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GOP Gerrymandering in Michigan

Aridas

Crazy Little Green Dragon
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Looks like we've got more direct confirmation of intentional gerrymandering in Michigan, now.

Emails have emerged in a federal lawsuit that suggest Republicans gerrymandered congressional districts in Michigan in 2011 to maintain an advantage over Democrats, despite years of claims the lines are drawn without political bias.

The lawsuit references private emails that allegedly show one Republican aide saying a Macomb County district is shaped like “it’s giving the finger to (Democratic U.S. Rep.) sandy levin. I love it.” Another email from a GOP staffer was said to brag about cramming “Dem garbage” into four southeast Michigan congressional districts.

In a third email, a longtime Michigan Chamber of Commerce executive predicts the maps will keep Republicans in power for years — and implies the 4th Congressional District in the central Lower Peninsula was drawn to the wishes of Dave Camp, a longtime Republican congressman from Midland who has since retired.
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[Stupid Whataboutism]

But Illinois!

[/Stupid Whataboutism]

There that's been covered.
 
Geez, liberals cry about everything. It's just gerrymandering. I can't imagine how you guys are gonna react when we finally put you in concentration camps.
 
Don't think SCOTUS cares about political gerrymandering, even if they really ought to.

Hell, they barely care about racial gerrymandering.
 
uke2se said:
Don't think SCOTUS cares about political gerrymandering, even if they really ought to.

Hell, they barely care about racial gerrymandering.
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I believe that paragon of pragmatism Anton Scalia actually said that he didn't see anything wrong with gerrymandering; sort of a "to the victor goes the spoils" justification.
 
Foolmewunz said:
I believe that paragon of pragmatism Anton Scalia actually said that he didn't see anything wrong with gerrymandering; sort of a "to the victor goes the spoils" justification.
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Gore v. Bush showed that Scalia could "justify" anything that suited his politics, which is why Supreme Court Justice is such an important position. Yes, the reason that Republican gerrymandering became so rampant after 2010 was a Court decision in 2004 that there is no standard for adjudicating partisan gerrymandering, with Scalia calling it "non-justiciable" -- i.e. politics were none of the Court's business. Funny he didn't feel that way four years earlier, but it was that decision that led to the Republican strategy of pouring money into gaining control of state houses in 2010 for the express purpose of gerrymandering. It's yet another reason why today's Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground.
 
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Wait, they are giving Sander Levin the finger?

He's been a congressman since 1983. His district includes parts of Macomb and Oakland Counties. His last election he won 58 to 37, it was in 2016, the same year Donald Trump pulled a surprise victory in Macomb County. It was not any detriment to Sander Levin, why would they be giving him the finger?

https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/11/macomb_county_could_represent.html
 
Drewbot said:
Wait, they are giving Sander Levin the finger?

He's been a congressman since 1983. His district includes parts of Macomb and Oakland Counties. His last election he won 58 to 37, it was in 2016, the same year Donald Trump pulled a surprise victory in Macomb County. It was not any detriment to Sander Levin, why would they be giving him the finger?

https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/11/macomb_county_could_represent.html
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I think you might need a new nickname after your performance lately. "Whoosh," maybe? Perhaps you should reread what's actually said there, either way, and possibly multiple times if you don't see why your answer is rather off the first time.
 
Drewbot said:
Wait, they are giving Sander Levin the finger?

He's been a congressman since 1983. His district includes parts of Macomb and Oakland Counties. His last election he won 58 to 37, it was in 2016, the same year Donald Trump pulled a surprise victory in Macomb County. It was not any detriment to Sander Levin, why would they be giving him the finger
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If you look at the map of Levin's district, you'll see what they are talking about.
 
It's really kind of silly, the funny shaped districts are all in the metro Detroit area. The 9th, 11th, 12th, 13, and 14th.

4 of the 5 are strongly Democrat representatives. The five districts (in the same order as i listed above ) are CPVI of D+4, R+4, D+14, D+30, and D+31

If the Republicans are gerrymandering, they are doing it wrong.
 
