Bill Thomas ran in the Republican primary to become a representative of the voters in the 8th Congressional District of Maryland. After recuperating from the bruises inflicted by two other Republican pachyderms, he took the high road and wrote an article for the Washington Post Magazine of December 5, 2010, in which he describes his experience.
Candidate for Congress Bill Thomas Describes How Politicians Choose Voters
It was his first try for public office, and he lost after a spirited, eye-opening campaign. In his article, he shares how the experience affected him and what he learned. The following account describes the impact of congressional redistricting every ten years on US politics:
“The 8th Congressional District in Maryland . . . is a carefully crafted inkblot. Voters only think they choose elected officials, but it’s elected officials who choose them . . .
“It happens every ten years, following the national census, when state legislatures adjust the boundaries of voting districts to conform to population changes . . . “
“The real goal, though, is to repackage constituents in ways designed to benefit the party in power. . . .”
Apportionment Update and Redistricting of House Happens Every Ten Years in US
The constitutional requirement to adjust or redistrict the states after the census is mandated by the US Constitution for the purpose of keeping the “one citizen, one vote” doctrine up to date, as the population of the US grows.
There are currently 435 members of the US House of Representatives. That number is not a constant, since Congress alters it every so often. The last time was in 1911.
The number of seats in Congress is divided into the total population of the US, to calculate as closely as possible a uniform number of voters in each congressional district. This in turn establishes the number of representatives each state is entitled to send to Washington. A state can send one for each district, and each state is guaranteed at least one representative.
How Apportionment and Redistricting Is Conducted
The current estimated population of the US is 310,911,384, according to the US Census Bureau population clock. Were that to become the official apportionment population for 2010, when divided by 435 house members, the quotient of approximately 715,000 would become the number of citizens allocated to each congressional district nationally.
Politicians in the US have managed to affect the political makeup of the US House of Representatives, by using the required geographic changes in the population to achieve personal political goals. This practice is called "gerrymandering"; this is when electoral boundaries are manipulated for political gain, by employing techniques and strategies to create partisan, incumbent-protected and neutral districts.
Whether a state grows or shrinks, every ten years a census might set off a scramble to redraw its districts. By December 31, in the year after the census, the US Census Bureau notifies state legislatures affected, and serious skirmishes begin. The process is carried out by a state legislature, a governor, a commission, or both, in certain states.
Voters Rights Act and Amendments Have Only Reduced Gerrymandering
Tim Storey, a member of the conference of state legislatures, suggests past excesses have been toned down considerably by the Voters Rights Act, as amended, as well as Supreme Court Decisions. Under law, every redistricting is “pre-cleared” or examined by the Department of Justice or United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
According to Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research Inc., states and judicial checkers expect the following traditional tenets in a proper redistricting:
- Maintaining communities of interest
- Using identifiable geographic boundaries
- Drawing election districts that are compact and contiguous
- Basing the new plan on existing districts to the extent possible
- Keeping incumbent elected officials in their own districts
- Using existing voting precincts when possible.
Midterm Success and Redistricting Favors GOP in 2012 Forward
Jessica Rettig suggests in U.S. News & World Report online of Nov. 19, 2010 that the GOP will add to the sizable gains made in the midterm elections of 2010. Furthermore, she says the party is well positioned to use the redistricting process to solidify their House majority in 2012 and beyond.
In Congressional Districts, Ms. Rettig asserts Republicans will control 193 seats at a minimum, from redrawing 16 states, while Democrats will oversee redrawing 44 districts in six states. Of the remaining states, 13 are even in terms of redistricting control. Including California, six will have their congressional maps drawn by independent commissions; seven have only one House member and so no district lines to draw; and two are uncertain, pending control of the New York Senate and the outcome of the Minnesota governor's race.
Census Bureau's Precise Apportionment Can End Up a Politician's Jigsaw Puzzle
Candidate Bill Thomas would like to have won the seat for the 8th District of Maryland. Furthermore, although the “inkblot” his district resembles on a map might rankle him slightly, he seems to discern the paradox of this decennial process.
It is that while the precise apportionment formula used by the US Census Bureau, called the “method of equal proportions,” is intended to minimize the differences in establishing the sizes of Congressional Districts, fired-up state politicians who often implement distort redistricting by shifting voters like marbles into scrabbled congressional districts to maximize a party’s political power.
Howard Bryan Bonham - Howard Bryan Bonham is a former daily newspaper editor and award-winning financial writer.
