The official blog of the Libertarian Party
August 08, 2006
Voters Do Not Approve of Their Representative
This could be a bad year for incumbents in Congress (via Washington Post):
Most Americans describe themselves as being in an anti-incumbent mood heading into this fall's midterm congressional elections, and the percentage of people who approve of their own representative's performance is at the lowest level since 1994, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
In the past, Americans have given a poor rating for Congress but high marks for their own representative, but not so this year (via Washington Post):
Especially worrisome for members of Congress is that the proportion of Americans who approve of their own representative's performance has fallen sharply.
... 55 percent now approve of their lawmaker, a seven-percentage-point drop over three months and the lowest such finding since 1994, the last time control of the House switched parties.
Voters may be dissatisfied with Republicans, but are reluctant in choosing Democrat (via Washington Post):
...the poll's findings underline the challenge for Democrats. For all their disenchantment, most voters are not sure what the party stands for. Just 48 percent say Democrats offer a clear direction different from Republicans, while 47 percent say they do not. The public does not think that Bush or the Democrats have a clear plan for Iraq.
Posted by at August 8, 2006 03:38 PM
Reader Comments:
It really only comes down to a handful of swing districts.
I live in the 24th Congressional District of Florida. Very well drawn to ensure a strong Republican majority. Congressman Tom Feeney will definately be returning to the 110th Congress, regardless of polls or the vagaries of the political climate. Probably close to 380 of the 435 Representatives are in the same position.
Major fundamental changes must be made before the House of Representatives will actually be "representative". Unfortunately, these changes would require Constitutional change, so we are pretty much stuck with the current system.
BTW, looks like it was a very bad night for a couple of incumbents. Particularly warming to my heart was watching Cynthia McKinney getting tossed out of office on her butt. Went down by a large margin even in her home county of Dekalb.
I have thought about the gerrymandering issue a bit to try to figure out a solution. The best I've been able to come up with is to require the districts be drawn to equal population with the minimum total length of boundary between them (which, mathematically, would drive districts towards a roughly circular shape); this would, obviously, require the legislatures to agree to relinquish their own power (good luck!) to draw the boundaries "fairly."
Unfortunately, short of computers drawing the districts, not much way to prevent human manipulation for political purposes.
I participated in the public input portion of the Florida redistricting following the 2000 census. Using the official state redistricting software, I was able to quickly draw up compact and equitable districts. But the experience taught me just what I was up against. The amount of demographic and political information available in that program was incredible and allowed me to know on the fly just what the exact demographics were down to each individual block. It makes it very easy, and I should say, very tempting to draw undesirable voters out of a district.
My own personal approach to Congressional redistricting, was to draw the two majority/minority districts in south Florida first. I refrained from drawing third such district in the Jacksonville/Orlando area. I then drew the remainder of the districts, observing county and geographic lines when possible and aimed for general compactness of districts. The result was an increase in truly competitive districts. Ideally, you would like to have all 25 districts with evenly balanced divisions of parties, but that goal is impossible to achieve under the current single member district system.
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It really only comes down to a handful of swing districts.
I live in the 24th Congressional District of Florida. Very well drawn to ensure a strong Republican majority. Congressman Tom Feeney will definately be returning to the 110th Congress, regardless of polls or the vagaries of the political climate. Probably close to 380 of the 435 Representatives are in the same position.
Major fundamental changes must be made before the House of Representatives will actually be "representative". Unfortunately, these changes would require Constitutional change, so we are pretty much stuck with the current system.
Posted by: Mark B. at August 8, 2006 04:24 PM