Gerrymandering

Idaho’s redistricting budget at $100K

   BOISE (AP) — The state’s new redistricting commission has been advised $100,000 remains budgeted for the redrawing of Idaho’s political maps.

   The Spokesman-Review reports the Idaho Legislature set aside $424,000 for redistricting this year, but most of that money has been spent during a previous redistricting effort, in which members failed to reach an agreement after 90 days of meetings.

   Idaho’s new redistricting panel started meeting Wednesday.

   The newly formed commission has been cautioned that if they also deliberate for three months, the cost of technical and administrative support alone could eat up more than half of the remaining $100,000 in Idaho’s redistricting budget.

   Legislative Services Director Jeff Youtz says the money should be enough to get the job done, but if necessary, his office can request more spending authority.


Every time I see something like this, I think of my Political Science class at BSU.  Gerrymandering was the subject and here's what it is basically:

In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; however, that word can also refer to the process.

Gerrymandering may be used to achieve desired electoral results for a particular party, or may be used to help or hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group.

When used to allege that a given party is gaining disproportionate power, the term gerrymandering has negative connotations. However, a gerrymander may also be used for purposes that some perceive as positive, such as in US federal voting district boundaries that produce a majority of constituents representative of African-American or other racial minorities (these are thus called "minority-majority districts").

The benefits of gerrymandering are obvious.  If you are a republican, you want to draw lines that will incorporate more Republicans into a voting block.  If you are Democrat...ditto.  I never trust anyone who wants to 'change' and redraw political maps and neither should you.

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