The accompanying map is not a joke or a parody--it shows Pennsylvania's actual Seventh Congressional District. When the Washington Post invited readers to submit names for some of the most obviously gerrymandered districts in the country, the winning entry for PA-7 was "Goofy kicking Donald Duck." The tortured shape is evidence of lots of Democratic voters in and around Philadelphia. It's not easy creating districts in which Republicans can win, but, considering that the Seventh has been represented since 2011 by Republican Pat Meehan, it's safe to conclude that it can be done!
Are you wondering who represented the district before Meehan? No one. The district was created after the 2010 census, so Meehan is the only representative it has ever had, a fact that reflects the designers' intent. Sometimes people like me tend to think that Republicans are rubes, but I'll give them this: the ones who came to power in Pennsylvania in 2010 were hip enough to know about the newest mapping software. You can't get results with rulers and compasses. Pennsylvania voters are about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, but the district lines have for nearly a decade now locked in a 13-5 Republican "edge" in the state's congressional delegation. Paul Ryan owes his speakership to a confluence of events in 2010--decennial redistricting triggered by a new census, a good Republican year at the polls, the maturation of Big Data, and ten years of progress in mapping technology.
But the good run may now have been interrupted by a new confluence of events. Just when it comes to light that Rep. Meehan has been too fond of a female staffer, and settled her complaint with public funds, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules that the state's congressional districts violate its constitution and must be redrawn before the coming midterm election. Meehan is retiring, the victim of his own hungry heart and a new map that will presumably look like something a geometry student might be able to calculate the area of. Progress!
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