经济学人下载:重新划分选区之争

Moreover, the Voting Rights Act, originally intended to prevent the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South, makes it difficult to marginalise minority voters.It enjoins states to create districts dominated by minorities where feasible, and bars them from reducing minorities’ overall electoral clout.Trey Martinez Fischer, who heads the Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the Texas House, says his group will sue if the Republicans produce a congressional map with fewer than two new Hispanic districts.The fact that Republicans just pushed through a redistricting plan for the Texas House of Representatives that fell far short of the five new Hispanic seats he was demanding will also probably spark lawsuits. “Redistricting in Texas is a two-step,” he says, “first in the legislature, then in the courthouse.”

此外，最初为保护南方黑人选举权设立的《选举权法》，防止了对少数民族选民的边缘化。 该法案命令各州在可行的地区，为少数民族聚居地区专门设立选区，禁止各州通过任何手段削弱少数民族选民的总体力量。据德克萨斯州州议院美籍墨西哥裔立法团队的领袖特雷·马丁内斯·费舍尔（Trey Martinez Fischer）说，如果共和党划分的新选区地图没有新设两个以上的拉美裔选区，美籍墨西哥裔立法团队将提起诉讼。共和党人刚提出新的德州议会代表选区计划，该计划远远没有满足费舍尔五个新的拉美裔位置的要求，对此，他可能也会提起诉讼。费舍尔说，“对德州进行选区划分要分两步走，第一步是立法机构，第二步是法院。”

Democrats are especially enthusiastic about　 legal challenges 　to redistricting plans this year, since the federal government, which has considerable leeway to interpret and enforce the Voting Rights Act, is in Democratic hands. (Republican administrations, as it happens, have presided over all previous redistricting cycles since the act was passed in 1965, with a Republican in the White House in 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001.) Some Texan Republicans are already musing about bypassing the Department of Justice, and obtaining the necessary approval of their electoral maps from a federal court instead. But most seem to think the best defence against a legal assault is to produce a relatively timid redistricting plan in the first place.

民主党人对今年重新划分选区的法律障碍颇为热心，因为民主党掌权的联邦政府有相当大的空间解释以及执行《选举权法》。（自1965年该法案通过以来，1971年，1981年，1991年，到2001年，每次重新划分选区，联邦政府都是共和党执政。）一些德克萨斯州共和党成员已经开始考虑绕过司法部，争取联邦法院批准选区地图。但大多数共和党成员都认为要防止被起诉，最好还是起初就提出较公正的选区计划。

That suits most incumbents just fine. While they would be happy in principle to see their party’s ranks swell, they are seldom willing to help by allowing their own seats to become less secure. Instead, Republican congressmen and state representatives in Texas seem eager to shore up their own districts by jettisoning minority neighbourhoods, university towns and other left-leaning voters. That is understandable: given the scale of the Republican landslide in Texas last year, simply retaining all the existing Republican seats in next year’s elections will be a struggle, however the maps are drawn.

这样的打算比较适合在位者，他们当然想要看到自己的党派壮大，可是基本上都不愿意拿自己的位置做赌注。德克萨斯州的共和党议员以及州代表，热衷于巩固自己的地区，放弃少数民族聚居的邻近地区、大学城等偏左的选民。这一点可以理解，去年共和党人在德克萨斯州获得了压倒性胜利，不管新选区图怎么划分，在明年的选举中，要保住现有的共和党席位都是个挑战。

All across the country, Republicans are afflicted by similar problems. There are some bright spots for them, such as North Carolina, where the newly Republican legislature is likely to be able to flip a few Democratic seats in Congress by rejigging the boundaries. But there are also trickier prospects, such as Illinois, where Democrats will probably succeed in undermining several freshmen Republicans. In Florida, perhaps the most glaring Republican gerrymander of the previous cycle, a new law on redistricting is likely to crimp the state legislators’ most partisan impulses.

在全国其它各州，共和党人面临着类似的问题。有些地方他们有明显优势，比如北卡罗莱纳州，新的共和党立法机构可能通过改变选区界限，争取一些现属民主党的席位。可在有些地方，他们可能要遇到挑战，比如伊利诺伊斯州，民主党可以争取到一些共和党政坛新手的席位，另外在共和党上次重划选区做得最过的佛罗里达州，新颁布了一项法律禁止州立法委员偏私一党之利。

All told, both Democrats and Republicans agree, redistricting for Congress is unlikely to alter the balance much, with Republicans focusing for the most part on consolidating the gains they made at the last election. Despite the Republicans’ notional domination of the process, there will be few direct Democratic casualties. That will only be scant consolation to the Democrats, however, who will still face the daunting task of dislodging a mighty Republican majority of 49 in the House of Representatives.

总之，民主党也好，共和党也好，都认为共和党会尽最大力巩固上次选举赢到的席位，所以选区重划不可能对现在的平衡带来太大的改变。共和党对这次的选区重划只有名义上的掌控，所以民主党基本上不会因为选区重划而失去席位，不过，这对民主党也不算什么安慰，它面前的任务还重着呢，要改变共和党在众议院中超过了49个席位的主导位置，民主党可以说是任重而道远。