GOP Memo: Gerrymandering Won Us The House Majority

[Lakhota]

By SAHIL KAPUR

Call it a gaffe: a slip-up that accidentally reveals the truth.

A recent memo by the Republican State Leadership Committee emphasizes the party’s 2010 victories in state legislatures as central to the House GOP retaining its majority in the 2012 elections.

The reason? Redistricting — or more precisely, gerrymandering.

In the memo — titled “How a Strategy of Targeting State Legislative Races in 2010 Led to a Republican U.S. House Majority in 2013” — RSLC boasts that it “raised more than $30 million in 2009-2010, and invested $18 million after Labor Day 2010 alone” to ensure statehouse victories in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“The rationale was straightforward,” reads the memo. “Controlling the redistricting process in these states would have the greatest impact on determining how both state legislative and congressional district boundaries would be drawn. Drawing new district lines in states with the most redistricting activity presented the opportunity to solidify conservative policymaking at the state level and maintain a Republican stronghold in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next decade.”

The plan worked: even as they took a beating in the races for Senate and the White House, House Republicans ended up with a 33-seat majority, thanks to friendly district maps drawn by their own state colleagues. As the RSLC memo admits, “Democratic candidates for the U.S. House won 1.1 million more votes than their Republican opponents.”

Republicans who redrew the maps lopped off the Democratic parts of the states into ideologically concentrated blue districts and tipped the balance in most districts in their favor. The results were remarkable. In Pennsylvania, for instance, which President Obama carried by 5 points, Republicans won 13 of 18 House seats. In Ohio, which Obama won by 2 points, House GOP candidates won by a 12-4 margin.

More: GOP Memo: Gerrymandering Won Us The House Majority | TPMDC

REDMAP 2012 Summary Report

 

[OODA_Loop]

You don't have the votes in the House.

Think gun control will win you more in 2014 ?

 

[Stephanie]

You friggen posted this already, troll

 

[Lakhota]

Republicans Brag They Won House Majority Because Of Gerrymandering | ThinkProgress

 

[Mr. H.]

'tis you?

 

[tinydancer]

Is this a rerun?

Can't you come up with threads to tell us how well Obama is doing with the economy?

Or how well Obama's comment on "Israel doesn't know whats good for itself" went over in Israel?

Or how he's submitted a new budget and what's in it?

Or how wonderfully he's handling the hostage situation in Algeria?

 

[OKTexas]

The really great thing about this, it can't be changed until the next census, can you say 10 years of republican house majorities. That ought to piss off the commiecrats.

 

[Lakhota]

The really great thing about this, it can't be changed until the next census, can you say 10 years of house majorities. That ought to piss off the commiecrats.

Even with (or because of) all their crooked ways, I believe NaziCons will lose the House in 2014.

 

[Stephanie]

The really great thing about this, it can't be changed until the next census, can you say 10 years of house majorities. That ought to piss off the commiecrats.

Even with (or because of) all their crooked ways, I believe NaziCons will lose the House in 2014.

no one gives a shit about your crystal ball beliefs

 

[CrusaderFrank]

When Dems gerrymandered it was for the good of humanity...and the planet

 

[Stephanie]

When Dems gerrymandered it was for the good of humanity...and the planet

but of course, it was meant to be from the heavens above

 

[Sallow]

This is something done by both sides.

It needs to stop.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

This is something done by both sides.

It needs to stop.

...but only when it benefits Republicans

 

[Seawytch]

This is something done by both sides.

It needs to stop.

It is still done more by Republicans.

http://election.princeton.edu/2012/12/30/gerrymanders-part-1-busting-the-both-sides-do-it-myth/

 

[Defiant1]

Elections have consequences.

 

[g5000]

If only we didn't have that pesky 17th Amendment, the GOP would control the Senate, too!

 

[get_involved]

Thank goodness for gerrymandering!

 

[Glensather]

This is something done by both sides.

It needs to stop.

...but only when it benefits Republicans

No, it needs to stop when it benefits Dems too.
Rejiggering the system to benefit you seems like it should be against the law.

 

[Lakhota]

Gerrymanders, Part 1: Busting the both-sides-do-it myth

As current negotiations over the [fiscal cliff] / [austerity bomb] make clear, rank-and-file Republicans in the House of Representatives are not receptive to the policy implications of November’s election. As correctly pointed out by Nate Silver, members of Congress are increasingly insulated by the increasing polarization of their districts. Ever-larger victory margins reflect ever-safer re-election races.

However, Silver has also restated a common belief. He states that partisan gerrymandering is a symmetric problem, i.e. both Democrats and Republicans do it. Although both sides are potentially motivated, only one side has taken redistricting to extremes. Recent changes in partisan gerrymandering constitute one of the major crises facing our system of government (link to Mann/Ornstein book, a fellow Wonky winner).

More: Gerrymanders, Part 1: Busting the both-sides-do-it myth

 

[Lakhota]

Americans didn't intend to elect a Republican majority to the House of Representatives. Thanks to GOP-engineered redistricting, they did.

Now That's What I Call Gerrymandering! | Mother Jones