David Broder on Gerrymandering

Op-ed columnist David Broder has an article discussing the distorting effects of gerrymandering on our elections and political system.

As a number of scholars have pointed out, the scarcity of real competition in nearly all districts has many consequences -- all bad. It makes legislators less responsive to public opinion, since they are in effect safe from challenge in November. It shifts the competition from the general election to the primary, where candidates of more extreme views can hope to attract support from passionately ideological voters and exploit the low turnouts typical of those primaries.

Gerrymandered, one-party districts tend to send highly partisan representatives to the House or the legislature, contributing to the gridlock in government that is so distasteful to voters.

Broder mentions two states, Iowa and Washington, "have instituted nonpartisan or bipartisan redistricting systems, and have been rewarded with much more competitive House races". This is a good idea as far as it goes, and I would encourage all States to adopt such a scheme. Nevertheless, I've been around long enough to know politicians, and politicians do not easily relinquish such powers as the ability to draw congressional districts.

Kelly and I have long been considering the value of a constitutional amendment to remedy this distasteful practice that might provide the motivation politicians would need to reform their drawing skills:

Congressional districts must be based entirely on existing political boundaries, excluding boundaries solely used for voting purposes.

The idea is that congressional districts must be based on boundary lines that already exist for sovereignty or governing purposes. The spirit of the proposal is to force county lines, city borders, river boundaries, etc to be the basis for drawing districts, which would prevent the arbitrary (skillful) slicing and carving of population-dense areas to create "safe-seats" for one Party or the other. The wording of the amendment might need to be tweaked to ensure the spirit is secured in its interpretation, as the use of jurisdictions like school districts or home-owners association boundaries is not what we have in mind as "existing political boundaries."

So while the wording of the amendment might need to be tightened some, the spirit of the idea would give the Constitution teeth to force a return to fairness and adequate representation in our system. I dare say it would also help increase participation in the political system and voter turnout.