Good people:
I've been thinking that an increase in the size of the House of Representatives may be in order, since there's no way one person can adequately represent over 700,000. (The Senate is, of course, a little different, as Senators represent states and not people.) This would need to be accompanied with a prohibition on gerrymandering and a change in how money and campaigns interact with each other, of course, but you really can't call it the House of "Representatives" anymore. So, below the fold, I have included a link...
http://walkinbrain.wordpress.com/...
This takes you to what Atrios would call "my sucky blog," where I have attached a spreadsheet showing what a House of 435, 435 (with a voting DC rep), 535, 569, 635, 735, 835, 871, 935, 1001 and 1229 members would look like in terms of state representation, as well as one for districts of 30,000, 60,000, 100,000 and 250,000 people each. (As an aside, this is why it took so long for me to finish my music theory dissertation.)
What I would like to hear from you are two things:
(1) PLEASE check my math. I'm a music theorist, which means the most I ever have to count to on a regular basis is 12. (Little joke for the dodecaphonic theorists out there.) I think I made the formula work, but I don't feel absolutely confident about it.
(2) Do you agree or disagree? Also, if the size of the House were to be increased, what institutional changes would need to be made? I have a few ideas, which I will share in a later post.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
WF