SACRAMENTO — Here's an indication of how rotten Democratic-led gerrymandering is in California:
A national Democratic organization is branding us one of a "Dirty Dozen" states that has rigged elections and significantly suppressed voter participation.
Gerrymandering is the infamous practice of legislators choosing their own voters, rather than allowing voters to fairly choose their elected representatives. It's the once-a-decade drawing of legislative and congressional districts, usually with the aim of protecting -- or increasing -- majority party seats, which in California means Democrats.
In 2001, Democratic and Republican legislators conspired to protect each other. Consequently, in the last three election cycles, only four seats have changed parties in 495 California legislative and congressional races.
That's real rigging.
"There's a direct correlation between the competitiveness of an election and turnout," writes Marc Dunkelman, vice president of the Democratic Leadership Council, in a report titled "Gerrymandering the Vote: How a 'Dirty Dozen' States Suppress as Many as 9 Million Voters."
The DLC is a slightly left-of-center policy group that promotes political moderation and pragmatism. It was founded after liberal Walter Mondale was crushed in a landslide by President Reagan in 1984. Bill Clinton served as DLC chairman before he ran for president. The current chairman is former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, who narrowly lost a U.S. Senate election in 2006 and intends to run for governor in 2010.
Dunkelman studied only gerrymandering of congressional districts nationwide, but the same principle of voter turnoff applies to legislative races. If contests aren't competitive, he notes, the news media yawn, the public goes to sleep, and many people don't bother to vote.
When elected representatives "can't lose, voters do -- because it takes pressure off" the politicians to do their jobs, Dunkelman asserts.
Studying the November 2006 elections, Dunkelman found that the average margin of victory in California congressional contests was 43%. That ranked ninth-biggest -- or worst, from a competitive standpoint -- in the nation.
Figuring the average turnout in competitive races nationwide -- those with victory margins under 10% -- and applying it to all contests, the researcher calculated that gerrymandering suppressed 3.1 million potential votes in California. The vote total was about 8.9 million, or roughly 35% fewer than what might have been.
