While most of the recent redistricting coverage has focused on delayed census data, partisan control of the mapmaking and the inevitable legal fights, that only captures part of the chaos and complexities ahead this cycle.
Even after the lines are drawn, candidates and campaigns still matter. Some members are going to be forced into competitive races with colleagues from their own party or an incumbent from the other party. And other members could be electorally homeless when the cartographers have completed their work.
Multiple, varying scenarios are not lost on current members on Capitol Hill.
“Not knowing where the new districts would be made it impossible to plan for a 2012 campaign,” former Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire said recently, looking back to a decade ago when Pennsylvania lost a seat during reapportionment. “I knew I was politically endangered, but I didn’t know how or where. So I decided to keep doing my job in my current district, and let the chips fall where they may.”
Here are three important memories from past redistricting cycles that should serve as reminders or instruction for any 2022 election craziness.
Fallout from Chicken Fingers
All the hard work of drawing a congressional map can be ruined by a basket of chicken fingers. Even though districts can be drawn to dramatically favor a particular party or even a specific person, sometimes races don’t turn out as they were planned.
Twenty years ago, Democrats controlled the redistricting process in Georgia. Powerful state Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker wanted to draw a district to elect a Black Democrat who just happened to be his son. Nobody dared to grab even a precinct and hurt Charles “Champ” Walker Jr.’s chances of getting elected....