With redistricting long since done in Iowa, and reprecincting well under way in Iowa City and North Liberty, we haven't heard from our friend redistricting consultant Jerry Mandering in some time.
But news reports show incontrovertible evidence that Jerry has been working with Republicans in North Carolina and Wisconsin.
"When they split North Carolina's 9.5 million people into 13 congressional districts, Republican mapmakers reserved a special place for Sallie Stocks.
They put everybody in Sampson County into the 2nd Congressional District. That is, except for the 85-year-old woman who lives off a country road near Duplin County."
The puzzle pieces are somewhat bigger in Wisconsin, but there's some creative hooks and peninsulas around Democrats who are challenging Republicans in recall elections. (Fake Primary Day is today; Republicans put ringers in Democratic primaries to stall off the main recall and to try to knock out the actual Democratic candidates. In a state without party registration, and without comparable Republican contests, it could work. The Nixon folks called this "ratf***ing.")
This is designed to be a 5 R, 3 D incumbent protection map, with the goal of shoring up GOP freshmen Sean Duffy and Reed Ribble. here's a nice lower case n shaped state senate district along Lake Superior that borders a three-lobed barbell. But my favorite part is the hook that runs through the cranberry bogs of Adams and Juneau counties into the geographic center of the state to take heavily Democratic Stevens Point away from Duffy and give it to La Crosse Democrat Ron Kind.
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