives in Wall and Singer in Lakewood. I expect Singer to move to the 12th since it contains much of his old district.

BTW, I see what you mean about overpopulated districts in South Jersey. The 10th is overpopulated by at least 20,000! How far can the deviation be, legally?

IIRC the absolute legal maximum deviation for state legislature districts is considered to be a 10% difference a district's population and the population of an "ideal" district, but court cases have been successful in challenging district plans with less of a deviation than that, especially when there's a systematic bias in favor of a specific racial group or some such.

Looking at Johnny's link above, it seems your numbers aren't correct. The 10th is overpopulated by only 4602, which is 2.1% above average. For the record, the maximum deviation present is 2.5% over (in the 9th and 28th) and -2.7% under (in the 40th). This isn't really anything out of the ordinary.

[Bacon King]

Is the GOP in the Alaska legislature still split/factionalized? If so, with the map apparently bad for the Democrats, how does it fare for the pro-coalition Republicans?

[Bacon King]

To be fair, the main reason the LA GOP increased the number of black majority districts was to give all their new party switchers whiter districts.

Still, Louisiana passing preclearance on the first attempt is a pretty momentous occasion! I don't know the record for their state legislative redistricting, but I'm fairly certain that LA Congressional redistricting has never passed preclearance on the first try.

[Bacon King]

To be fair, the main reason the LA GOP increased the number of black majority districts was to give all their new party switchers whiter districts.

I have no doubt that GOP partisan interest and maximizing the number of Black seats align. Pointing your finger at the GOP doesn't excuse the Democrats for trying to minimizing the number of Black seats because that is what is in Democratic interest. Such blatant partisanship makes Democratic claims about the moral imperative to create a second Black seat in Lousianna ring hallow.

Of course. Both sides of the aisle are blatant hypocrites, especially on regarding the "principles of redistricting" (for lack of a better term).

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Since the Lousianna Speaker of the House stated that this is the first time for preclearance of the original map, that's a pretty safe bet.
[/quote]

Thanks for the info; I thought that was the case but didn't know for certain.

[Bacon King]

Proposed map for the Vermont House of Representatives:

http://vermont-elections.org/2011LABMaps.html

It eliminates all of the two-member districts.

Interesting. Does this mean they might be changing the crazy multi-member Senate districts?