Little-Acorn
11-05-2010, 05:04 PM
The California state government has an Assembly with 80 seats, and a state Senate with 40 seats. Both houses are heavily Democrat, with a smaller number of Republicans in each. The entire Assembly is up for election every 2 years, and half the Senate is up for election every 2 years.
The state has been a real mess for the last several years. It's the most heavily indebted state in the union, with Democrats struggling to increase spending and taxes, and Republicans trying to resist any increases in either spending or taxes.
The interesting part?
This year, huge numbers of U.S. Govt seats changed parties nationally.
But not a single seat in either Calif state govt house, changed parties.
Not one.
That's the power of gerrymandering. The process where politicians draw their own voting districts, to take in this isolated groups of Dem-voting houses here while avoiding that group of Repub-voting houses over there, etc. It tends to produce voting districts that look like an insect splattered on a windshield.
With all the grief and complaining and accusations flying and the state teetering on the edge of bankruptcy... not one voting district thought that it might be a good idea to vote in the other party for a change.
NOT ONE.
The good news? Next year, the districts will be re-drawn, as they are after every decennial census. And this time, instead of the politicians themselves deciding who gets to vote for them, the re-drawing task will be turned over to an independent panel of judges and other such "nonpartisan" people. At least, we hope they are nonpartisan.
The state has been a real mess for the last several years. It's the most heavily indebted state in the union, with Democrats struggling to increase spending and taxes, and Republicans trying to resist any increases in either spending or taxes.
The interesting part?
This year, huge numbers of U.S. Govt seats changed parties nationally.
But not a single seat in either Calif state govt house, changed parties.
Not one.
That's the power of gerrymandering. The process where politicians draw their own voting districts, to take in this isolated groups of Dem-voting houses here while avoiding that group of Repub-voting houses over there, etc. It tends to produce voting districts that look like an insect splattered on a windshield.
With all the grief and complaining and accusations flying and the state teetering on the edge of bankruptcy... not one voting district thought that it might be a good idea to vote in the other party for a change.
NOT ONE.
The good news? Next year, the districts will be re-drawn, as they are after every decennial census. And this time, instead of the politicians themselves deciding who gets to vote for them, the re-drawing task will be turned over to an independent panel of judges and other such "nonpartisan" people. At least, we hope they are nonpartisan.