Proof the Dems did not invent the gerrymander in 2011.
You might not have known it, but apparently the Democratic-controlled Illinois state legislature invented gerrymandering this past week. Indeed, the new maps do create the potential for a pickup of several seats for the Democrats.
Democrats are doubtlessly cheering the outcome, which more than anything reverses a previous gerrymander that gave Republicans an 11-8 lead in the delegation out of a state that Democrats have largely dominated at the statewide level. That map was a little creative in itself, as the diagram of the 17th district (right) illustrates.
Who is upset by the new Illinois Congressional map? Well, Republicans are indignant, predictably. Oddly, the U.S. political press also seems a bit disturbed by it. The evidence for that is in their seeming insistence on comparing this remap to the most notorious gerrymander of recent vintage:
From the Washington Post: DeLay lite?:
Redistricting experts are already comparing the map to the one passed by Texas Republicans in 2003 under the guidance of then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
From Alex Isenstadt at Politico:
The blueprint, which appears to design at most seven districts in which the state’s 11 Republicans can run competitively, amounts to the most dramatic alteration yet of state congressional lines so far this year. The scale of the transformation approaches the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting plan that flipped six Democratic-held seats and handed Republicans control of the delegation.
Isenstadt's colleague at Politico, however, takes the cake with his invocation of a very loaded word:
Democratic lawmakers in Illinois have sent a radical new map of the state's congressional boundaries to Gov. Pat Quinn.
The redistricting plan "carves up suburban districts to help Chicago incumbents and threatens to overturn Republican election gains made last year," according to the Chicago Tribune.
Republicans are lambasting it as overt "gerrymandering" and a "national embarrassment."
So, sacrificing accuracy at the altar of false equivalence, the political press tries to convince people that the typical process of partisan redistricting after the distribution of the census is just like a process done midcycle solely because one party finally had its hand on the controls of redistricting.
Furthermore, none of the articles note that Illinois' previous map was the creation of a Republican gerrymander that, for most of the past decade, gave Republicans parity or a majority of the state's delegation, despite the fact that Republicans have averaged just under 39% of the vote over the last five presidential elections.
Meanwhile, amid far less press scrutiny, the Republican-dominated Texas state legislature has passed their map for the Lone Star State.
As Texas local political sage Charles Kuffner noted about the new Texas GOP-created map:
Speaking of I-35, if you drive it through Travis County, you change Congressional districts no fewer than seven times.
So, if the national press wanted to accurately compare something to the historic and uproarious DeLaymander of 2003, they could always compare it to...well...Texas.