Gerrymandering the States

[TeePee4Prez]

Got an idea for South Jersey...

Take Bucks,Chester, Delaware, Montogmery, and Philadelphia Copnties, combine with South Jersey and New Castle Co Delaware and call it Delaware.

Rest of Delaware would be combined with the Eastern Shore of MD and the tiny part of Virginia and simply call it uhh....

[they don't love you like i love you]

The most partisan idea I can think of would simply be to make 49 states out of just NYC, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, and then make the rest of the country just one state.

But for a less blatant example, I'll have to think about it for awhile. I've actually considered this once, but I don't know how to make a map. But I do know the first thing I'd do is attach El Paso to New Mexico. I'll post some of the other things later.

[12th Doctor]

Okay, off the top off my head:
1 Reunite East and West Massachusetts! (49 states)
2 Unite New Hampshire and Vermont (48)
3 Long Island Statehood Now! (49)
4 THe remainder of New York City, as well as Westchester and Rockland Counties, is fused with North Jersey as New York State (50)
5 Upstate New York renamed, say, Iroquoia (still 50)
6 Not sure what I'll do with South Jersey yet...
7 When Michigan State was created, it did not include the UP, which was only added when Wisconsin Territory was organized (I think. The exact timeline may be wrong, but it was something like that.) Upper Michigan might easily have become a state of its own, in which case it would probably have more inhabitants, better infrastructure etc now. I'll hereby make it one, to be named Chippewa. (51)
8 Nebraska expanded to the boundaries of Douglas's NE Territory (49)
9 Ah yes, of course: South Jersey merged with Delaware and the Eastern Shore (48)
10 DC merged with Maryland (still 48)
11 Virginia reunited (46 - this includes Kentucky)
12 Carolinas united (44 - this includes Tennessee)
13 East and West Florida split (45). West Florida returned to former size (Coastal strips of Alabama and Mississippi and "Florida Parishes" of Louisiana added)
14 Eastern Oklahoma remains Indian Territory (still 45)
15 Texas split in five, based on Dallas, Houston, Austin/San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley and the Panhandle (49)
16 Wyoming fused with Montana (48)
17 Idaho is a fantasy word and will be renamed. (still 48)
18 Taylor's greater New Mexico of NM, AZ, CO and UT. (45)
19 Like Idaho, Washington will be renamed. (still 45)
20 California split in two. (46)
21 Alaska never purchased. (45)
22 Hawaii never annexed. (44)

Obviously, the point was not a partisan one...It's more an alternative version of what might have happened that is at points purposefully unrealistic but is not supposed to beimpossible.

Good job, you kinda went to the past though.  I was sorta talking about modern times.

[Blerpiez]

Here is a very partisan map


Here is a fairer map

[Schmitz in 1972]

Sounds like fun!

I would combine eastern Oregon and eastern Washington and have it be Oregon, and then combine western Oregon and western Washington and have it be Washington. This makes one heavily Republican state and one heavily Democratic state instead of two marginally Democratic states.

I would have Connecticut take in all of Rhode Island except the actual Rhode Island so as to eliminate the cruel irony of Rhode Island being mostly mainland.
What the heck, I'd just combine all of New England into one state, namely New England.

I would introduce East Dakota, West Dakota, and Central Dakota

I would take New York city and Long Island and dub it the State of Confusion. Sorry, couldn't resist!

I would add Las Vegas and Reno to California.

I would make my own county Henrico as State.

I would make DC officially part of Maryland and for that matter I'd make Delaware a part too!

I would take part of eastern Pennsylvania and declare it Old Jersey, either that or give it a cathcy name like Markervania, Chalkvania, or Crayonvania.

I would take the uninhabited northeast part of Alaska and declare it the State of Nothing

OK, this is starting to get rediculous, I'll stop now

[WMS]

But I do know the first thing I'd do is attach El Paso to New Mexico. I'll post some of the other things later.

Going off of that idea...move the following counties to Texas: Otero/Lincoln/Chaves/Eddy/Lea/DeBaca/Roosevelt/Curry/ Quay/Harding/Union...they're basically Far West Texas anyway. Or, take those counties and add them to the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles to create one new state. Put the rest of NM, including El Paso, in Arizona. NM actually wanted to be one state with Arizona, but Arizona voted it down...

