For Republicans, Redistricting Offers Few Gains

[Derechos]

WASHINGTON — On paper, the sweeping gains Republicans enjoyed last year in statehouses across the country gave the party a profound advantage in the nascent and increasingly contentious power struggle to create new Congressional districts.

But those gains are likely to add up to fewer than 10 seats in the House of Representatives, largely because Republicans took so many seats from Democrats in 2010 that there are not many left to change hands through redistricting.

As a result, Republican leaders are focusing on making sure that incumbents, especially their 87 freshmen, end up defending districts with even more Republican voters than they had in the last election, with the hope of ensuring that they maintain control of the House for the long term.

“The overwhelming success of Republicans in 2010 actually poses a problem for them,” said Michael McDonald, a senior fellow and redistricting expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “They can’t go much farther than they are, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use redistricting to shore up their incumbents and those who seem most vulnerable.”

Compounding the Republicans’ problem, much of the nation’s population gains have been among Hispanics, who have tended to vote Democratic, or in areas where voters tend to be less friendly to Republicans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/us/politics/12redistrict.html?src=recg