Georgia District Lines Mean Strong GOP Advantage | The Daily Report

Georgia is undoubtedly a conservative-leaning state.

Republicans hold both U.S. Senate seats and a majority of U.S. House seats. The GOP holds every statewide constitutional office and controls both chambers of the General Assembly. Republican presidential nominees have won the state’s electoral votes in seven out of the last eight elections.

But a close examination shows the Georgia electorate is more closely divided than those results suggest. The difference rests in how the Republican Assembly has drawn congressional and legislative boundaries to their party’s advantage.

Consider that nine out of 14 Georgia congressmen are Republicans, almost a 2-to-1 advantage. That’s about the same split in the GOP advantage at the statehouse. Yet President Barack Obama managed 45.4 percent of the vote here in 2012. Four years earlier, he fell just shy of 47 percent.

Alongside the 2008 presidential race, Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss had to go to a runoff to defeat his Democratic opponent. Now, with Chambliss retiring, Georgia is poised for another competitive Senate race in November.

“Republicans solidified their grasp on state politics through redistricting,” wrote Democratic strategist Eric Gray in a recent analysis of Georgia’s political boundaries. “They’ve maxed out their influence.”

To be sure, both political parties have taken advantage of redistricting power that follows every Census. Still in power after the 2000 Census, Georgia Democrats drew maps so egregious that federal courts discarded them. And it should be noted that the Voting Rights Act — which protects minority influence — plays a role in concentrating Democratic-leaning minorities into districts. That scenario results in the election of many black Democrats, while neighboring districts elect white Republicans. Of Georgia’s five U.S. House Democrats, four are black Democrats representing districts where a majority of the population is non-white.

via Georgia District Lines Mean Strong GOP Advantage | The Daily Report.