[minionofmidas]

Most partisan gerrymander I can think off...
Declare every precinct of Macon Co. a state of the Union and keep everything else as unorganized territory!

[bullmoose88]

1) Take the 4 suburban counties around Philadelphia and the city itself, combine with South Jersey (Mercer and Atlantic counties included) with New Castle County Delaware to form the Commonwealth of Franklin.

2) Take Northeastern Pa from Lehigh and Northampton Counties on up and combine with Upstate New York. Add Erie in the west. This new state will be called New New York. >P

3) Take the 5 boroughs and the rest of the Island, combine with the interior suburbs (ie West Chester) and combine with North Jersey, and one county from extreme Southwestern Connecticut to form Old New York. :-p

4) Take Metro Pittsburgh and the suburbs and all counties in PA to the west, with Northern West Virginia and combine with Ohio. This state will be called Oh-Oh-Oh--OHIO.

5) Take the rest of PA and form the state of New Alabama.

6) Take the Eastern half of whats remaining of West Virginia and add it back to Virginia. Call this Virginia Now with Improved West Virginia.

7) Take Western West Virginia and add it to Kentucky. Just Call it Kentucky...I'm sure anyone could come up with a good name with this one.

Take the Upper Penninsula of Michigan and add it to Wisconsin. Call Wisconsin Wisconigan and call Michigan...Mich.

Going back down South...

9) Take the panhandle of florida and divide it along the alabama and Georgia borders and give to those states.
Call whats left of florida the State of Genitalia.

I'll get back to this later...if the forum doesn't collectively stone me...

Jeohavah!

Who Said that?

(I heart Monty Python)

[muon2]

I'm working on a master map at the county level including many of the fine suggestions so far. Geographical and cultural consideration are important as well as less spread in population from the largest to smallest.

I have some questions that go beyond my travels and experience. For instance in CA, what "state" should the Sacramento Valley go? Another way to ask is Chico more like Eureka, Merced, or Reno (all about the same distance)?

For the PA posters: I get the SE corner and west of the Susquehanna as separate entitites. Geographically, Reading and Allentown fit with Philly, Wilmington and South Jersey. What about Scranton? Is it more like central PA or central NY ( Altoona or Elmira ?)

[nclib]

Some ideas: (sorry if any of these were mentioned earlier)

1) Combine the Dakotas
2) Make a coastal state from San Fran to Wash. State
3) Expand West Virginia into eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia
4) Combine northeastern Ohio with western PA
5) Combine Central PA with Western and Central New York
6) Attach western Iowa onto Nebraska.
7) Give Mich.'s Upper Peninsula to Wisc.
Attach NH's western counties to Vermont
9) Create a state from eastern Texas, eastern Okla., northwestern Arkansas, and southwestern Missouri
10) Make south Florida a separate state
11) Attach Fla.'s western panhandle to Alabama

[nclib]

A useful site...

The 10 Regions of US Politics

http://www.massinc.org/commonwealth/new_map_exclusive/beyond_red_blue.html

[12th Doctor]

For the PA posters: I get the SE corner and west of the Susquehanna as separate entitites. Geographically, Reading and Allentown fit with Philly, Wilmington and South Jersey. What about Scranton? Is it more like central PA or central NY ( Altoona or Elmira ?)

Hard to say, I've never really been there myself for any long period of time.  Just an educated quess, I would have to say that it is probably more like Altoona, old manufacturing town, but probably are very culturally similar to Elmira.  Their accent and dialect is definatly more New Yorkish than Pittsburghese.

[nclib]

12 Carolinas united

Not quite...N.C. is much less culturally Southern than S.C.

[nclib]

5) Combine Central PA with Western and Central New York

Western Maryland could also be added to this.

[Josh/Devilman88]

NC is the most yankee state in the south, beside FL

[??????????]

NC is the most yankee state in the south, beside FL

Obviously you live in the rich/suburban area of NC. The area where my wifes family is from (Wilson) is very southern.

BTW, I live in the heart of Southern Comfort.

[Josh/Devilman88]

NC is the most yankee state in the south, beside FL

Obviously you live in the rich/suburban area of NC. The area where my wifes family is from (Wilson) is very southern.

