California has just passed a ballot initiative to create a nonpartisan commission to do the redistricting of House of Representatives seats as a result of the 2010 Census. I believe Florida has a similar commission.
The GOP did very, VERY well in Gubernatorial and State Legislative elections on November 2nd and so will have control of the redistricting process in many important States. This will doubtless result in more GOP-friendly seats being created for the 2012-2020 elections than would be the case if Democrats controlled the process in more States. As a partisan matter, I can hardly complain about this. It's been the Spoils of [political] War since the beginning of the Republic. But I believe it's wrong!
In the United Kingdom, the nonpartisan Boundaries Commission is in charge of changing House of Commons constituency boundaries. This is particularly important in the lead up to the next Parliamentary elections in May 2015, because the number of seats is going to be reduced from 650 to 600 and - with only a couple of extreme geographically dictated exceptions - every seat will have to have within 5% as many people on the electoral roll as every other seat. Imagine if the Coalition Government were in charge of this or a Committee of the House of Commons. It would result in endless squabbles between and within the Parties and bring Parliament into disrepute - again!
I believe every State in the U.S. should adopt a nonpartisan means of setting House seat boundaries before the 2020 Census requires this process to happen the next time. The people will thank them for it, and a major cyclical cause of time wasting conflict in State governments all across the country will be removed forever.
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