October 26, 2018

Want to Fight Gerrymandering? These Are the Races to Watch

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/what-is-gerrymandering-747094/?fbclid=IwAR2tjulxhy1rrTpxmutk3lAYwgD4VKQPLS3ijyZJRirfzB6nLjco_GPe5Is
"Until recently, Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district in the southeast corner of the state summed up the insanity of partisan gerrymandering in the United States. The district was a monstrosity, a Rorschach inkblot that stretched from the Republican-leaning suburbs of Philadelphia out into farm and Amish country. One political scientist looked at its winding, jagged lines and saw “Donald Duck kicking Goofy.” The mangled district was cooked up by the Republican-controlled legislature and the state’s Republican governor when they redrew Pennsylvania’s congressional map after the 2010 census. The result? Republicans went from holding seven out of 19 of the state’s House of Representatives seats to a whopping 13. (The state lost one seat after the census.) A political analyst called it “the gerrymander of the decade.” Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court struck down Pennsylvania’s epic gerrymander and declared that a new map must be drawn. This time, however, when the GOP-led legislature came back with yet another nakedly partisan map, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed it. In the end, the state supreme court released its own map, one with clear lines and more competitive districts. Pennsylvania’s democracy was restored — at least for now. On November 6th, voters across the country will have their chance to cast ballots in gubernatorial races that could similarly begin to reverse the effects of gerrymandering. There are 36 races for governor this year — races that, in many cases, have gotten far less attention than those for House or Senate. But on the issue of gerrymandering, governors play a decisive role not just in shaping the future of their states but determining the composition of House of Representatives, approving or blocking congressional maps skewed in favor of one political party."