Media impact on the special election

[Bob Nelson]

In addition I think that come presidential election time, electoral
votes are awarded to the same number of Senators and Representatives
in each state. MA would have 2 Sens and 10 Reps,
VT 2 Sens and 1 Rep. States like California are big prizes to be won.
Add them up and you get 535:
100 Senators and 435 Representatives --then add 3 for D.C. for a total
of 538. However when a census is done, a state can lose a district or
more.

Mass. used to have 12 or even as many as 14 districts but lost
population and it's been 10 for awhile. Who knows, could go down to 9.
If this happens one Rep will be "gerrymandered out".
Maps will be redrawn.
The term comes from former MA gov Elbridge Gerry (of Marblehead, I
think); a map drawn of one district (mine, Essex County) looked like a
strange creature-- Gerry + Salamander, hence the term?

State house and senate districts also can be  gerrymandered and take
on weird shapes. Scott Brown's state senate district includes Howie's
town of Wellesley and heads all the way down to Wrentham near the R.I.
border.

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 3:41 PM, Bill O'Neill <billohno@gmail.com> wrote:
> SteveOrdinetz wrote:
>>
>> Excuse the stupid question, but I've lived in N.H. most of my life and
>> Mass. politics is peripheral at best.  What encompasses the district that
>> was former Ted Kennedy's?  Western Mass, the Cape & Boston area all one
>> district?  Talk about gerrymandering!
>
> The U.S. Senators (2 per state) are all at-large.
>
> Bill O'
>