Gerrymandering

Thanks to Doug Zywiol for catching the video above on gerrymandering as it gives a short history on it.  It comes from Vox which continues to be incredible.  Here is their article on the topic and clearly they have their bias which is for non partisan gerrymandering.  Whenever I post about this topic I have to add in what I learned in my PhD courses that is that political scientists believe that incumbency is much more potent than gerrymandering.  I still remember when Gary Condit was under suspicion for Sandra Levy's disappearance and his marital relationship with her, he still won all the new precincts in his gerrymandered district that he had been representing.  So my two cents (and I certainly keep this from my students is that non partisan gerrymandering is a great idea, but with Congress' inability to work, it would be interesting to see if Maine and CA, for example, have improved their legislative output after they started term limits.   Soap box aside if you use the search function on my blog, you will find lots of other information on teaching gerrymandering.