The Zigzag Art of Politics

Mapping seats with crazy lines and partisan colors

As head of the Democratic congressional delegation in California, Phil Burton of San Francisco was in charge of drawing new boundaries for the state's congressional districts. All last summer he and aides pored over computer printouts of voting patterns. When Congressman Burton finally unveiled his plan, it seemed a model of fairness: population figures for each of the 45 districts were remarkably equal, and few county and city lines were violated. The plan was quickly pushed through the Democratic-controlled state legislature, and Democratic Governor Jerry Brown promptly signed the bill into law.

Yet as Republicans scrutinized the maps closely, they began yelling like devotees of primal-scream therapy. Burton had carved the state into a patchwork of jags and jigs, all designed to create as many Democratic districts as possible. The 27th District, traditionally a Republican stronghold, once hugged the coastline; now dubbed the "anteater's snout," it turns inland at Santa Monica and travels along a Democratic corridor just a few blocks wide into the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Burton also proved to be his brother's keeper: to preserve the seat of his sibling, Democratic Congressman John Burton, he designed a district that jumps across San Francisco Bay, then hooks below the city to take in a swath of Democratic voters in Daly City (see map). Right now the Democrats control 22 House seats and the Republicans 21. Burton created two additional seats to reflect California's population gains. But he still managed to give the Republicans only about 18 safe districts, meaning that the Democrats could wind up with a nine-seat advantage this fall. "It resembles nothing so much as a jigsaw puzzle designed by an inmate of a mental institution," wrote Dan Walters, a columnist for the Sacramento Union. Said Burton with a shrug: "It's my contribution to modern art."

Welcome to reapportionment, that decennial, highly partisan battle in state legislatures across the country to draw new boundaries to match the latest census counts. After more than a year of political swapping and swearing, 21 states still have not finished their redistricting chores. A panel of three federal judges in Texas just settled the nation's messiest battle by redrawing six of 27 districts to reflect the growing number of blacks and Hispanics in Dallas and south Texas. In New Jersey last week federal judges declared the plan approved by the Democratic state legislature unconstitutional and demanded a new plan by March 22. The discarded maps, which had been signed into law last January by Democratic Governor Brendan Byrne just hours before Thomas Kean, a Republican, was sworn in as his successor, had been challenged in court by the state's seven Republican Congressmen, who argued that the plan was drawn mainly to help elect Democrats. "Hurray!" said Kean, with a partisan cheer after hearing of the court's decision. "That good-for-nothing plan was not good for the people of New Jersey."