Drewbot said:
It's really kind of silly, the funny shaped districts are all in the metro Detroit area. The 9th, 11th, 12th, 13, and 14th.

4 of the 5 are strongly Democrat representatives. The five districts (in the same order as i listed above ) are CPVI of D+4, R+4, D+14, D+30, and D+31

If the Republicans are gerrymandering, they are doing it wrong.
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Isn't that just the "Packing" part of "Packing and Cracking"?
 
Drewbot said:
It's really kind of silly, the funny shaped districts are all in the metro Detroit area. The 9th, 11th, 12th, 13, and 14th.

4 of the 5 are strongly Democrat representatives. The five districts (in the same order as i listed above ) are CPVI of D+4, R+4, D+14, D+30, and D+31

If the Republicans are gerrymandering, they are doing it wrong.
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You can cherry pick any number of districts and say, see they do it to. You're right, Democrats are not innocent of gerrymandering. Incumbents want to assure reelection.

But back in early 2000, the Republicans began a national campaign to take over state houses (with millions in out of state money) and engineer a GOP takeover of the House. It began with redistricting Texas in between the census taking, something that wasn't done before.

It's the bottom line you need to look at. USA Today, 2016

The GOP controls more seats in the House than the proportion of GOP voters by a long shot.
Republicans captured the majority of the "popular vote" for the House on Election Day, collecting about 56.3 million votes while Democrats got about 53.2 million, according to USA TODAY calculations. With a few races still undecided, Republicans so far hold a 239-193 majority for the next Congress.
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More Republican voters, yes, but not by the proportion of seats in the House that gerrymandering got them.

And this discrepancy is the result of 2 Senators per state:
In results that are still preliminary, 45.2 million Americans cast a vote for a Democratic Senate candidate, while 39.3 million Americans voted for a Republican.
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Bottom line, by manipulating voting districts and because of the original division of votes, the minority is in charge of Congress.
 
https://www.votersnotpoliticians.com/

We have a ballot issue pending to take the politics out of the process in Michigan. The state AG, who is a Republican running for governor, is trying to stop it even though they have turned in enough signatures.
 
Drewbot said:
It's really kind of silly, the funny shaped districts are all in the metro Detroit area. The 9th, 11th, 12th, 13, and 14th.

4 of the 5 are strongly Democrat representatives. The five districts (in the same order as i listed above ) are CPVI of D+4, R+4, D+14, D+30, and D+31

If the Republicans are gerrymandering, they are doing it wrong.
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The methodologies are complex, and researchers admit they’re imperfect. But the results of all three tests strongly suggest that Michigan is highly-gerrymandered, with current district maps drawn so that Republicans are ensured disproportionate majorities on both the state and federal levels.

In 2014 and 2016, Republicans and Democrats received close to equal numbers of statewide votes in state House races. Yet Republicans hold a 63-47 seat majority. The discrepancy was even worse for state Senate races in 2014, when Republicans took home just slightly more votes but came away with an overwhelming 27-11 majority.
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Linky.

No, they seem to be doing it right.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
You can cherry pick any number of districts and say, see they do it to. You're right, Democrats are not innocent of gerrymandering. Incumbents want to assure reelection.
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As crescent pointed out, those districts in Michigan are the result of packing. They were used to make surrounding districts safe for Republicans.
 
Doubt said:
As crescent pointed out, those districts in Michigan are the result of packing. They were used to make surrounding districts safe for Republicans.
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Actually the optimal solution for gerrymandering is to pack the Democrats into a very few districts, and then make all the other districts moderately Republican. This means in ordinary times that the GOP gets the most seats, but of course it does run the risk of a blue wave wiping out everybody. Which is why sitting Republicans generally prefer to go for a less optimal solution in favor of relative safety.

Don't expect the sitting Democrats to be grateful for unpacking their districts, and you can especially expect to hear howls when some of the majority-minority districts become less minority.
 
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