Well I recently attempted to redistrict my home state of Louisiana. And having way too much time on my hand and finding redistricting with Dave’s App to be rather fun, I couldn’t just redraw it once, so I did it three times, (really more like 20, but there are only three important ones); one compromise, reasonable map, a Democratic Gerrymander, and then the merely absurd.
First let me display my compromise map:
This is basically a 4-2 map; however Representative Fleming could be vulnerable. If Democrats were to nominate a candidate from Lake Charles, like Willie Mount, they could turn the corner on that geographic divide. If that Democrat were also capable of getting a double digit margin out of Caddo, while winning De Soto, Red River and keeping Webster 50-50 basically, they could win. It’d be a tall order, but it’s possible, and I drew it with that in mind. Also, fun little note, this district perfectly matched the population requirement, by random one in a thousand fluke, 0 voters over or under.
Oddly enough I also see a possibility for a Democrat to win the new LA-05, should some far-right Republican like State Senator Neil Riser unseat Rodney Alexander in a primary and Democrats had a strong, Bobby Bright level conservative Democratic State Senator or DA in the wings. Buddy Caldwell would actually be an ideal candidate for this seat.
The new LA-06, Rep Boustany’s seat, is technically possible. Democrats recently narrowly held onto a State Senate District covering Houma and Lafourche in a special election. It gave McCain over 70% of the vote, yet a Democrat, who admitted that he voted for Barack Obama, won the special and could possibly serve as a future candidate. Any Democrat that wins Terrebonne and Lafourche, along with the more Democratic Parishes of Iberia, St. Mary and St. Martin, would have a good chance of countering the Vermillion-Lafayette Parish Republican vote. Willie Mount would hold this seat now if it weren’t for the stupid run-off system, (poor election scheduling has cost Louisiana Democrats 3 seats in the last 3 cycles).
Okay. I made this LA-03 for Don Cazayoux. I admit it. It’s tailored for him. It’s about 43% black, heavily Democratic on a local level, (the white voters are more liberal here than elsewhere and Landrieu would have gotten some 60% of the vote here). Even Michael Jackson trying to play spoiler here wouldn’t be able to stop him from winning this time around, (Cassidy won with a plurality of votes last time).
Then of course there is the “Abandon all hope, all ye Democrats that enter here” district in LA-01. While it is possible for a conservative local Louisiana Democrat to win Tangiopha and Washington Parishes, it is not possible for them to win Livingston and ST. Tammany.
This LA-02 is fairly Democratic; St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes are significantly more favorable to conservative local Democrats than national ones, (and let’s face it, we aren’t getting a progressive out of this seat, not with all the machine Democrats being conservatives). It’ll still be an easy hold, though thankfully Cao will already be gone; because he could have possibly survived in this district. It is not majority black, but it is plurality minority which would hopefully sustain VRA mandates.
Now time for the juicy Democratic Gerrymander, the nightmare of GOPVOTER, hehe:
Anyone familiar with Louisiana politics sees the wonderful, elegant beauty of that map. It neatly assures that Fleming will lose reelection by making his district 48% minority and only 52% white, it includes a 43% black population which is simply too much for a southern Republican to survive, especially against a conservative White Democrat capable of getting 30% of the white vote combined with 90% of the black vote. He would never have won in the first place without Sabine, Vernon, Grant, and Beauregard parishes bailing him out.
My new LA-06 draws Rodney Alexander and Charles Boustany into one district, (though technically Alexander lives in Fleming’s district now, no matter, it’s not hard to move a few miles or change claimed residences), with the new district perhaps favoring Alexander a little bit.
Again I drew a district just for Don Cazayoux. Combing the primarily black areas of Lake Charles, north Lafayette and St. Landry with the large black population in Pineville-Alexandria and Hammond over on the other end of the district. It also contains such Democratic bastions as Point Coupee, Iberville, St. Helena with Democratic leaning parishes such as St Martin, Evangeline and Allen. The result is a district that probably gave McCain 56% of the vote or so, but with it’s large black population and the specific white areas it contains, is tailor made for a conservative white Louisiana Democrat like Don Cazayoux.
What’s more is that by tying in the black voters of Baton Rouge I managed to save the south Louisiana, Cajun district for Democrats. As the Iberia, St. Mary, and East Baton Rouge parish portions of the district should be enough to override St. Bernard’s, Plaquemines, Lafourche and Terrebonne, particularly with a Democrat who can narrowly win Lafourche and hold down the margins elsewhere.
This LA-04 is even more a “Abandon all hope all ye who enter district”. I reckon it’s close to an 80% McCain district and just as hopeless for any Louisiana Democrat. My LA-03 on the other hand, is 50% black, keeping the VRA requirements by the skin of its teeth and remaining fairly liberal, and at least a double digit Obama district and probably about 65% for Landrieu in 2008, so fairly safe for any competent Democrat.
Finally, there were those who said it would be very difficult to make two VRA districts in Louisiana, (in actuality it is pretty easy and not even that ugly). So I set out, having too much time, to do the eye-poppingly impossible: make three VRA districts in Louisiana, and somehow, I did it.
Here, my friends, is the absurd:
Don’t ask me how in the hell I did this, but I did it. Districts 1, 2 & 3 are all 50-52 percent black.
have two more parts to add to it, I didn’t mean to post, just to save it, (didn’t know it did the same thing). So I’ll just be adding to it in the editing process.
And a lot of fun, too.
One suggestion: the writeup would be easier to follow if you included the color of each district along with the description.
I was working on a Dem gerrymander! Our maps look kinda similar, except mine is a little crazier. Your right, its actually not too hard to make 3 majority minority districts. Since 2 people have already done it, I might try for four, DOUBT it though!
Your first map wouldn’t be allowed because it drops the black population under 50%. If LA-02 were, say, 40% black, 20% Hispanic, and 40% white, you could do what you like with it, but since it’s currently over 50% black, it’s protected, so the remap of Louisiana will be required to have one majority-black district in it.
Outside of the fact that Jindal would veto any Dem map, the Dem legislature probably is not interested in producing a dem map either.
Any chance it will make Louisiana turn environmentalist? Get them to support non-petroleum powered cars. Or failing that, at least get them to realize that regulating big business is a good thing.