Thomas E. Mann Quotes

By using the latest sophisticated software, state legislatures can carve out districts that guarantee electoral victory for one party or the other, often in the service of protecting incumbents.

Redistricting is the nastiest form of politics that there is.

These districts at the federal and state level that are gerrymandered tend to produce a lot of extremism.

I've got the most beautiful district. I can understand why Republicans want it.

What's historically been referred to as 'gerrymandering' can more aptly be labeled an incumbent protection program.

Political gerrymandering makes the incentive for most members of Congress to play to the extremes of their base rather than to the center.

Redistricting is one of the purest actions a legislative body can take.

In the House, Republican prospects have been buoyed by several successful rounds of redistricting, which have sharply reduced the number of competitive seats and given the Republicans a national advantage of at least a dozen seats.

The Republicans in the House and Senate took the district that I firmly represent, 22 in south Florida, from a D plus one to a D plus five almost a D plus six district, which means you are given a five to six percent registration advantage to Democrats. They drew in more Democrats into the district I represent.

Political gerrymanders existed in colonial times and continued through the framing. The Framers provided a remedy for the problem: the Constitution gives state legislatures the initial power to draw federal election districts, but authorizes Congress to “make or alter” those districts

There's no question about it, from a big picture standpoint, our No. 1 goal must remain reapportionment, because if we allow ourselves to get ruthlessly gerrymandered in reapportionment as we did last time, we can forget any reasonable chance of getting control of the U. S. House of Representatives until well into the next millennium.

[When redistricting] there is no such thing as non-partisan…. Beware of non-partisan, or bi-partisan staff bearing gifts. They probably are not your friends.

Gerrymandering at its essence is supposed to be used to reflect the changing geography to ensure representation. But we know that politics gets involved and it's used to benefit whoever's in control. That's the problem we have with gerrymandering.

American voting districts are, across a lot of the country, deeply messed up by having been gerrymandered by right-wing politicians.

My tentative plan is to gerrymander all of those crazy libs right out of the section and replace them with right-thinking Americans..

If legislators are allowed to continuously redistrict throughout the decade, you are going to have no way of using elections to remove unpopular officeholders because the lines will be redrawn to ensure their reelection.

Redistricting has always taken place behind closed doors, with zero public input

The task of redistricting is best left to state legislatures, elected by the people and as capable as the courts, if not more so, in balancing the myriad factors and traditions in legitimate districting policies. The task of redistricting is best left to state legislatures, elected by the people and as capable as the courts, if not more so, in balancing the myriad factors and traditions in legitimate districting policies.

Every individual who participated in the redistricting process knew that incumbency protection was a critical factor in producing the bizarre lines.... Many of the oddest twists and turns of the Texas districts would never have been created if the Legislature had not been so intent on protecting party and incumbents

California is among several states that already have fought their way out from under partisan gerrymandering by taking line-drawing authority away from the Legislature.

Equal constituencies' sound fair. So why is Labour so against the constituencies bill and why do we call it gerrymandering? Because, like so much Tory rhetoric, it sounds good, but if we look beyond the soundbites it becomes clear that it covers policies that promote narrow sectional interests.

In Maryland, we have the unfortunate distinction of being the most gerrymandered state in the entire nation.

In democracy, as quaintly understood, voters pick their representatives. American democracy increasingly reverses that. Legislative districts are drawn to protect incumbents who, effectively, pick their voters.

Even in Madison’s day, the practice of gerrymandering for partisan advantage was familiar. In the late seventeen-eighties, there were claims that Patrick Henry had tried to gerrymander Madison himself out of the First Congress. The term was coined during Madison’s Presidency, to mock Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts, who in 1811 approved an election district that was said to look like a salamander.

Congress requires states to draw single-member districts.