Redistricting.

One argument against term limits for congressmen is that people should be allowed to chose when their representative leaves office. Unfortunately in California, ha ha, it is not your choice! A practice so diabolical it has two names, gerrymandering, or redistricting.

Basically, political parties have become more powerful than actual elected representatives, and the parties work together, at the expense of voters, and their representatives.

In California, the Democratics and Republicans get together, and cut up California into congressional districts that give each party secured positions. The Democratics will give some conservative leaning areas to Republicans, and the Republicans give over liberal leaning areas. In this way, they draw districts that guarantee wins for both parties.

Of course they don't absolute power, and they have to sacrifice some representatives in order to achieve this. If you've ever looked up the history of a congressional district, you'll see every few years, the district is somewhere else, and this usually puts a new party in power.

I was looking up my current congressional district, the 11th, and I wanted to point out some of its travelled history.

Currently the 11th encompasses East-Bay, and swoops south then east, then swoops back up to San Joaquin County into Stockton. I should also mention, all you have to do is look at district boundaries to see they are politically drawn, not logically, in nature.



In 1912 the 11th District encompassed Imperial, Inyo, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties, basically most of southern California. From 1933-1943 it was the district for Los Angeles County. Then it jumped to northern California and bounced back and forth for decades, until it came to where it is now in 2003.

Congressman Leo Ryan represented the 11th district in San Mateo in 1978, when he went down to Jonestown in Guyana because of the stories about people being forced to stay in the cult. He was ambushed at the airport and murdered by Jones' thugs. Congressman Ryan was the first and only Congressman killed in the line of duty in U.S. history.

The current Congressman, Jerry McNerney has held the seat since 2007. He is likely to win again in 2010. There was a really good challenger but he dropped out for family reasons. There are a lot of challengers on the Republican side, but no one stands out for me.

What is most likely to oust McNerney? Nothing. Fixed!

Case Closed.