When was the last time the median House district had a Dem PVI?

[Mr.Phips]

Maybe 1984?  I thought maybe 1988, but ended up figuring that there were something like 238 House districts that were more Republican than the national average.  This is probably a function of the fact that Dukakis underperformed horribly(which would be a trend from this point on) in a lot of traditionally Democratic Southern seats where he was getting less than 40%(sometimes less than 30%) of the vote despite comfortably electing Democrats. 

Anybody have any ideas?

[minionofmidas]

Long before the concept of PVI, in the American context, became sufficiently nonridiculous to actually be inventable.

[muon2]

The Dems have historically been associated with districts that have high concentrations of their voters. Before cities it was the South. Because of the way the PVI is calculated as a difference from the two-party presidential vote, the less concentrated party (GOP) will tend to be at the median.

[Torie]

Yes, if the nation overall is 54-46 Dem, a district that leans Dem 52-48 would have a Pub 2% PVI. The nation had a Dem lean generally, when the Dem's had their Tory wing in the South.  At the moment the partisan strength of the two parties is pretty evenly balanced, so PVI and partisan lean have become close to synonymous at the moment. It has not been always thus.

[nclib]

Maybe 1984?  I thought maybe 1988, but ended up figuring that there were something like 238 House districts that were more Republican than the national average.  This is probably a function of the fact that Dukakis underperformed horribly(which would be a trend from this point on) in a lot of traditionally Democratic Southern seats where he was getting less than 40%(sometimes less than 30%) of the vote despite comfortably electing Democrats. 

Anybody have any ideas?

I agree that it is probably a while. Mr. P, do you know how many CDs were more Republican than the national average in any other years?

[freepcrusher]

here are some elections where the median house district may have had a dem PVI:
1976
1964
1960
1948
1944
1940
1936
1932

[Mr.Phips]

Maybe 1984?  I thought maybe 1988, but ended up figuring that there were something like 238 House districts that were more Republican than the national average.  This is probably a function of the fact that Dukakis underperformed horribly(which would be a trend from this point on) in a lot of traditionally Democratic Southern seats where he was getting less than 40%(sometimes less than 30%) of the vote despite comfortably electing Democrats. 

Anybody have any ideas?

I agree that it is probably a while. Mr. P, do you know how many CDs were more Republican than the national average in any other years?

I know it was around 227 after 1992 and 1996.  Probably a little higher in 2000.  In 2004, it was something like 234.