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S.E. Wood Democrats take aim at
Hilleary's district The Constitution of the United States of America,
Article I, Section 2, stipulates that the House of Representatives
shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the
people of the several states, and that there shall be one congressional
representative for every 30,000 citizens. As our population grew, the number of representatives
soon got out of hand. So it was decided to keep the total number
of congressional representatives at 435, and then vary the number
of citizens represented by each according to current population
data. The 2000 census shows the population of Tennessee
to have increased by 812,028 people since 1990, which requires
a redrawing, or redistricting, of existing congressional boundaries. In keeping with Tennessee law and tradition,
the dominant political party (meaning the Democrat Party) gets
to divide up the spoils, and draw the new boundaries that will
provide them the greatest political benefit. And yes, it would
be the same if the Republicans were in control of the state House.
We are currently in the 4th Congressional
District which was drawn after the 1990 census, and we are represented
by Republican Congressman Van Hilleary. Its boundaries, which
snake and win their way from East to West Tennessee, were established
in 1990 with two thoughts in mind. First, to make the area as difficult and as
expensive as possible to cover; and second, to minimize Republican
influence. But Hilleary surprised his critics by carrying every
one of his 22 counties in last year's congressional election!
So now the Democrats are in the process of again rethinking and
redrawing Hilleary's 4th Congressional District. Their purpose will be to lump the maximum
number of Republican-leaning areas into the minimum number of
Republican-leaning Districts, and then scatter the rest among
Democrat-leaning Districts so any Republican votes will simply
be outnumbered. The idea is for the party in power to rig the
electoral boundaries so as to rob the opposition of any real
voice in the voting booth. We get all upset over the remote possibility of a "pregnant chad" distorting the electoral process, but the real vote tampering is actually taking place in the State Capitol in Nashville, under the guise of redistricting. |