She's Not There (RIP, Molly)
My cat Molly, whom I have had since I was almost 7 years old, passed away eight days ago. Only now am I taking the effort to blog here about it. She has been ill for more than two weeks now with...
View ArticleGood news, everyone. Plouffe to replace Axelrod.
No, really! I know everyone is down lately, so let me inject some positive news that will help you feel more hopeful about the future of the White House. Senior adviser David Axelrod is heading back...
View ArticleVictory in Indiana: Democrats On Way Home After Winning Key Concessions
Today, a standoff that has lasted for five weeks between Democrats and Republicans in the Indiana State House has finally reached a satisfactory resolution. Democrats have continuously denied...
View ArticleJudge Sumi to Wisconsin GOP: Union-Busting Bill is Enjoined (Updated with...
This just in from the ongoing hearings over the terms of Judge Maryann Sumi's Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Wisconsin state government. Per the Twittter page of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO,...
View ArticleJudge Sumi: Wisconsin Law NOT Published and NOT in Effect (UPDATE:...
This morning, at 8:15 AM, Judge Maryann Sumi issued an amended Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) further clarifying that the anti-union Wisconsin Act 10 is, until a higher court rules otherwise,...
View ArticleNikki Haley's Slash-and-Burn Agenda Rebuked by State Legislature
Remember Nikki Haley? The Mark Sanford acolyte that cobbled together a victory in a rather intense primary who then went on to almost lose to State Senator Vincent Sheheen last November in South...
View ArticleMy First Redistricting: Massachusetts State Senate (Updated)
It's done! My first completed map using Dave's Redistricting App (DRA). It took me two evenings to complete it and some confusion, but it's done.For my first map, I decided to do the Massachusetts...
View ArticleRed, White, and Blue: West Virginia Redistricting
Well, I'm back with another round of redistricting ideas. I know my first foray was sucky, but this time I've come back with better form. I've started anew.Anyway, this time I'll be doing a...
View ArticleBluegrass Blues: Redistricting Kentucky
With my doing a good job on redistricting West Virginia, I decided to go more out of my comfort zone and do redistricting of a state that has split counties but isn't too big, either. Also, it had to...
View ArticleKentucky and West Virginia Redistricting Revisited
In my last diary, I attempted to draw a third Congressional seat Democrats can win in Kentucky without bothering any incumbents. I decided to make the Dem seat the 1st district, which is based in...
View ArticleMy Final West Virginia Redistricting Map (Updated: First Official Draft Out)
After taking some suggestions in my previous diary, I have decided to go back to my last West Virginia Congressional map and make what is to be my magnum opus on the matter. It is also probably the...
View ArticleNew Jersey Redistricting (Commission Theoretical)
Hi, everyone. This time, I went further outside my comfort zone and redistricted my home of New Jersey as a commission might do it. New Jersey has a bipartisan redistricting commission that usually...
View ArticleWhy the IL GOP Case is Doomed to Fail
Note: User Roguemapper provided me with invaluable advice on this diary and deserves no less credit than myself.The Illinois Republican Party is fighting the passed and signedDemocraticgerrymander of...
View ArticleNevada Democratic Gerrymander Bonanza
Nevada is gaining a fourth seat in redistricting due to explosive urban growth over the decade. They have a Democratic Senate and Assembly, but a Republican Governor. The Governor vetoed every map...
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Nevada Redistricting: How the court may do it
The other day I released a diary showing a Democratic gerrymander of Nevada. In order to achieve a solid 3D-1R configuration, I had to draw the Reno district down to South Las Vegas. Then this...
View ArticleOnly a Northern Song: Redistricting Upstate New York
For my next foray into redistricting, I decided to map upstate New York, an area that will lose one seat. The seat I removed was accidental Congresswoman Buerkle's seat. All seats have been...
View ArticlePresident Obama to Drastically Withdraw Troops from Iraq
I know that few people discuss the Iraq War anymore, but this is big. According to Fox News (I'll be quoting from Politicalwire), the President, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed...
