"Will Rogers phenomenon" state redistricting challenge

[Nichlemn]

The challenge: redraw the boundaries between two states to make both of them more Democratic or both more Republican, ala the Will Rigers phenomenon. The best way is to find two bordering states that have a large partisan gap between them and find counties about halfway between to give from one state to the other.

Bonus points for clean lines, communities of interest, sizeable shifts in both states and avoiding near-complete absorption of one state by the other. (Although in reality redrawing states would result in some voter shifts, ignore them for the purpose of this exercise).


I'm not able to create good images, but you're welcome to. Here's an example:

Give the four New Hampshire counties that border Vermont from the former to the latter. NH goes from giving Obama 54.9% of the two party vote to 53.1%. George W. Bush wins NH in 2004 under these lines. Vermont goes from giving Obama 68.9% of the two party vote to 67.0% - obviously not competitive at the Presidential level, but possibly enough to give Brian Dubie the governorship in 2010. Also, the lines look clean, with the Vermont and New Hampshire looking like they had proportionally expanded and shrunk, respectively.

[Nichlemn]

http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?authuser=0&ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=214668381355121949879.0004b20ef9ba6a5815802

It doesn't look like you've understood the exercise, although those boundaries are sufficiently imprecise it's hard to be sure (you could be meaning metro areas). Giving Philadelphia from PA to NJ for instance does not make both states more Republican or more Democratic, instead it makes PA more Republican at the expense of making NJ more Democratic.

[Nichlemn]

Another challenge for the extra-ambitious: try to give many more Senate seats to either the Republicans or Democrats by redrawing state boundaries sensibly and basing your results on the last election for each Senate seat.

Assume that counties new to a state vote on a uniform swing from the most recent Presidential result, e.g. a 47% Kerry county new to a 40% Kerry state would vote 55% Kerry in a 2006 Senate election where the Democrat got 48% of the two party vote.

[Nichlemn]

It shouldn't be hard to find a country in western Colorado that would make both Utah and Colorado more Democratic.

There are three such counties that border Utah, but interestingly the other five are all more Republican than Utah was in 2008. Colorado is kind of tricky to do this with since nearly all of its counties that border other states are Republican strongholds.

[Nichlemn]

Adding Omaha's county to Iowa would make both NE and IA more Republican... but would probably help Democrats on balance, by moving one electoral vote to a tilt-Dem state.  Super-paradox! 

Not really, as making two states more Republican(/Democratic) necessarily adds more population to the more Democratic(/Republican) of the two. Will Rogering states ain't a free lunch.