[Ads-l] dummymander

[Ben Zimmer]

According to Taegan Goddard's Political Dictionary, "dummymander" was
coined in 2005 in this article:

Bernard Grofman & Thomas L. Brunell, "The Art of the Dummymander: The
Impact of Recent Redistrictings on the Partisan Makeup of Southern House
Seats," in: _Redistricting in the New Millennium_ (Peter Galderisi ed.,
2005). https://bit.ly/49sJXnP

On Mon, May 4, 2026 at 1:30 PM James Landau <
00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> from an email from an outfit called "Blue Future", sent from
> ourbluefuture.usNick Guthman, Blue Future hello at ourbluefuture.us
> Google shows a number of cites for "dummymander" so this cannot be the
> first usage.
> If anyone wishes to see the complete email, email me and I will send
> it.<quote><snip> There's a term in redistricting circles for a gerrymander
> that blows up in the party's face: a dummymander.
> Here's how it works. Gerrymandering is about taking competitive districts
> – the ones where either party could win – and packing them with enough of
> your own voters to push them safely out of reach. The goal is to
> manufacture a cushion.
>
> The problem? There are only so many Republican voters to go around.
>
> When you redraw a map to squeeze out four more safe seats, you have to
> pull Republican voters from somewhere. That means your previously
> bulletproof R+15 district might slide to R+11. Your R+11 might become R+7.
> You've traded a few fortresses for a lot of soft targets.
>
> Now look at the environment those maps are going to face in November.
>
> The latest Emerson likely voter poll puts Democrats at +10 on the generic
> congressional ballot. Trump's approval has cratered to around 40% – his
> worst numbers of his second term. Special elections across the country have
> been breaking for Democrats by an average of 15 points.
>
> Do the math: if you gerrymander yourself a R+10 cushion in a district, and
> Democrats are running +10 nationally, you've just made that seat a toss-up.
> And the safe seat you cannibalized to build it? Now suddenly competitive
> too.
> <end quote>
>
>

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