Who’s this Guy ‘Gerry’?

To The Editor:
Elbridge Gerry, one-time governor of Massachusetts, drew voting district lines for that state in 1812. He consolidated Federalist voters to give his party favorable election outcomes. In doing so, he so contorted the voting districts boundary lines that the constituents ridiculed his effort by naming a particularly mangled district, that resembled a salamander, a “Gerrymander.” Thus began the tangled, troubled and controversial history of “gerrymandering” throughout all states.
Every 10 years, as mandated by Constitution, an “enumeration” of population “shall be accomplished for the purpose of apportioning members of the Congress…” That task rests under the aegis of the Census Bureau. The bureau’s decennial effort is used for many purposes, but, by far the most important is determination of population to fix representation in Congress and, in most cases, individual state legislatures.
A simple enough effort? Turns out to be a very sticky wicket.
Most states, New Jersey included, use the numbers generated by the Census Bureau to redistrict. Every 10 years, numbers are generated and during the following year a commission meets to determine if any boundaries need adjusting to accommodate population growth and/or shifts.
Again…seems simple enough – a mere mathematical maneuver and a geographic line is moved a little to the east or a little to the west, a little north a little, south. Ah yes, if only life were so sublime. If Mr. Shakespeare will forgive: “What tangled lines we weave when political power must be achieved.”
The final redistricting decision is almost always left to the party in power. In most states a group representing each party, say five Democrats and five Republicans, studies the issue for months and comes up with two solutions, both of which fail to move by votes of five to five. Quel surprise! Then the party in charge appoints a neutral arbitrator who always approves the party in power’s plan, enabling that party a leg up on maintaining power for the next 10 years.
A great deal of effort does go into the study. Each side hires experts and professionals who try to game the system to maximum advantage. Experts pour over demographics, population projections, voter registration, past election results etc., to make informed recommendations. The end product is transfer of cities and often neighborhoods, to different districts which will tilt the voting results in a more favorable manner to those in power.
During the study Democrats tend to place a higher weighted value on registration, it appears, while Republicans place a higher weighted value on election results. Democrats standing by their mantra of a “large tent” welcoming all, while Republicans have strived for a purer and purer voter who always stays the course of “true” conservatism.
Texas succeeded in gerrymandering so efficiently that they have not elected a Democrat to statewide office in over 20 years. That is at first glance a real head scratcher, considering the large minority and Hispanic populations. The results of gerrymandering have left some Texas districts looking like barbells with two large areas miles apart connected with a skinny 1,000-foot-wide, mile-long area, obviously meant to include/exclude certain population groups.
But Texas has taken it a step further. If election results from a particular neighborhood showed any waver from “true” path, that neighborhood might get shifted out of the preferred pure group. Imagine this scenario occurring:
“I want this house moved out.”
“But sir, this family has always been faithful to our cause, voting the straight Republican ticket year in and year out.”
“Not so. The old man once placed a Roosevelt sticker on his car back in ‘44 They’re out.”
The accumulating result is systematic removal of moderate Republicans from some districts. This leaves purists’ free hands in “cleansed” districts to nominate, as Republican Sen. John McCain calls them, “wacko birds.” The problem becomes apparent when these representatives come to the national stage in Washington and are exposed as uncompromising, arrogant, ignorant and universally unlikable.
All of the deeply Red states are suffering from attempts at this political “cleansing” that creates havoc for moderate and right leaning Republicans, who, in point of fact and ironically, make up the majority of the party, but, who also appear unable or unwilling to counter the problem.
And that problem was never made more evident than last month’s useless, wasteful and nationwide grossly unpopular, government shut-down.