The House of Representatives is the house of extremes -- the least representative political body in the world's major democracies. There is no room for diversity of opinion. And it will stay that way.
Of the 435 House elections Tuesday, only about four dozen are remotely competitive. Not one of California's 51 House incumbents is in danger of losing his or her seat.
The politicians owe their job security to gerrymandering, the handiwork of an early Massachusetts governor, Elbridge Gerry, who discovered that you can ordain the outcome of elections by how you draw electoral districts.
Governors and senators run statewide. State legislatures draw congressional districts, a political process that has become ever more sophisticated and partisan. The 2001 congressional redistricting was the most extreme gerrymandering in history, which is why there are virtually no House contests.
The Rothenberg Political Report rates only six House races as toss-ups. It considers just 44 seats in play. The remaining 391 incumbents are safe. (In contrast, Rothenberg says eight Senate races, out of 34, are toss-ups.) Put another way, in the most highly contested states in the race for president, nearly all House incumbents are safe. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida could go for Sen. John Kerry or President Bush, yet Ohio and Florida have no contested House races, and Pennsylvania only four. The lack of competition reflects in part the nation's polarization. Red states send mostly conservative Republicans to Congress; blue states mostly liberal Democrats. Such polarization is evident within states too.
Thirty years ago, there were competitive seats in the Bay Area, and the two major parties split the rural districts of the Central Valley. Today, coastal California is far more liberal than the state as a whole, while eastern California is more conservative. The state's congressional representatives reflect this reality.
The late Rep. Phil Burton (D-San Francisco) was a master of gerrymandering. In 1981, through the use of clever political cartography, he transformed California's House delegation from one that was roughly balanced into one that was 28 to 17 Democratic. State Republicans vowed to get even, but they have not been in a position to carry out their threat. In 2001, they happily settled for a bipartisan gerrymander that made every California member of Congress safe.
