Cassandra Mickens of the Clarion-Ledger and Bobby Harrison of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal both erroneously reported today that the redistricting map drawn by Rep. Bill Denny (R - Jackson) would increase the number of majority minority House districts in Mississippi. In actuality, the number of majority minority districts would decrease.
Under the current maps, drawn in 2002, there are 43 majority minority districts. Under the Denny map, there would only be 42. When the current maps were drawn a decade ago, there were only 41 majority minority districts. Due to population shifts, however, the current number of majority minority districts is 43.
You can count them for yourself here: House 2002 benchmark summary and Denny map summary.
***UPDATE*** - Thanks to "anonymous" in comments, I have been proven wrong. I counted districts 71 & 83 twice. The articles linked above are correct in saying that the Denny map increases majority minority districts by one. My apologies to Ms. Mickens and Mr. Harrison.
4 comments:
You should count them yourself. The benchmark only had 41 even taking into account population shifts. You seem to be counting districts 71 and 83 twice. Those districts are already included in the first list. Looks like you should retract all your posts and apologize.
While you're at it, you might also acknowledge that those 41 districts were very significantly under-populated based on 2010 census data. Given the population flight from the Delta, it is difficult to reconstitute all those majority-minority districts. Whatever other complaints you might have re the Denny map, it clearly satisfies section 5 of the VRA.
Anonymous, you're right. I counted 71 & 83 twice. My mistake.
As for the second part, we'll let the Justice Department make that call, and then let the courts hash it out.
Cool, but no apology to Denny for accusing him of lying on the House floor?
Sure. Apologies to Rep. Denny for saying that he was lying about increasing the number of majority minority districts. But he's way off on another number. Check it: http://cottonmouthblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/rep-earle-banks-d-jackson-questions-rep.html
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