Polarizing the House of Representatives: How Much Does Gerrymandering Matter?

The 2006 mid-term elections presented new questions about gerrymandering—particularly how Election Day results would be affected by congressional redistricting designed to provide an electoral edge to certain political parties and incumbents, or to disadvantage racial groups as the Supreme Court recently ruled Texas had done. Brookings explored these issues in the second series of panel discussions on America’s polarized politics inspired by the book Red and Blue Nation? Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics.

Brookings explored these issues in the second series of panel discussions on America’s polarized politics inspired by the book Red and Blue Nation? Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics (Brookings, 2006).

Brookings Senior Fellow Thomas Mann, who has written a chapter on gerrymandering, was joined in the discussion by Sam Hirsch, a Jenner & Block attorney who has represented the Democratic Party’s national redistricting project; Mark Braden, a Baker & Hostetler partner and former chief counsel of the Republican National Committee, and Thomas Edsall of The New Republic, who has written on the historic impact of gerrymandering and polarization. Stuart Taylor, Brookings nonresident senior fellow, moderated this discussion.