The attentive Carmen and Mr. Elgersma both note that the Republicans gerrymandered Jenna Haggar out of District 15 and into District 10. My friends thus inspire me to look at the map.
Here's the map of districts around Sioux Falls for the 2010 election:
Jenna Haggar's physical address, according to her 2011 contributions to the Minnehaha and state GOP, is 1201 East 8th Street, just east of Cliff Avenue. Zoom in to the 2010 map, and we see Jenna snagged into District 15 in that odd little eastward jut:
Now, let's look at the lines the Republicans drew around Sioux Falls this year:
9 retreats westward, 10 loses its bottom half to 25, save one ugly gerrymander down Highway 42. 10 advances into Sioux Falls and trades precincts with 15. Where's Jenna's house?
Sure enough: that little rectangle from I-29 to Cliff, from 6th to 10th, flips from District 15 to District 10.
Now naturally I want to see that map drawn specifically to draw Jenna out to District 10 and the comfy conservative territory of Roger Hunt and Shantel Krebs. But where else could the legislators have drawn those lines in eastern Sioux Falls? A look at the Sioux Falls precinct boundaries shows the line drawers only had so many precinct puzzle pieces to play with:
Whatever the motivation, the GOP has now sent Rep. Jenna Haggar from downtown and Morrells to the conservative rural suburbia of Brandon and Renner. Haggar scored remarkably well, in District 15, winning under her faux-Indy label in every precinct against her two Democratic challengers, Martha Vanderlinde and Patrick Kirschmann. It seems a little unfair to send her out to all new precincts except her home neighborhood. But one observer thinks Haggar will be right at home with Rep. Roger Hunt's old constituency. Can Haggar replace the old dog with her youthful tricks?
Haggar also works out in that rural district in the Brandon neighborhood I believe...
Please quit pretending that democrats don't gerrymander districts, have you seen some districts in other states? There's one in IL (4th district) that makes a complete C shape that moves the district lines block by block, nothing close to a square or rectangle shape. I believe it's called Jaws. Look at a mp of that district and then come back and tell me how unfair republicans are with their gerrymandering. BTW, is your big complaint that she lives in the district but doesn't live in the center of it?
Hey Scott, how about just staying right here in South Dakota with the gerrymandering. Take a look at Phil Jensen's district 33 in Rapid City and tell me about Jaws in Il, and then you will be able to see a mousetrap in our own 33.
my understanding is americas mailbox in box elder dumps 3000 "out-of-state" repub votes into dist. 33 each election.
Wow, 2012 draws a comment! I need to reread....
Scott, I'm not pretending anything. The Republicans controlled the 2012 redistricting process in South Dakota. The Republicans dictated the boundaries that shifted Jenna Haggar out where they wanted her. The fact that Democrats in power elsewhere also gerrymander does not rebut anything I've said in this post about the political facts on the ground in Sioux Falls and South Dakota. Unfair is unfair, no matter which party does it or where. I advocate redistricting be done by a bipartisan or (if such folks exist) nonpartisan committee guided by objective rules on fair population distribution along boundaries as smooth and logical as is feasible. Madville Times readers and I proposed legislation to that effect to the 2014 Legislature. I supported similar legislation in 2013 and in 2011.
Indeed lesliengland, not only in district 33, but to corrupt state elections as well. Bad enough that the Hutterites all vote in lockstep as well, but when you can swing a district, that is some kind of corruption. Kind of makes Illinois look pristine doesn't it.