Though the first election under the post-2000 decennial census redistricting is almost four years away, there is already considerable gnashing of teeth among Democrats and Republicans alike.
California Republicans, coming to terms with their first gubernatorial loss since 1978, are apoplectic over the idea that Democrats will control not only the governorship but increased majorities in the state House and Senate. With Republicans now holding 31 governorships, Democrats in other states are fretting that they may come up short in the 2001-2002 reapportionment process.
My hunch is that this concern, while healthy, may be far overblown. Consider this: During the 1991-92 congressional redistricting, there was not one state where one party gave the other party a good, old-fashioned, gerrymander screwing. This is in sharp contrast with 1981-82, 1971-72, 1961-62 — and for that matter, for as long as anyone can remember — when majority parties tried and frequently succeeded in coming up with incredibly tortured lines, drawn solely for partisan purposes.
It is true that there were some real distortions in many of the new lines drawn in 1991-92, but
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