The Tennessean is practically begging Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly not to split Davidson County as part of the redistriting process. The newspaper's Chas Sisk reported that some so-called "redistricting experts" are declaring that if Repulicans split up Davidson County into separate districts, it might hurt Republicans. Most political observers on all sides of the spectrum in Tennessee know, however, that the current configuration was not drawn for any other reason than to protect Congressman Jim Cooper's seat in Congress. Democrats know that if Davidson County were split, the resulting districts would be suburban in nature and would trend-as even the suburban areas of Davidson County tend to do-toward the Republicans.
While The Tennessean, which was for many years a print media organ of the Tennessee Democratic Party, is trying to argue that Davidson County should not be split, a more appropriate question might be: Why should Davidson County not be split during reapportionment? If the goal is not aggressively partisan districts, but constituencies which are as representative of political reality as possible, then it is true that Davidson Countians who don't live in Nashville proper have been under-represented for years, and that is especially the case with the Metropolitan Government configuration in Davidson County. Democrats have the run of the Metro City-County government, and have since the days that separate county government was abolished in the County of Davidson and replaced with consolidation.
Perhaps the best way to insure more equitable representation for all Davidson Countians would be to draw federal Congressional districts in such a way to allow for the possibility that at least some people in Davidson County might be represented by a Republican.
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