Gerrymandering dates back to the beginning of politics in America. James Madison (F, 5th VA) had his district re-drawn by Patrick Henry (that scoundrel) in order to place a Anti-Federalist in Congress. The redistricting caused Madison to run against good friend and future President James Monroe (AF, 5th VA) in the only Congressional race to ever pit two future Presidents against each other. Gerrymandering has accounted for houses being divided in two and districts that follow dirt roads to connect cities, but it is not all bad. It would be easy to throw your hands up denouncing gerrymandering on the grounds that it creates problems for elected official trying to relate to constituents,it leads to misrepresenting of interests, and increased expenses for those in office but there is a silver lining to it all. I personally have spoken out against gerrymandering when my guy lost (http://fairtopartlymoderate.blogspot.com/2011/11/you-win-some-you-lose-some.html) but I have to admit I get more than a little excited to see competitive races. To be fair, I am going to provide my reasons for both hating gerrymandering and loving it at the same time
My distaste for gerrymandering stem from my notions of local government, or at least those from my area governing me. I feel it imperative that someone similar to me represent me in government. If my district were to be represented by someone from a rather large city that has industry, large capitol interests, and say a university, and I lived in a non-urban, poor, uneducated area, I would feel as though I was not being represented. Our very country was founded on the notions that no longer would some elite, landed gentry represent poor, tenant farmers in Parliment, so why would we stand for it today? Districts are often redrawn to add conflicting demographics to a district (ie adding a large city to the farming districts that sit on the far outskirts or adding a university to a industrialized city). This leads to infighting amongst those is the district, which is the ultimate goal of the party that did the redrawing, but compounds the distrust of those in the district.
In addition to the strange districts created by gerrymandering, it does prove to be difficult for representatives to relate to those they represent. Understandably it should be an easy jump for someone who represents a strictly rural area to represent a new district that might contain a small town with a college, but often redistricting leads to much more drastic changes. The strain put on a big city Democrat to attract non-urban farmers is exactly the aim of North Carolina Republicans, just the same as the difficulties faced by a traditional farming Republican might see trying to represent The University Of Virginia might be the aim of Virginia Democrats.
My favorite aspect of gerrymandering is when it backfires. A prime example is the 10th District of North Carolina. Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry has caused nothing by a stink in Congress with his "two-bit security guard" remarks, and not being able to keep a schedule, and now (thanks to Republican redistricting) faces a serious Democratic candidate in Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy. The district had been re-drawn to take votes away from former UT standout Heath Shuler, but now endangers McHenry. McHenry seems to be more likely to get the book that Shuler due Shuler's popularity and consistent voting record.
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| Patrick McHenry |
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| Ward Armstrong |
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