Is it gerrymandering to crack a city with a political goal in mind when, otherwise, there would be no motive for cracking it? I am trying to figure out my own opinion :-(
Is it gerrymandering to draw any set of districts with any political goal in mind other than compactness and respecting existing municipal boundaries?
To figure this out I like to look at small states.
All those graphics which convert census data into red/green/blue/orange dots sure tell us that, at least for race, community lines do exist apart from official borders. New York City is stunning:
There is a way to compare plans, but I haven't used it. Generally each state has a list of plans of interest:
https://davesredistricting.org/maps#state::NV
From 2020, the old CD-1, with CD-3 to south and CD-4 to the north:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IsFf8S22i6cmuyLvEWIjwxbkD9wTmW1H/view?usp=share_link
Nevada 2020 plan: https://davesredistricting.org/maps#viewmap::43ac26c6-a829-4102-9d40-be3288998318
I would characterize the old map as 1 D (41% Hispanic), 2 swing, 1 R, and the new map as 3 D (32%, 31%, 19% Hispanic), 1 R.
If Utah is a gerrymander on account of splitting Salt Lake City, one might apply similar logic to Nevada here. hmm
I 100% think Utah is a gerrymander, but I am not quite sure if un-doing it would have Salt Lake elect a D.
For comparison, consider Nebraska. They have tried hard to give Omaha a fair shot, but that state is so red, it is only a swing.
There does seem to be a candidate-specific effect with Ben McAdams (D), who carried the old UT-04 despite its Republican strength.
I think this illustrates the difficulties of judging the fairness of a map when there are very few districts.
Is it gerrymandering to crack a city with a political goal in mind when, otherwise, there would be no motive for cracking it? I am trying to figure out my own opinion :-(
Is it gerrymandering to draw any set of districts with any political goal in mind other than compactness and respecting existing municipal boundaries?
To figure this out I like to look at small states.
In addition to city boundaries, there is the concept of communities of interest: https://law.stanford.edu/publications/turning-communities-of-interest-into-a-rigorous-standard-for-fair-districting/
All those graphics which convert census data into red/green/blue/orange dots sure tell us that, at least for race, community lines do exist apart from official borders. New York City is stunning:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_New_York_City#/media/File:Race_and_ethnicity_2010-_New_York_City_(5559914315).png