Can you say Gerrymander?

The GOP proposed congressional district maps and state legislative maps for Michigan have now been officially released. The GOP controlled state House and Senate have said they plan to get the maps approved by July 1st, ready for the GOP governor to sign. The Dems are crying foul, saying the congressional map (at least) is unsupportable and that the whole process is moving too fast, not allowing for public feedback. Dems will contest it. And the first stop is the GOP controlled Supremes. The GOP map drawers say that because of state and federal laws it, by golly, just has to be drawn this way.

Here's a link to the congressional map. I can't say much about the way the state as a whole was carved up. However, the Detroit Metro map on page 3 shows the gerrymandering. Michigan must have two districts where the minority black population is a majority in those districts. So, of course, Detroit is split in two, districts 13 and 14. But what a split! District 14 is the southern edge of Detroit, the rich Grosse Pointes, the northern edge of Detroit, then a spiral through Southfield (also high percentage of blacks), Farmington Hills (but not Farmington), parts of West Bloomfield, Orchard Lake, and Pontiac (also high percentage of blacks). I say spiral because District 11, which includes Livonia and Farmington, wraps around District 14 to include Auburn Hills, a bit of Rochester Hills, Troy, Birmingham, and Bloomfield Hills. But that's not all. District 9 includes Bloomfield Township, which is between Bloomfield Hills and Pontiac. The whole thing creates a triple spiral. I'll let you look at the map.

One reason for doing that is to make sure Sander Levin (District 9, Royal Oak) is pitted against fellow Dem Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township. Since Michigan lost a district two incumbents will have to face off. The Detroit Free Press notes that Peters would only have to move a mile to switch districts -- where he could take on GOP Thaddeus McCotter, who is currently my Representative (though he is doing a thorough job of not representing me). The Freep thinks Peters might even beat McCotter even though the district is designed to be GOP majority. This link contains links to state legislature maps.

I would be shifted to District 13, which includes the middle of Detroit and wraps around Dearborn. I'm sure this would be a solidly Dem district (and black majority) which is fine with me. I'm tired of being represented by a GOP bigot.

Wikipedia has an excellent article on the term gerrymander. Under the heading Effects of Gerrymandering there is an example that shows three different ways a state could be cut into districts. One way closely matches party affiliation state-wide, the other two favor one party or the other. Another section discusses packing -- putting as much of one party affiliation into one district as possible so that other districts go to the other party -- and cracking -- spreading one party affiliation out in several districts where it has a majority in none.

There is also a discussion of the effects of redistricting, including:

* Districts become less competitive because each seat is "safe", leading to voter apathy.

* Incumbents have increased advantage (which is pretty high already).

* Gerrymandering maximizes "wasted" votes. No matter how many times I voted against McCotter over the last decade he still won and still didn't represent me. With so many wasted votes the representatives no longer reflect the desires of the general population.

Some countries and even some American states have done away with gerrymandering. However, for most of the country one party or the other doesn't want to give up the political gains gerrymandering offers and would block any effort at reform.