California's 23rd Congressional District: The "Ribbon of Shame" (b/w Wisconsin's Redistricting Timetable)

As the Governator refers to it.  (And what about that tail on the 20th?)

Link to December 28 San Jose Mercury News article, "New redistricting panel takes aim at bizarre political boundaries".

Excerpt:    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refers to it as the "ribbon of shame," a congressional district that stretches in a reed-thin line 200 miles along the California coast from Oxnard to the Monterey County line. Voters there refer to it as "the district that disappears at high tide."

Democratic lawmakers drew it that way to make sure one of their own won every election. The party has held the seat throughout the decade -- since the last redistricting gave Democrats a big edge in voter registration there.

Critics of that 2001 remapping have cited the coastal ribbon as Exhibit A -- the reason, they say, that Californians were right to strip elected officials of the power to choose their voters and give the task of determining political boundaries to a citizens commission.  (We Draw the Lines.)

As the new Citizens Redistricting Commission begins its work next month, members say, the 23rd Congressional District will be a good reminder of what not to do.

Absurd gerrymandering/weird district lines in your state.

And then there's North Carolina.

And while we're on the topic.

LINK

State of Wisconsin 
Legislative Reference Bureau 
Informational Bulletin 02–1 [link to full report]
February 2002

I assume the Legislative Reference Bureau will prepare an updated version of this information bulletin for the redistricting process based on the 2010 U.S. census.