Regarding mid-decade redistricting, be careful what you wish for, as MN voters have a history of not liking sleazy stuff. The DFL did something seedy before 1978, with governor Anderson resigning so that he could be appointed senator by the new governor Perpich, his lieutenant governor. Both Perpich and Anderson lost the next election in 1978 by big margins, and MN had Republicans for governor and both senators for the first time of the modern era.
Yeah, of all states, Minnesota is a bad fit for these tactics. Minnesotans take good government seriously! And that's especially true in the case when the DFL can clearly win fair and square.
Wasn’t Wisconsin similar in this way? Republicans paid no price there for their brutal gerrymander of the state legislature.
Thats a good point, but I think there is one significant difference: Milwaukee. As a black plurality city, Rs do what they always do and run against it as a vote-stealing machine, so that voters in the rest of the state see their gerrymandering as a way to counteract it. Thats a lot harder to do with the Twin Cities, even though they are more diverse than the rest of the nation thinks and there is some friction with some immigrant groups. The Twin Cities suburbs do have disturbing levels of segregation though not as bad as Milwaukee, but they are also more educated (more hitech and biotech) than Milwaukee.
