5 replies to this topic

[B&R]

This is jumping the gun a bit but here is a possible arrangement of congressional districts for seven seats instead of the current six.

No gerrymandering allowed, and this is for districts with whole counties only.

I made an estimate for state population based on the 2009 Census Bureau estimates and used the latest trends for the state and each county.   Population per district would be around 660,000 on average. Estimated population for each district after the included counties.

Suggestion 1 -

District 1 -  "Blue Ridge"  -  Greenville, Pickens,  Oconee - 655,000

District 2 - "Peach Blossom" - Spartanburg, Cherokee, York, Union, Chester, Fairfield  -  662,000

District 3 - "Capitol " -  Richland, Lexington, Calhoun   -  658,000

District 4 - "Savannah River" - Anderson,  Abbeville, McCormick, Greenwood, Laurens, Newberry, Saluda,
                                                   Edgefield, Aiken, Barnwell, Allendale, Hampton  -  650,000

District 5 - "Coastal"  - Charleston, Beaufort, Colleton, Jasper, Bamberg , Georgetown  - 658,000

District 6 - "Midland"  -  Sumter, Florence,  Clarendon, Orangeburg, Dorchester, Berkeley -  675,000

District 7 - "PeeDee Plus" - Horry, Marion, Dillon, Marlboro, Chesterfield,  Darlington, Lancaster, Kershaw,
                                         Lee, Williamsburg, ,  - 664,000

I think those are fairly compact districts. Five of seven are within 5,000 of the average district standard. Greenville and Spartanburg will be put in separate districts this time.  Lexington and Richland plus Calhoun are almost a perfect fit.  D6 has 5 counties between 90,000 and 180,000.

Suggestion  2 -

District 1 -  "Blue Ridge"  -  Greenville, Pickens, Oconee  -  655,000

District 2 - "Peach Blossom Borderline" - Spartanburg, Cherokee, York, Lancaster  -  660,000

District 3 - "Capitol  East" -  Richland, Fairfield, Sumter, Lee, Williamsburg, Kershaw , Clarendon  -  652,000

District 4 - "Savannah River and Central" - Anderson,  Abbeville, McCormick, Greenwood, Laurens, Newberry, Saluda,
                                                   Edgefield, Aiken, Union, Chester  -  655,000

District 5 - "Charleston, Old and New"  - Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley  - 673,000

District 6 - "Congaree to the Sea"  - Lexington ,Calhoun, Orangeburg, Barnwell, Allendale, Hampton,  Colleton, Jasper,
             Bamberg, Beaufort -  661,000

District 7 - "PeeDee Coastal" - Horry, Marion, Dillon, Marlboro, Chesterfield,  Darlington, Georgetown, Florence, -665,000


Splits Lexington and Richland, creates a smaller Charleston area district, shrinks  the Spartanburg to Charllote area district.  D7 trades Lee, Willliamsburg,  Kershaw, and Lancaster for  Georgetown and Florence. D4 leans  east instead of south.

[vicupstate]

Assuming we do get a new seat, I would like to see Greenville and Spartanburg put in separate districts.  That way we have two congressmen to fight on behalf of GSP and other common interests.  

Usually congressional reapportionment is just tweaking lines, but with a whole new seat to consider, it could get very drawn-out, divisive and time-consuming (thus leaving little time for important but unrelated legislation to be debated).

[B&R]

The combined population of Greenville and Spartanburg will be in the range of 750,000.  The estimated population of the state will be in the 4,600,000 range.  Divide by 7 yields approx 660,000.   The two counties will be about 90,000 over the target.  I think that is too big a margin to make a single district from the two counties.

Of course they could slice off voting precincts and add them to other congressional districts but I hope they try to keep counties intact as much as possible. If they do that Greenville and Spartanburg would be in separate districts.

[Spartan]

If only it were that easy. Thanks to the Voting Rights Act's antiquated language, gerrymandering is basically required in order to get a minority representative. My hunch is that they will ahve to split up Greenville and Spartanburg. With nearly 25% of the state's population living there, it makes sense to have two coving the region.

[vicupstate]

It's official, SC gets a 7th seat.  NC just barely misses getting one (from Minnesota). Georgia gets one though.

SC will have 9 electoral votes for the first time since 1930.

The average Congressional District nationally will have 710,000 people. SC's will be considerably less than that though.

BTW, Missouri losses a seat, so that hurts St. Louis's bid for the 2012 Democratic Convention against Charlotte.  NC has 15 electoral votes versus 10 for Missouri.

[B&R]

Population for SC  =  4,625,364
Increase of    613,352  which is 15.3 %
Average pop. / Congressional seat  = 663,711  

South Carolina (officially) jumped above two states in  population rankings -  Kentucky and Louisiana - to 24th.  At current growth rates we will catch Alabama within about 4 or 5  years.