View ArticleGood News Everyone: GOP Will Not Rebut Obama's Speech
Once again, I have an excuse to embed this video:And yes, you read that right. The GOP will NOT have an official rebuttal to Obama's Thursday speech. For once, we won't have to hear some guy get the...
View ArticleGettin' Lucky in Kentucky: Fantasy Democratic Gerrmyander (Updated)
Once again, I would like to post a map I drew of Kentucky's Congressional districts, but first a bit of backstory. Back in 1991, Kentucky Democrats drew a map they thought would give them 4 out of 6...
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United We Stand: Kentucky State Senate Redistricting
In Kentucky, Republicans have held a majority in the State Senate since the 1998 elections. As such, Republicans had a voice in the 2001-2002 redistricting process. Then-Speaker Jody Richards...
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Unbridled Spirit: Democratic Kentucky State Senate Map
Last time, I did a diary depicting a relatively fair map for the Kentucky State Senate. Then, I went and drew a State Senate map that would favor Democrats. It was relatively easy to do as I merely...
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Rise of the Rose: French Socialists take the Senate (Updated with Final Numbers)
Today, for the first time since 1958 (when the Fifth Republic was founded), the Senate of France has slipped from the hands of the right-leaning bloc (currently controlled by the UMP). The victors are...
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ME-Redistricting: Maine GOP Concedes to Fairer Map
Despite the fact that it looked like Republicans in the state legislature were going to pass a partisan map by a simple majority, an 11th hour deal was struck with legislative Democrats. The map they...
View ArticleMy Attempt at a Democratic Gerrymander of Maryland
I know a lot of people have been doing maps of Maryland since that one map was leaked out, but I wanted to try my hand at one anyway. I wanted to draw a map that would turn Rep. Bartlett's district...
View ArticleWake County School Board Election Results: Dems Dominate (Updated with PPP Poll)
North Carolina's Wake County School Board has had a 5-4 Republican majority since low-turnout races in 2009 unseated some Democrats. Republican Ron Margiotta was then named chairman and he has not...
View ArticleTexas State Senate Interim Map (Updated with proposed changes)
As we all know, the Congressional, State House, and State Senate districts are going to be court-drawn for the decade thanks to the greed of the TX GOP getting the better of them. As it stands now,...
View ArticleShow Me Something: Missouri State Senate Redistricting
Unlike Congressional redistricting, state legislative redistricting is not in the hands of the legislature in Missouri. Rather, it is done by two bipartisan committees, one for each chamber. However,...
View ArticleA Much Fairer Florida Congressional Map
Well, I saw the Florida Congressional map released in the State Senate committee. At first blush, it was horrendous as it bends over backwards to keep all three Hispanic-majority seats as Republican...
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2011 NJ State Legislative Races: Maps and Analysis
As DKE's most active New Jerseyan, I have put it upon myself to draw up the 2011 legislative district map and analyze 2011 races. Using the Apportionment Commission's official map, I drew up my own...
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The First Gerrymander
In early 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts signed a redistricting plan for the state that benefited the Democratic-Republican Party. Although the state voted for the Federalist Party more...
View ArticleA Fair North Jersey Congressional District
...or how to remove the worst NJ Congressman. The one who replaced Marge Roukema.Since it seems that redistricting here in New Jersey may pit Congressmen Scott Garrett (R-05) of Wantage and Steve...
View ArticleTN-Redistricting: Jim Cooper's Worst Nightmare?
Since redistricting in Tennessee is all but set in stone, I decided to try something out. Despite making noises last year of splitting Nashville 2-3 ways to hurt Rep. Jim Cooper of Nashville (D-05),...
View ArticleDemocratic Gerrymander of Connecticut
Redistricting in CT is all but concluded. Although Democrats control the Governorship and both houses of the state legislature, they cannot draw their own Congressional map without 2/3rds vote...
