About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2011)
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BERNSTEIN FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATION SERVICES 3195 Atlanta Highway I Athens, GA 30606 I 706-543-7373 u’U'U’.BcmstemFunera/J fome.com THE MAGIC OF REDISTRICTING Georgia legislators have returned to Atlanta this week for a chore they must handle only once or twice every decade: redistricting. This is the process by which the boundar ies of Georgia's legislative and congressional districts are redrawn so that each district con tains more or less the same number of people and reflects the population shifts recorded in the most recent census. The process is important because it will have a huge influ ence over the political outcomes of the next 10 years. Redistricting is the process by which the party controlling the Legislature (the Republicans) maximizes its political strength at the expense of the minor ity party (currently the Democrats). Ten years ago, Democrats controlled the General Assembly and were trying to hang on to power in a state that was obvi ously trending Republican. They drew maps with weirdly shaped districts that packed as many Republicans as possible into as few districts as possible. Georgia voters showed a prefer ence for Republicans in the 2002 elections, as indicated by the results of the two races at the top of the ballot. They elected Republican Sonny Perdue as governor with 51 percent of the vote and Saxby Chambliss as senator with nearly 53 percent of the vote. In the 2002 legislative races, where Democrats stacked the odds in their favor through the redistricting maps they had drawn, Democrats won 30 of the 56 Senate seats and 108 of the 180 House seats. That's how the redistricting process can be a power ful political topi. Those Democratic maps were so egregiously drawn that a panel of federal court judges threw them out in 2004 and sub stituted politically neutral districts. In this redistricting round. Republicans control the Legislature and are drawing the maps. Like the Democrats, they have the abil ity to use those maps to bolster their political power beyond the preferences of individual voters. Georgia is a predominantly Republican state, but more than 40 percent of its vot ers still choose Democrats. In the 2008 presidential election, 47 percent of the state's voters cast their ballots for Democratic can didate Barack Obama. In the 2010 election, Democrats running for statewide constitu tional offices were all defeated, but they drew 42 or 43 percent of the vote. Redistricting maps that reflected the preferences of the state's voters would leave you with a congressional delegation, a state Senate and a state House of Representatives that tilted 60-40 in favor of Republicans. Republicans have drawn a con gressional map in which 10 of the 14 U.S. House districts will have Republican majorities strong enough to elect a GOP candidate. Fewer than one-third of the con gressional districts will be com petitive for Democrats, and each of those districts will probably be won by an African-American candidate. The plan for the state Senate could result in Republicans controlling more than two- thirds of the seats for a 38-18 advantage. Similar results are expected in the map drawn for the state House. GOP consultant Mark Rountree estimated that 121 of the state House districts, which is more than two-thirds of the 180 seats, will be Republican-leaning districts. The Republicans may have built a two-thirds majority for passing any consti tutional amendment they desire, since they will be in a strong position to win nearly 70 percent of the seats in the General Assembly. That is the magic of redistricting. Tom Crawford tcrawford@gareporls.com Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report, an Internet news service at gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia. THIS MMhRM W*RL» by TOM TOMORROW I Ik* story of... Tea Party Tim... ...and Plutocrat Pete! two years ago: an UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP IS BORN.' But more recently-- ■ and then-- WE CANT LET THEM RAISE THE DEBT CEILING.* WE'VE GOT TOO MUCH DEBT ALREADY! RIGHT, NEXT TIME WE'LL FORCE 'EM TO DEFAULT! IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO GET SPENDING UNDER CONTROL* I THOUGHT YOUR UNIN FORMED OUTRAGE WOULD BE USEFUL IN MY ETER NAL STRUGGLE TO AVOID TAXATION* X DIDN'T REALIZE YOU WERE A NIHILISTIC MORON WILL ING TO CRASH THE ENTIRE ECONOMY IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, I'VE GOT TO GO TRANSFER some assets into u.s. TREASURY BONDS—WHERE THEY'LL BE SAFE! 6 FLAGP0LE.COM AUGUST 17, 2011 'foM 'f*M»RRoW©20ll ...www.thlsmodemwoiid.com
