Congressionally Redistricting in Democratically Controlled Maryland

Computers sure are making it a lot easier to do fancier Gerrymandering.  From a data archive by Lewis, DeVine, Pritcher, and Martis at UCLA.  

How Democrats manipulated the supposedly nonpartisan California redistricting panel

At the very least it appears that the information upon which the redistricting was done was fraudulent. ProPublica has this explosive report:

In the weeks that followed, party leaders came up with a plan. Working with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — a national arm of the party that provides money and support to Democratic candidates — members were told to begin “strategizing about potential future district lines," according to another email.

The citizens’ commission had pledged to create districts based on testimony from the communities themselves, not from parties or statewide political players. To get around that, Democrats surreptitiously enlisted local voters, elected officials, labor unions and community groups to testify in support of configurations that coincided with the party’s interests.

When they appeared before the commission, those groups identified themselves as ordinary Californians and did not disclose their ties to the party. One woman who purported to represent the Asian community of the San Gabriel Valley was actually a lobbyist who grew up in rural Idaho, and lives in Sacramento.

In one instance, party operatives invented a local group to advocate for the Democrats’ map. . . .

New California redistricting went out of its way to draw a lot of new districts along racial lines

Should redistricting be very "conscious" of ensuring as many racial minorities get elected as possible? The California experiment is discussed in this Fox News article.

Hoffenblum says if the result of previous redistricting was that it protected incumbents, the error with the citizens' map is that it is heavily skewed to racial demographics.
"We went from a political gerrymand to a racial gerrymand. That the commission became overly conscious of drawing seats on race. The Latino seats, the black seats, the Asian seats. And in the process of creating these districts based on race they divided counties, they divided cities and split cities." . . . .

The personal cost of redistricting?

Well, I think that their constituents would forgive them for moving.

Ted and Beth Gaines, the Legislature's only married couple, find themselves in an odd predicament from the latest draft maps by California's independent redistricting commission.
Beth's Assembly career apparently would benefit by her continuing to live in the couple's Roseville home, but Ted's Senate career could be in jeopardy unless he pulls up stakes and moves.
The two Republicans are not talking because boundary lines could change before an Aug. 15 vote on final maps, but tentatively, Beth is targeted for a safe GOP seat and Ted should grab some Excedrin.
Specifically, Ted would be separated from most of the voters who elected him and placed in a Senate district dominated by GOP colleague Doug LaMalfa and stretching to Red Bluff.
The dilemma could be resolved, however, by the Gaineses moving elsewhere in Placer County. This would allow Ted to run for an adjoining Senate seat, slated to stretch from Nevada to the Oregon border. . . .