View ArticleKnights of Sedona: New Congressional Districts for Arizona
Redistricting in Arizona is done! Last week, the Independent Redistricting Commission voted 3-2 to approve the final Congressional and State Legislature maps for the state of Arizona. They were...
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Regional Differences: How a Court May Redistrict Kentucky
Redistricting of the state legislature of Kentucky is done. Democrats gerrymandered the State House and Republicans did likewise for the State Senate. Now, the sticking point appears to be the...
View ArticleLooking Forward: Redistricting Colorado after 2020
Yeah, I know it's crazy to look forward a decade in redistricting when you only have 2010 Census data to work with, but something piqued my curiosity. I saw in a forecast that Colorado is expected to...
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Redistricting: A Beautiful Utah and a Hideous Maine
Redistricting in both states are done. Maine drew a relatively fair map where Michaud's district got a hair less Democratic and Pingree's district got a hair more Democratic. In Utah, they tried...
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Democratic Maryland with 9 Congressional Districts
I was feeling curious the other day about how far one can go in gerrymandering Maryland. The maximum one can go right now (with eight Congressional districts) is 8D-0R, but with some pretty insane...
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CA-04: A Candidate with Heart in a Red District
This comes rather late, but on Tuesday, June 26, I attended the first post-primary town hall forum of Jack Uppal, Democratic candidate for the red 4th Congressional District of California. At roughly...
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KS-Redistricting: If you want something done right...
...you have to do it yourself. That's the lesson from the redistricting snafu that went on this year in the Kansas State legislature (which has been Republican-controlled for a long time). There was...
View ArticleMD-Redistricting: It's a Long Way to Parkville... (Updated with some...
...It's a long way to go. It's a long way to Parkville To the sweetest girl I know! Goodbye, Salisbury, Farewell, Bel Air! It's a long long way to Parkville, But my heart's right there!*In Maryland,...
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AZ-Redistricting: The Limits of a Democratic Gerrymander
Now that Congressman Ron Barber (D-AZ) is assured of victory in the new 2nd Congressional District, I decided to play around some with Arizona's map. I have already mapped out and discussed the...
View ArticleA REAL Democratic Gerrymander of Arizona
I just did two attempted gerrymanders of Arizona in a previous diary, but a few commenters said I didn't go far enough to be an full-on gerrymander of the state and that it's a much easier just to...
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A Democratic Gerrymander of Washington State
I wanted to try out a few hypothetical maps on DRA and one that came out that pleased me was a hypothetical gerrymander of Washington. In the 2011-2012 redistricting process, Democrats had (and still...
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Texas Court-Mandated Re-Redistricting Potential Map
In 2011, Texas Republicans tried to redistrict the state while denying a second Democratic district in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro and manipulating TX-23 (then held by Republican Rep. Francisco...
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Three Different Universes of Redistricting Massachusetts (Plus: Revisiting...
For this diary, we take you to Massachusetts, the birthplace of the gerrymander. For those that don't know, the word "gerrymander" was named after a redrawn State Senate map approved by Gov. Elbridge...
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MD-Redistricting: It Gets Better
Last November, there was a referendum in Maryland on whether or not to repeal the brand new Congressional map created in the office of Gov. O'Malley and passed by the legislature. The opponents of the...
View ArticleGeorgia Redistricting: Fair Maps Reveal New Battlelines (Update: Improved Map)
In a period of boredom, I decided to see if I could redistrict Georgia fairly. At the time, I had relatively simple objectives: obey communities-of-interest, prevent ridiculous sprawling of districts,...
View ArticleGA-12: The Makings of John Barrow's Win
Perhaps one of the more surprising 2012 results was Rep. John Barrow (D-Augusta) not just winning, but winning by a margin of 53.7%-46.3% over State Rep. Lee Anderson in a district where Obama only won...
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A Bridge Too Far: 2013 New Jersey Legislative Elections
The 2013 New Jersey elections were an interesting anomaly. Governor Chris Christie won 61.2% of the two-party vote and yet Democrats in the state legislature came out of it with the same 24-16 State...
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