Democrats should be livid about losing the House

[Johnny2X2X]

Last edited Mon Nov 14, 2022, 10:07 AM - Edit history (1)

Gerrymandered maps in Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas were deemed illegal. Republicans just ignored the courts and used them anyway. WI is jerrymandered terribly. Dems tried to fight back in New York, but Conservative judges deemed their map illegal and they didn't use it. Dems should have jus used the map they made in New York.

Michigan voters voted to have a non partisan panel redraw their map, it lead to the voters of our state having the representation in Washington and Lansing that is the correct ration of our vote. Dems need to spend a ton of money and effort fixing the maps in several states, whatever it takes, off cycle redrawing can happen.

[DarthDem]

1. Yes, But

Can we skip the outrage - and the always not-too-far-behind doom and gloom for a couple more months? What Democrats achieved this past week is nothing short of incredible and is a testament to the strength of our party.

P.S., the House isn't even settled yet.

[BlueIdaho]

27. Bravo!

What Democrats did accomplish was historic.

[certainot]

54. actually, after what republicans have done with tfg and abortion it shouldn't have been close, even

with gerrymandering

what kept it close is what got us here in the first place - dems and the left ignore the massive talk radio advantage. 1500 radio stations screamed INFLATION! FUEL PRICES! RENT! CRIME! IMMIGRATION! to 50 MIL a week. if the GOP would pay $1000/month for a one hr radio infomercial, 1200 stations x 15hrs/day is worth $90M/wk or almost $5B/year. that's FREE to the cons.

we got lucky that limbaugh died so that messaging monster isn't as unified on everything and that was a big help to democrats, in those senate races especially. but now all those republican radio stations are going to be unified making excuses for walker now and attacking warnock. this would be a fantastic opportunity for dems to use AI, such as described at fakenewsradio.org, to go on the offensive and start monitoring the RW Ga stations. it is political malpractice for dems not to do it and this would be a great opportunity for it.

there are probably 40 or more RW stations in Ga. there might not be any liberal talk stations in the state. that's a massive advantage for the GOP that democrats routinely ignore. they say anything they want, hiding behind call screeners.worse than that 3 Ga universities support 14 of those stations - Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2.

in comparison the gerrymandering is practically irrelevant. probably most of those too close to call congressional races are in talk radio country. if dems had done something for these elections re talk radio, even just to get attention to it, walker would not have had a chance. ron jonson is a long time talk radio guy. he would have been gone. grassley would have been gone. many more races would not have been close. without rw radio republicans would not have won congress in 94, we would have been way ahead on climate and healthcare, we wouldn't't have gone into afghanistan or iraq, and bush and trump would not have gotten anywhere near the white house.

[bdamomma]

75. and

President Biden too, he deserves credit too.

[bullwinkle428]

2. Just this morning, Joe Scarborough tried to make the claim that gerrymandering

HURT REPUBLICANS in this year's Congressional races!!

He made the statement (which he apparently pulled out of his ass) that there were 5 million more Republicans that voted for Congressional candidates when compared with Democratic voters. It's pure, unadulterated horseshit, and the guy just never gets fact-checked.

As I think about this, it may very well be that some registered Republicans voted for Democrats because their own candidates were utterly bat-shit, but that would change the premise completely.

[ITAL]

5. Well, the GOP so far is up by over 4 million votes

https://www.cookpolitical.com/charts/house-charts/national-house-vote-tracker/2022

[onecaliberal]

11. Millions of votes in California to still be counted.

[ITAL]

15. I'm in California

I don't think all 4 million of that is being made up. Obviously there were some races that were uncontested too, but all I'm saying is it's not obvious to me that this would have been a Democratic wave if not for gerrymanders by the GOP.

[onecaliberal]

41. You need to look at what the court did in Texas and Florida. States ignored rulings on maps

Used them anyway. Not saying 4 million votes will be made up in California, but saying the gerrymandering isn’t a factor is just not correct.

[ITAL]

51. I'm saying

If in theory the House should be approximately representative of the nation at large, if more people in the country voted for Republicans they should probably hold the House. If the GOP lost by 4 million and won the House by 2-3 seats, then sure gerrymanders are the reason. If they win by 2+ million, then that isn't the story.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

67. You can't apply national totals to districts; people are not uniformly distributed across the land.

[Zeitghost]

71. And districts are not uniformly distributed by area

Outside of a few states with a single district, congressional districts are roughly the same population.

If a party gets' 50% of the votes, they should win 50% of the seats.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I just woke up.

So, we lost the house?

[babylonsister]

4. I don't think so, not yet. Nothing has

been called afaik.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Thank you!

