GOP using redistricting to shore up House majority

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The odds of getting re-elected have gotten better for Rep. Renee Ellmers and other Republican freshmen in the House — thanks to GOP calculations in redrawing congressional maps.

The 47-year-old nurse who ousted seven-term Democrat Bob Etheridge by fewer than 1,500 votes last November will be running next year in a newly drawn North Carolina district that's less swing and more Republican. The outlook is brighter too for Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, a conservative talk radio host who edged 14-term Democrat Solomon Ortiz by just 797 votes. Farenthold will find more Republicans in a Corpus Christi-based district that now stretches north.

Republicans romped last November, gaining 63 House seats to secure the majority, winning 11 governorships, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, and seizing control of the most state legislative seats they've held since 1928. The GOP is capitalizing on its across-the-board control in 26 states — governorship plus legislature — in the census-based drawing of a new political map that will be a decisive factor in the 2012 elections and beyond.

"Republican freshmen are finding the ground harden beneath them as their current swing districts become less competitive for Democrats," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee. "Even seemingly small changes in district political leanings can mean big returns at the ballot box."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5im4kkGSvGji63VHqiJbWSSQ7VQtw

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Standard Republican strategy, change the rules if you cannot win.

[0rganism]

2. They DID win, and now they're making it very difficult for us to do so

I'm looking forward to the day when liberals wise up enough to do a bit of constructive rule-changing when we have the gavel.

Unfortunately, I think that day will be a long long very long time coming.

[aquart]

3. Now why didn't we foresee that would happen?

[Tiggeroshii]

4. Yet...

"Fifty-six percent say their own representative deserves another term, similar to the levels just before tumultuous elections in 1994, 2006 and 2010 that changed control of the House or Senate."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2011-08-08-poll-gallup-election_n.htm

Also it's important to consider how the maps look in states with Democratic legislatures and governors and also how the fair maps -like those in California and Florida will effect the Republican incumbents in those states.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. How many districts will be challenged by democrats for gerrymandering?