The Commercial Appeal's Zack McMillin writes in Eye On Politics that the Delta Country, which he calls Tenn-ark-issippi, represents the backbone of many of the tossup seats that could determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives this November. Three of the 35 House districts which are considered to be "tossups" essentially surround Memphis (Arkansas 1, Mississippi 1, and Tennessee 8, the Stephen Fincher-Roy Herron contest). There are 99 seats nationally seen to be "in play" that could switch hands.
What national constituency maps really highlight-whether such models intend to or not-is the importance of elections for State Legislatures in Tennessee and around the country. Parties that control their respective Legislatures in any given State control the process whereby congressional and legislative district lines are redrawn after a federal census, which is one reason why Tennessee Republicans are so keen to let the world know that they are favored to pick up seats in the State House of Representatives this year. Whatever your political party, those who are in-th-know politically realize that there is much more at stake in the 2010 General Election than which political party controls Congress or the General Assembly, but literally which party could control those institutions for years, and perhaps decades to come.
Should that be the case, or should our laws be changed to allow for constituencies to be drawn and redrawn in a way that gives no special advantage to either party from one election to the next?
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