[Johnny2X2X]

7. Not a done deal, but our chances took big hits last night

Betting markets up to 96% Reps take the House.

[William Seger]

29. I'm still in it to win it!

Had several chances to sell at a fat profit, but I'm HODL!

[Demsrule86]

28. Nope...still in the hunt...the usual doom and gloom...but we took two seats last night.

[Baitball Blogger]

30. Thank you!

[Garibaldista]

43. Two (2) seat pickup last night??

Link, please!

Currently, NPR us at 204 while Google (AP?) has us at 203.

[Polybius]

61. We also lost two since last night (NY and OR)

The poster is a wonderful, positive person. However, he or she often overlooks real bad news.

[Polybius]

60. And just lost one more

Link to tweet

[brooklynite]

73. Reality is not "doom and gloom"

See my summary and tell us which four R seats you expect to flip (for the sake of discussion, I'll spot you Boebert).

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217365584

[LeftInTX]

69. I don't think there is a strong path for us.

The GOP only needs to win their GOP likely seats to win. They officially have 212 seats. They need only 6 more. We officially have 203.

They have likely pick ups in AZ 1 and 6
CA 3, CA 22, CA 41, CA 45, CO 3, and NY 22

We would need to flip at least 4 of these. NY 22 was just called by Wasserman, so they now have 213 seats.

[MiHale]

8. It's no coincidence better maps...Democratic win...4 decades

As livid as democrats in other states may be those maps were a hard fought battle. It was a combination of good leadership and a willingness to fight till it was done. I hate that I lost the representation of Mr. Kildee but he’s still in government which is good and great for Mid-Michigan.

Let Michigan stand as an example of what can be done.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. Michigan is the shining example

We put it to the voters here with ballot proposals. And Republicans tried with all their might to stop them from ever getting on the ballot. And not just this year. In 2018 when we passed expanded voting, and non partisan redistricting, the GOP had control of all 3 branches of the state government, and we still got them on the ballot.

I realize that other states have different laws on ballot proposals, but we can still get redistricting on the ballots somehow in places like Wisconsin, and Louisiana. Maybe even Florida and Ohio too. It's a wildly popular idea with voters from both sides.

[yellowdogintexas]

36. I wish we had that in Texas. Until we get a majority in

the State Lege, it ain't happening because the only way we can do voter approval is a State Constitutional amendment.

We vote on those every November in the odd years. I doubt the turnout is more than 20% if that. (those are boring election days if you are a poll worker, I might take a yarn project on one of those days).

The other solution is to take back the House in 2030 so we can have a reasonable map, which is going to take a LOT of work.

We have just enough Majority/Minority districts to skate under the wire. Five black House Reps and 8 Hispanic- 13 out of our 38 total districts.

[honest.abe]

9. Something has to be done about district map jerrymandering.

It so blatant unfair and should be illegal.

[FSogol]

12. Jerrymandering? You're blaming the Germans?

[NullTuples]

24. Right? Elbridge's family came from England!

[markodochartaigh]

32. Why not blame the Germans?

Everyone is always asking what the Poles say. Let the Poles run their own country! Let Gallup, and Marist, and Quinnipiac, and all the rest ask Americans what we think!

[Marcuse]

37. That's one explanation for East Prussia and West Berlin.

[Carlitos Brigante]

44. I thought it was Jerry Stiller's fault, everyone knows that. nt

[Quakerfriend]

13. Is there any legal recourse to their refusal

to stop in those areas where a judge declared it illegal?

[Beautiful Disaster]

14. They should be livid at Cuomo and the New York Democratic Party.

Cuomo appointed the judges who overruled the gerrymandering and the NY Democratic Party severely dropped the ball in a handful of House races Democrats had no business losing.

[sop]

16. Pundits and pollsters had Republicans gaining as many as 50 seats in the House.

I agree with all your concerns, we should be livid about all the election tampering, but "losing the House" needs to be put in perspective (if/when it's eventually called for the GOP) given the numbers.

[Johnny2X2X]

17. Agree

What we accomplished is incredible. But I want to highlight, that the only reason we may lose the House at all is Republicans are using illegal maps in several states.

[uponit7771]

18. THANK YOU !!!

[IronLionZion]

19. We lost a lot of winnable seats in blue NY

Then there are plenty of house seats across America with no Dem running at all. They are so red the GOP candidate cruised to an easy victory unopposed. not sure if some of those might be worth fighting for.

[Docreed2003]

20. Tennessee republicans split up the blue district of Nashville four ways

I've seen very little outrage about the GOP's murder of a reliable blue congressional district here in Tennessee. They carved up Nashville four different ways and now, depending on where you live in the city, your rep could live up to two hours from your home and somehow they're supposed to represent the people of the city. It's bullshit, it's brazen and it was met with a big meh from the larger media but it was a seat that was lost.