BTW, I live in the heart of Southern Comfort.

I live in Greensboro or the Triad if you want to look at it that way...

[??????????]

NC is the most yankee state in the south, beside FL

Obviously you live in the rich/suburban area of NC. The area where my wifes family is from (Wilson) is very southern.

BTW, I live in the heart of Southern Comfort.

I live in Greensboro or the Triad if you want to look at it that way...

That's why. Go visit the areas east of Raleigh and south to Fayettville.

[Josh/Devilman88]

NC is the most yankee state in the south, beside FL

Obviously you live in the rich/suburban area of NC. The area where my wifes family is from (Wilson) is very southern.

BTW, I live in the heart of Southern Comfort.

I live in Greensboro or the Triad if you want to look at it that way...

That's why. Go visit the areas east of Raleigh and south to Fayettville.

Its nothing, but small towns and land... I have to be in the city

[minionofmidas]

Another idea: Make the states roughly equal! (If we keep 50 states, that's roughly 8,7 Districts per state.) That way, we'd eliminate the "small state advantage" by eliminating the small states. (Very useful if you want to know if Bush's base was indeed more spread out!)

So...
1) Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Western Massachusetts
2) Eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island
3) Connecticut, suburban Long Island
etc...

[muon2]

My map is almost ready ...

Here are some of the guidelines I used:

Cultural boundaries were established by the geography of J. Garreau's "Nine Nations of North America" (1981). Eight of his nations apply to the US. Hawaii is outside this, and remains a state unto itself.

Each of the national areas was divided into states by county. Each state has between 2.5 and 10 million residents. The two exceptions were for Hawaii (as mentioned above) and for Los Angeles which remained grouped with Ventura and Orange Counties. In creating the states I tried to keep metropolitan areas intact and use existing states where reasonable.

Hey, it's summertime. Enjoy.

[muon2]

The states of Ecotopia:

Puget (pop. 5.2 M) includes WA west of the Cascades and AK.

Oregon (pop. 2.8 M) includes OR west of the Cascades.

Pacifica (pop. 8.5 M) includes CA west of the Coast Ranges as far south as Santa Barbara.

Hawaii (pop. 1.2 M) includes HI.

[muon2]

The states of Mex-America:

San Joaquin (pop. 5.4 M) includes the CA San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys between the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada.

Santa Catalina (pop. 13.1 M) includes Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties.

Mojave (pop. 6.2 M) includes southern CA from San Bernadino to San Diego east to the Colorado River.

Arizona (pop. 4.5 M) includes AZ except the northern counties on the Colorado Plateau.

Upper Rio Grande (pop. 2.5 M) includes southern CO around Pueblo, central and western NM, and far west TX from El Paso to the Big Bend.

Lower Rio Grande (pop. 3.8 M) includes south TX from Del Rio to San Antonio to Corpus Christi and south to Mexico.

[muon2]

The states of the Empty Quarter:

Idaho (pop. 3.3 M) includes all of ID, and WA and OR east of the Cascades.

Nevada (pop. 3.2 M) includes all of NV, the Sierra Nevada in CA and northern AZ.

Utah (pop. 2.2 M) includes all of UT. (Yes, it's less than 2.5 M, but it's a rapidly growing state.)

Montana (pop. 5.4 M) includes all of MT and WY, and western CO to the Front Range including Denver and Colorado Springs.

[muon2]

The states of the Breadbasket:

Dakota (pop. 3.2 M) includes all of ND, SD, NE and northeastern CO.

Minnesota (pop. 5.0 M) includes all of MN.

Wisconsin (pop. 2.8 M) includes WI except for the south east from Green Bay through Milwaukee, and includes the Upper Peninsula of MI.

Iowa (pop. 2.9 M) includes all of IA.

Illinois (pop. 5.9 M) includes northern and central Illinois except the Chicago area, and northeast MO including St. Louis.

Kansas (pop. 4.2 M) includes all of KS, southeast CO, and northwest MO.

Central Texas (pop. 7.9 M) includes the area from Austin through Dallas/Fort Worth.

West Texas (pop. 3.8 M) includes West TX from San Angelo and Midland to Amarillo, eastern NM, and western and central OK.