This post is kind of a follow up to my last where I certainly left the impression that redistricting is a plot to weaken Democratic districts.
Rangel a victim of redistricting? http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/05/is-redistricting-about-to-claim-charlie.html
No question such gerrymandering happens a lot. And no doubt on a national basis the GOP's voter ids are meant to disenfranchise Democrat voters. However in second look as far as the Ny redistricting is concerned it's not only Democrats who are feeling the pain. So maybe it's not just a Republican plot though that/s always a factor.
On March 19. 2012 in Politico the new redistricting plan was reported:
"New York’s prolonged redistricting process finally ended on Monday, with a federal court finalizing a new map that leaves a host of members from both parties in weaker position."
"Under the plan, which was approved by a three-judge panel based in Brooklyn, a handful of Democrats will find themselves with less safe seats, including Reps. Carolyn McCarthy, Nita Lowey, and Kathy Hochul, a freshman member whose Republican-leaning upstate New York-based seat is now even more GOP-friendly."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74208.html#ixzz1urVOk6oG
"Rep. Louise Slaughter, a longtime congresswoman and top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, will see her upstate New York seat become dramatically less Democratic-leaning. Slaughter, who says she plans to seek reelection in 2012, has drawn a challenge from Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks."
"Rep. Steve Israel, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, will see his Long Island-area seat become slightly less safe. In a Monday afternoon press conference, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions did not discount the possibility of backing a challenger to Israel in the fall."
"Democrats, however, will have their own targets thanks to the new map. Five seats — all held by GOP freshmen — will lean less Republican. GOP Rep. Pete King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will also see Republican strength in his district diminish."
"In a Monday afternoon memo sent to reporters, the DCCC pointed out that six of the state’s seven Republican-held House seats had become less safe for their incumbents."
“The new congressional map for New York ensures that there is now no such thing as a safe Republican seat in New York,” the DCCC wrote.
So maybe it's not being done on a purely partisan basis. One still hopes there is some sort of scientific logical basis for it but there's a better chance that there is perhaps. No such thing as a safe Republican seat in New York. Like the sound of that.
UPDATE: However while I agree that in Ny it hasn't been only the Democrats getting hit this is in many ways do to the fact that State is split between a GOP Senate and Demcoratic Assembly. The courts had to decide this because the Dems and GOP couldn't agree on a plan. In states where on party is dominant obviously they have much more ability to impose their will.
This is a variation on a line noted by the late Bill Vickrey in 93':Unfortunately we have not had anything like full employment of resources since the Korean War, or over the entire adult lifetime of many of you here. In spite of this the thinking of establishment economists seems to operate oblivious to the fact that there are idle resources waiting to be brought into play, much as in the tale of the economist marooned on a desert island with two colleagues faced with the problem of dealing with some canned goods washed ashore. After the physicist had wondered whether the sun's rays could be concentrated so as to burst the cans, and the chemist had suggested that perhaps sea-water could be made to corrode them, the economist declared "the thing to do is just to assume we have a can-opener. From the full text here:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5461/is_n2_v37/ai_n28633195/?tag=content;col1
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