[yellowdogintexas]

26. yes and that district has not sent a Republican to Congress

for at least 100 years.

Democratic mayors, councils, state reps everything.

I was appalled. (I used to live there)

[LeftinOH]

21. If the District of Columbia had Congressional representation...

this might not even be a thing. The fact that DC residents don't have have representation is appalling.

[Botany]

22. Losing the 3 wonderful women running for state Supreme Court because they would have overseen ...

... making sure that new districts are drawn up fair. Nan Whaley was awful (she lost by 30 points)
and she dragged down all the other state wide races including Tim Ryan & the OH supreme court
races.

OH is going to be a republican wasteland for the near future.

[lonely bird]

35. Sadly, you are correct

Ohio has become a sinkhole, a swamp of MAGAt infested stupidity.

Iirc, Ohio is near the top or at the top in RWNJ/militia groups.

[Botany]

39. Ryan and the 3 women running for Supreme Court would have won if it wasn't for Nan Whaley's run ...

... for Governor. She dragged down the ticket with her 30 point loss. The networks came on @ 7:30 pm EST
and they were calling the OH's Gov race 7:31. And with that OH was done because a lot of people who voted
for DeWine voted a straight party ticket.

Whaley lost by 30 points but Ryan lost only by 4 or 5 points and I think the #s were about the same for the
OH Supreme Court races.

BTW the stories about Ryan losing because he did not bring in Biden are bull shit. Ryan's act in not having
Biden come to the state was the smart move .... Trump won the state in 2016 & 2020 by a big margins and
Ryan to win needed to get some of those Trump voters.

And yes much of OH has become North Alabama and after my mom passes I'm out of here.

[Demsrule86]

49. She really f'd it up for us.

[Botany]

53. She was not really running Dayton as its mayor that was done by a city manager, she had never ....

... a campaign before, and she was a bad campaigner too. I talked to one of the managers for
the Ohio Supreme race in '22 the day after the election and he was not happy with her. Skilled
people tried to get her some help but she refused that help.

[lonely bird]

78. It is stunning to me...

How gutless and amoral Republicans are. Vance served in the military. Great, which means absolutely nothing. He fucked over people with his false charity. He called Trump what he was and the turned around and fellated him.

What a piece of crap.

[DownriverDem]

23. Michigan

had a citizen committee draw our district lines after the proposal passed in 2018. We won because our districts are more fair. We were gerrymandered for decades.

[MichMan]

56. Why did Black Democratic candidates sue the state then?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

59. "Fair" redistricting divided Detroit, merging bits with suburban areas, so ...

... there were no black members of congress elected representing Detroit.

There are no districts "packed" with black households, like the GOP used to gerrymander.

[MichMan]

63. So the countries largest Black majority city no longer has Black representatives

Who cares, right?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

65. How can this happen? Well, for example, District 13: ...

Seven or eight black candidates vied for the seat in the primary. Sri Thanadar also threw his hat into the ring. Votes were spread across the slate of black candidates, so Thanadar ended up winning the primary with fewer than 30% of the votes.

Adam Hollier came in second with almost 25%. If there was a runoff between the two leading candidates, Hollier would have mopped the floor with Thanadar's cheap wig and would be heading to congress in January. Runoffs don't happen in our primaries.

So in this case, there is no black representative from the 13th because there were too many qualified black candidates. Irony.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

57. We had a state supreme court that was mostly Dems.

FL, NY, more conservative justices shot down "unbiased" mandering. Our Whitmerandered state wound up pretty well.

[Polybius]

62. NY was the right decision

NY voters voted to ban gerrymandering in 2014. A map was drawn up early this year that was heavily gerrymandered in favor of Democrats.

[appmanga]

25. I find it odd...

...that considering the harm isn't easily undone, why these maps aren't injoined and the old lines used until a legally acceptable result is created. I'd love to have an answer to that.

[Traildogbob]

31. Countering the maps

We all, ALL Dems need to flood Truth Social begging trump to start a third party. Damn the trump haters. Unite. Take the country back. Seek revenge on those loser Republican Media’s that have turned on trump. Call it the RED party. They already have and the costumes and uniforms. (And Jiina agenda) do it Donny, Do it. Announce tomorrow. Third party. Imagine the line up of candidates. Come on MAGA. Demand a breakaway from those traitor Republicans that are biting the hand that made em rich.
Red Party, or orange if GQP has a patent in red. They sure ran away from the red color on their campaign sign. Embarrassed to be seen in red.
Plus let him milk every dime out of Poor MAGA’s. Then they can’t buy guns and they been shootin up all their ammo at Biden and Pelosi signs prepping for civil war. Can’t afford refills.

