Avoiding the Burtonmander

When Marshall Coleman and Jim Courter lost the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, they lost more than two governorships. They also lost a few Republican seats in Congress, seats the GOP will now have little chance of capturing for the remainder of this century. That’s because Democrats will now control the post-Census redistricting in both states and are bound to continue the gerrymandering that helps guarantee their 35-year-old majority in the House. The 1989 and 1990 state elections are crucial for this reason: the victors will draw the lines for congressional elections beginning with 1992.

Creative redrawing of the electoral map in 1981 was the biggest factor in preserving the Democratic majority in the House. In the 1982 elections, Republicans had expected to gain at least six seats because of migration from the inner cities of the Northeast to suburbia and to the conservative Sunbelt states. But blatant gerrymandering neutralized this factor and, along with the recession, was responsible for the catastrophic loss of 26 seats.

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Susan Mandel

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House of Representatives

When Marshall Coleman and Jim Courter lost the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, they lost more than two governorships. They also lost a few Republican seats in Congress, seats the GOP will now have little chance of capturing for the remainder of this century. That’s because Democrats will now control the post-Census redistricting in both states and are bound to continue the gerrymandering that helps guarantee their 35-year-old majority in the House. The 1989 and 1990 state elections are crucial for this reason: the victors will draw the lines for congressional elections beginning with 1992.

Creative redrawing of the electoral map in 1981 was the biggest factor in preserving the Democratic majority in the House. In the 1982 elections, Republicans had expected to gain at least six seats because of migration from the inner cities of the Northeast to suburbia and to the conservative Sunbelt states. But blatant gerrymandering neutralized this factor and, along with the recession, was responsible for the catastrophic loss of 26 seats.