Volume 86

Jason C. Miller

With the 2011 redistricting process poised to commence across the country, debates are raging as to who should draw district lines, how to keep those individuals from drawing them for partisan advantage, and the best way to draw minority districts. This paper addresses the largely overlooked area of media markets. Districts drawn to conform with media markets experience higher voter turnout. Moreover, linking a city and its economically-connected suburbs together is simply common sense. Discussing the impact of district conformity, or lack thereof, with media market boundaries on campaign strategy, news reporting, voter participation, grassroots organizing, and candidate recruitment, this paper examines two examples of poorly-drawn districts before proposing that line-drawers consider community boundaries — typically deliniated by media markets — in creating districts. Additionally, this paper urges courts to consider community boundaries among the various factors when deciding between competing plans, and that future scholarship and proposals for reform also examine media markets.

Full article (.pdf) available here.