4 ms·

My favorite example is Illinois' 4th Congressional district[1]. But: there can be positive outcomes to such gerrymandering. Chicago is very strongly majority

by 3JPLW 14y ago

My favorite example is Illinois' 4th Congressional district[1]. But: there can be positive outcomes to such gerrymandering. Chicago is very strongly majority democratic. Splitting the city with straight lines would not change this. All of the congressional districts that include the city are already held by democratic incumbents. But this funny shaped district connects the two large latino neighborhoods: predominantly Puerto Rican in the North and Mexican in the South. And as such, Luis Gutiérrez has represented the district since 1993, when the district was defined as such. He was the first Latino to be elected to the House from the midwest. More information on the general 4th district wikipedia page[3]. 1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/IL04_109.gif https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/IL04_109... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Guti%C3%A9rrez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Guti%C3%A9rrez 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%27s_4th_congressional_district https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%27s_4th_congressional...

ccleve 14y ago
Just curious: who are you? I'm also a Chicago software developer political type. And I was involved in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 4th CD in the 90s.
frozenport 14y ago
Its not immediately clear disproportional representation is a positive outcome.
- mjn 14y ago
  It's closer to proportional rather than disproportional representation in this case. Latinos make up about 30% of Chicago's population, but they're spread out so they wouldn't form a majority of any single compact district, so wouldn't be able, as a community (if indeed it's a coherent community), to send a representative to Washington to represent their views. However, if you connect demographically similar areas, then the community gets representation closer to their actual share of the population. Of course, we could just use proportional representation outright and achieve a similar result, or elect candidates from multi-member districts and a slate of candidates (e.g. put all of Chicago in one district, and elect the top 4 candidates). But that's a more radical reform that's less likely to happen.
  - frozenport 14y ago
    This brings up an interesting question. What would happen if the US was redistricted. Would 51% of every district be white people?

by 3JPLW 14y ago

ccleve 14y ago

Just curious: who are you? I'm also a Chicago software developer political type. And I was involved in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 4th CD in the 90s.

frozenport 14y ago

Its not immediately clear disproportional representation is a positive outcome.

mjn 14y ago
It's closer to proportional rather than disproportional representation in this case. Latinos make up about 30% of Chicago's population, but they're spread out so they wouldn't form a majority of any single compact district, so wouldn't be able, as a community (if indeed it's a coherent community), to send a representative to Washington to represent their views. However, if you connect demographically similar areas, then the community gets representation closer to their actual share of the population. Of course, we could just use proportional representation outright and achieve a similar result, or elect candidates from multi-member districts and a slate of candidates (e.g. put all of Chicago in one district, and elect the top 4 candidates). But that's a more radical reform that's less likely to happen.
- frozenport 14y ago
  This brings up an interesting question. What would happen if the US was redistricted. Would 51% of every district be white people?