By
Bruce R. Gilsonon June 6, 2009
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
The author of this book has a provocative idea: If districts are truly competitive, so that they are won very narrowly, then almost half the voters in each district are going to be unhappy, so he advocates making most of the districts overwhelmingly Republican or Democratic. And there is actually much to recommend in this approach. This is why I gave it a better rating than other reviewers.
But on a personal basis, it wouldn't help me much. I'm a Republican located in one of the most liberal districts in the nation, represented by Chris Van Hollen, who rivals Nancy Pelosi in liberalism. And this district was drawn very much to do just what Brunell recommends. It was a district that used to elect the moderate Republican, Connie Morella, who often voted with Democrats because of the nature of the district. When the State Governor and legislature got to work, they made the district so liberal and Democratic that even Morella could not win it, with her excellent constituency service, and lost narrowly to Van Hollen. Naturally, without a Connie Morella as a candidate, the district is now overwhelmingly Democratic. And there is no way anyone could draw a district that included the place I live and was overwhelmingly Republican, so I'm forever doomed to be represented by someone whose politics I thoroughly dislike.
Brunell thinks his plan would produce something close to proportional representation. But the only way to make local minorities really happy is to institute true proportional representation. Brunell's plan might be more proportional and certainly would reduce the number of people unhappy with their representative, but it still would produce a lot of people represented by Congressmen they dislike.