Lisa Zhu | Destroying democracy

With so much media attention focused on the upcoming presidential election, it's easy to forget that Congress is also turning over. That's just as well, since rampant gerrymandering has severely reduced the competitiveness of many congressional elections in Pennsylvania, leaving voters with few real choices or decision-making influence.

Indeed, we've been ranked as the second-worst state in the country when it comes to gerrymandering, according to a study referred to by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Gerrymandering isn't a sexy political topic - even pork-barrel spending garners more media attention. But the practice creates districts that are either safely Republican or safely Democrat, leading to fewer contested elections in the state and national legislature. For politically active Penn students, that essentially rules out any interest toward local politics in November.

For instance, College junior and Penn Democrats President Lauren Burdette has stated that her group would only be canvassing to support Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.). "We're not doing anything with local races in Philadelphia proper since most people in Philadelphia vote straight party ticket," Burdette said, whereas "Murphy is running in a very purple district." Similarly, the College Republicans are focusing the bulk of their campaigning efforts around Murphy's opponent, Tom Manion.

The practice of packing voters of one party into a district does a disservice to everyone. According to Inquirer columnist Chris Satullo, "A lot of seats are so uncompetitive that the other party sometimes barely bothers or doesn't bother running a candidate."

When there's little to no competition in a district, incumbent politicians rarely feel the need the hold themselves accountable to voters (especially those whose political views represent the minority in a given district), since they'll probably continue to win regardless.

Moreover, having districts ruled by a huge partisan majority can sometimes lead to greater ideological polarization within the legislature as a whole. "If you look at Congress and how partisan they are, that traces directly back to gerrymandering," Satullo said. "The only way [congressmen] can lose in an election is if they're seen by their own party as too compromising or too moderate."

Not only are the results of gerrymandering unfair to voters, but the process itself is also frustrating for its lack of transparency. "They do this often under closed conditions, so no one can really see what they're doing," said Penn Political Science professor Henry Teune. As a result, under Tom DeLay, Republican legislators successfully negotiated a Republican majority by striking deals with several Democratic incumbents that ensured the safety of these Democratic districts.

The situation is only getting worse in Pennsylvania. Advances in computer technology allow politicians to use precise mathematical algorithms to generate districts which guarantee their party a majority of the registered voters. And just four years ago, in Vieth v. Jubelirer, a Pennsylvania dispute on gerrymandering, the Supreme Court ruled that redistricting on the basis of partisan affiliation was justifiable. Worse yet, Pennsylvania's state legislature missed out on the opportunity to reform the state's partisan gerrymandering over the summer with House Bill 2420.

Unfortunately, the timeline for approval and implementation of such measures has already elapsed at the state level, since the next redistricting is scheduled to take place after the 2010 Census. But because altering the redistricting procedure for state-level representatives requires an amendment to the Pennsylvania constitution, the reform process is too lengthy to be completed in two years. However, there is still time now to put measures in place that curb the practice of gerrymandering for U.S. congressional districts.

One attractive solution is the model currently employed by Iowa. Under the Iowan procedure for redistricting, a nonpartisan Legislative Services Bureau designs redistricting plans that are approved by the state legislature, and subject to veto by the governor. As a result, four of Iowa's five congressional districts are mixed Republican and Democrat.

Whatever system Pennsylvania ultimately chooses, state legislators must realize it's time for a change. Voters deserve a fair system of redistricting that provides all of us with fair representation and doesn't keep power in the hands of the powerful.

Lisa Zhu is a Wharton and College senior from Cherry Hill, N.J., and United Minorities Council chairwoman. Her e-mail is zhu@dailypennsylvanian.com. Zhu-ology appears every Thursday.

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