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Please forgive another midsummer flashback, but the
current reapportionment spate returns me to the dawn of
computer-driven redistricting. I was working at UGA's Institute
of Government when it came time to reapportion Georgia's
congressional and legislative districts. I fooled around with
it for a while, moving lines on a map, subtracting and adding
the resulting population shifts, becoming acutely aware how
difficult it is to assemble such a large puzzle with an equitable j
result and make it come out even.
Across campus, political scientists Del Dunn and Keith
Billingsley had both the knowledge of reapportionment and a
new computer program to do it, but they didn't have the offi
cial legislative numbers and maps, kind of like the expert who
knows 15 different ways to make love but doesn't know any
girls.
My work took me frequently to Atlanta and the Capitol, and
one day, due to some automotive malfunction, I had gone over
on the bus and dropped by the office of Frank Edwards, legisla
tive counsel to the Georgia General Assembly, an old friend.
Frank was complaining that he was under the gun to come up
with a reapportionment plan for the legislature to look at, but
it was a political hot potato, because the House had to be
reduced from 195 to 180 seats, and he didn't know where to
turn to get the job done. He had the numbers and the maps
but didn’t know whether he should turn them over to the uni
versity. I assured him that Del and Keith were the real thing,
and Frank handed me the roll of maps and printouts. When I
mentioned that I hoped I could get them all back to Athens on
the bus, Frank called the Georgia State Patrol, and soon I was
speeding east in the front seat of a big Ford, marveling at how
government works from the
inside.
Del and Keith took
Frank's data and in short
order, Georgia had moved
into the information age
with its redistricting. The
main problem was drawing
districts that didn't discriminate against black voters so much
that the U.S. Department of Justice would veto them. That's
still a consideration, but the main thrust of reapportionment
today is disenfranchising the minority party. Having had that
weapon used against them when the Democrats were in the
ascendancy, Republicans now can't get enough of drawing lines j
to make it ever more difficult for Democrats to get elected.
They're in such command statewide, though, that in their
push to clinch an absolute majority, they're going to have to
be careful not to bump into each other while disenfranchis
ing Democrats. Even in the minority. Democrats proved to
be such a nuisance in the recently concluded election in our
113th District, that the state Republicans had to pour money
and personnel into the fight to be sure that Democrat Dan
Matthews was defeated.
The main reapportionment job around here this time is
for the Republicans to take the presently heavily Democratic
District 115 and redraw it so that their new Soul Brother #1
Doug McKillip (recently our leading progressive Democrat) can
get re-elected. This means moving out a bunch of Democrats
and moving in a bunch of Republicans. But where do they park
those Democrats? If they shunt them over to the adjacent
District 113, that just increases the Democratic nuisance fac
tor out there. Best thing they can do is move those Dems into
Keith Heard's District 114, already heavily Democratic, but that
means bumping other Democrats into another district, and the
Justice Department will be keeping an eye on Heard's district.
The Republicans are also trying to re-draw our local Athens-
Clarke County commission districts to achieve more Republican
representation in the government that they insisted on mak
ing non-partisan. Go figure—and I assure you they have. One
just knew that when in the last election areas like District
5 went so heavily for the more liberal of the commission
and mayoral candidates, they marked themselves for retali
ation. The Republicans want to erase the blue dot, and they
have deployed the same computer software that they use to
re-do the legislature. Republicans have targeted Athens like a
Pakistani village in a Hellfire missile strike. Will there be any
blowback?
Pete McCommons editor@flagpole.com
Republicans have
targeted Athens like a
Pakistani village in a
Hellfire missile strike.
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A look at a couple of topics of current interest: Rutherford Hall and local legislative redistricting.
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The Reader 11
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