[Elessar Zappa]

33. As long as gerrymandering is legal,

I’m of the opinion that we should gerrymander the hell out of the blue states. I don’t agree with gerrymandering but as long as the Republican states do it, we should too. The House would be ours right now if California and New York had been drawn correctly.

[Demsrule86]

48. That is exactly what we need to do. If Ohio can ignore the court so can we in New York...change the

law too.

[In It to Win It]

50. I agree. I'm only anti-gerrymander if Republicans are too

We are trying to play a fair game on an unfair playing field. To even the playing field, fuck it, let's gerrymander.

I would gerrymander out of California if I could. I would make sure Kevin McCarthy couldn't win a single seat in California if I had the power.

[Zeitghost]

66. California has a committee that does it

But the results the past few cycles have had us take far more seats than the popular vote would suggest we have. We'll see how this election pans out, but it's going to lean Dem.

[riversedge]

34. WI lost Dem. Ron Kinds seat [he did not run but we had a good Dem in place].

[LeftInTX]

76. A real bummer

[Marthe48]

38. Ohio governor's SON is on the OH. Supreme Court

The Ohio Supreme Court has 3 times said the gerrymandered r map is unconstitutional it it has to be changed. The legislature ignores the ruling, and submits the same gerrymandered slop. Then they claim they don't have time to get a different map before 2024.

The Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice, Maureen O'Connor, has to step down in Dec, because of stupid term limits. She is an r, but has ruled that the current map is unconstitutional, siding with Dem justices on the court. After Dec., r justices, including dewine's own son, pat, will have a majority rule on the Ohio Supreme Court as well as both state houses. They will do whatever the hell they want to as they roll in their political mud. dewine's son says he would recuse if he has a deep personal interest. Well, his dried up daddy is the governor, and there is no way any son could EVER be aloof from influence. It is disgusting, and the Ohio state government is disgusting.

In 2024, Ohio elect any r's on the ballot, even if the majority of Ohioans vote Dem. Because if the r's ignored a ruling from the court before they got all of the seats packed, guess what they'll do now? Not the right thing, because they never do. Swine.

[Hope22]

40. People don't realize how our hands are tied. n/t

[samsingh]

42. i agree. next time a repug talks of illegal voting - hit them in the face with this

repugs in the house are not legitimate. they got there because of a fixed system, cheating, and illegal acts.

[Demsrule86]

46. Talk is cheap...you think they give a damn? We need to fight fire with fire...we gerrymander.

[Demsrule86]

45. We will not stop the gerrymandering with this court. Thus we need to gerrymander the fuck

our of our states...Mass, NY and Ca to name a couple.

[czarjak]

47. Cheating eQuals Winning?

[usonian]

52. Thugs mostly lost bigly. While they are still pissed, install robotic overlord election masters.

Then we can fight over algorithms!

[inthewind21]

55. Huh

So the house has been called? It ain't over until it's over.

[Polybius]

58. "Conservative judges deemed their map illegal"

Because it was illegal. NY voters banned gerrymandering in 2014. The map they drew up was heavily gerrymandered. Blame Andrew Cuomo.

[In It to Win It]

64. For me, being a Floridian, that's the most infuriating part that NY has a court that worked

I'm jealous.

Personally, it was disappointing that the NY map was struck down but I'm not mad about it. The map violated NY law so it seems reasonable, although disappointing in the larger context, that the NY court would strike down a map that violate NY law.

The infuriating that the Florida appeals court did the opposite of the NY court. Gerrymandering is prohibited in Florida. It is a literal violation of the Florida Constitution... and our court here DID NOTHING. They let an unconstitutional map stand. NY's highest court determined that it was following NY law for the benefit of NY voters, and Florida's highest court did nothing.

I wish I had a court that was as proactive.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

68. We need to outlaw partisan gerrymandering

The John Lewis Act and the other voting rights act would have outlawed partisan gerrymandering

[LeftInTX]

70. I know....It sucks that it went nowhere....

[Zeitghost]

74. I agree

But it won't have much effect on the House. Percentage of Seats won generally track to percentage of votes cast give or take 1-2 seats recently and 2022 appears to be no different.

[brooklynite]

72. "Conservative judges deemed their map illegal"

Sorry, but 1) they were appointed by Andrew Cuomo, and 2) they upheld the actual law passed by the State Legislature that said "no gerrymandering".

[Demsrule86]

77. We have not lost the House...we could still win.