Gerrymandering is a problem in more states than the ones you cite, although not many districts are gerrymandered as badly as Florida’s 3rd, represented by Democrat Corinne Brown and drawn to pack all of the minority voters between Jacksonville and Orlando into a single district, and the nearby 6th, meant to be safe forever for rightwing nutcase Republican Clifford Stearns (instrumental in last week’s Susan G. Komen fiasco).

One of my least favorite Republicans, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, benefits from a district, Virginia’s 8th, that sprawls from the Shenandoah Mountains near Luray for a hundred miles down through an agricultural region, through the town of Culpeper, and into the wealthier suburbs in the northwest of Richmond. He feels so arrogant in the safety of his seat that he had the chutzpah to stand against emergency relief for victims of a major earthquake that had its epicenter in his own home district! He faces serious Democratic opposition next fall from one of two excellent candidates contending for the Democratic nomination, but whoever wins the nomination will have an uphill battle in a district that features major spending by cigarette manufacturers, extremely wealthy owners of wineries, and racist bumpkins from near the West Virginia border.

Virginia’s newly Republican government has been playing political hardball in a number of areas, probably from an awareness that, unlike in Florida, their time in power here is likely to be brief. But like in Florida, gerrymandering in Virginia is far more intense at the state legislative level, and the districts are diabolically drawn to improve Republican chances on election day throughout the state.