No more packing or cracking
California’s new way of drawing political maps could become the model for the rest of America
ONE lowly state senator from southern California, upon seeing the state's new electoral maps and realising that no incumbent member of Congress currently lives in a district to be drawn around her home, spontaneously declared: “I'm in, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in,” and thus became a candidate for the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. Other state senators, assemblymen and US representatives were rather less effusive. Several suddenly found themselves sharing a district with political allies who may now become rivals, or facing a much less sympathetic electorate.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "No more packing or cracking"
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