US House Redistricting: Georgia

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Here's an attempt at a 10-4 Republican map of Georgia.

Statewide map:



Atlanta area:



GA-01 (blue, Jack Kingston - R) - Stretches west to take in some parts of GA-02. Still safe R.
GA-02 (green, Sanford Bishop - D) - Yeah, this one almost goes to Augusta in order to soak up as many black voters as possible. Now 55% black.
GA-03 (purple, Lynn Westmoreland - R) - Eastern end shrinks, instead goes north. Safe R.
GA-04 (red, Hank Johnson - D) - Pretty much the same, 58% black.
GA-05 (yellow, John Lewis - D) - Also pretty much the same, 57% black.
GA-06 (teal, Tom Price - R) - Here's where things get interesting. The Atlanta suburbs are expanding rapidly, and bringing with them (gasp) diversity. Of course, there's no way of really telling how the suburbs are changing, but I tried to even out GA-06, 07, and 11 as DRA posits the county growth. This one's 68% white.
GA-07 (grey, Rob Woodall - R) - Wasn't sure where this guy lives, so I guessed somewhere in Gwinnett County. The district loses its eastern edge but stretches north to compensate.
GA-08 (light purple, Austin Scott - R) - Conveniently, Scott lives in the southern end of the district, so I could lop the top off at Macon. Drops the black population from 33% to 28%.
GA-09 (sky blue, Tom Graves - R) - now an L-shape along the state's border; not a huge change.
GA-10 (magenta, Paul Broun - R) - Ridiculously-shaped in order to soak up both Athens and most of Augusta, but those cities are compensated for by the extremely-Republican parts in the north and western edge of the district.
GA-11 (light green, Phil Gingrey - R) - Becomes a much more suburban district. 68% white.
GA-12 (very light purple, John Barrow - D) - Tried to dislodge Barrow by reducing the black percentage. Excising much of the black belt portion of the district (and Augusta) and stretching the district northwest reduces the black population to 32%.
GA-13 (pink, David Scott - D) - Mostly unchanged, 52% black.
GA-14 (brown, open) - Created from parts of GA-03 and GA-08, it should be a pretty Republican seat. 67% white, 26% black.

Yeah, so the Atlanta suburbs are a ticking time bomb for the Republicans, but they can always re-redistrict whenever they become too inconvenient.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Bishop lives in Albany, which you split between the 2nd and 12th.

The problem with trying to make Barrow safer is that he's already vulnerable to a primary challenge; that black state Senator who raised no money got about 40% running against him last year. Heck, putting Macon in the district could cause Jim Marshall to run and split the white vote.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Yeah, I'm just saying, trying to get rid of Bishop by drawing him in with Barrow would probably backfire.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

9-4-1 Georgia map:

State



Atlanta



GA-01 (blue) - 64.1 McCain, 35.2 Obama. (Was 63-36 McCain)
GA-02 (green) - 62.1 Obama, 37.4 McCain, 52.0% black VAP. (Was 54-46 Obama)
GA-03 (purple) - 65.7 McCain, 33.3 Obama. (Was 64-35 McCain)
GA-04 (red) - 85.8 Obama, 13.5 McCain, 56.2% black VAP. (Was 79-21 Obama)
GA-05 (yellow) - 76.0 Obama, 23.1 McCain, 52.8% black VAP. (Was 79-20 Obama)
GA-06 (teal) - 60.9 McCain, 38.0 Obama. (Was 62-37 McCain)
GA-07 (grey) - 60.3 McCain, 38.7 Obama. (Was 60-39 McCain)
GA-08 (tan) - 62.9 McCain, 36.3 Obama. (Was 56-43 McCain)
GA-09 (sky blue) - 71.0 McCain, 27.6 Obama. (Was 75-24 McCain)
GA-10 (magenta) - 58.9 McCain, 40.0 Obama. (Was 61-38 McCain)
GA-11 (light green) - 67.6 McCain, 31.0 Obama. (Was 66-33 McCain)
GA-12 (light purple) - 49.7 Obama, 49.7 McCain, 36.7% black VAP. (Was 54-45 Obama)
GA-13 (pink) - 74.3 Obama, 25.1 McCain, 60.1% black VAP. (Was 71-28 McCain)
GA-14 (brown) - 71.1 McCain, 27.7 Obama.

GA-08 is now out of reach for the Democrats; I tried to maintain or strengthen the other Republican districts as much as possible, but GA-06 and GA-10 slip a little. And GA-12 is now only an Obama district by about 70 votes. It would be much easier if you could just remove Savannah from the district, but that would push Kingston's district up to about 55-45 McCain, and I doubt he'd like that.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

The authors of that paper seem to be mistaking "Democratic" for "liberal".

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Pretty sure Georgia is only gaining one seat. As I understand it, all the power brokers are from north Georgia, so I'm going to guess there. I drew a map a page or two back that stuck a new district in the northeastern corner of the state.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Early scuttlebutt: they're going after Barrow, but shoring up Bishop.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

I keep deviations under 1,000; if it's really low, good, but without the ability to split precincts, it seems pointless to worry about getting lower deviations than that.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

You'd probably need a Jim Marshall type to win GA-01; Barrow's current district has terrible black turnout in off-years, but it was an Obama district in 2008.