What is the origin of the word gerrymander?
In the early part of the 19th century the Massachusetts legislature created a state senate district that was designed to assure that one of their own would be elected but that would also include a sizable Federalist minority. The idea being to create a safe Democratic seat and also to take as many Federalists out of closely fought districts as possible. Elbridge Gerry was the governor at the time and he protested the bill but signed it. Critics noted that on a map the district resembled a salamander so they combined that word with Gerry’s name and came up with gerrymandering. Back in the early eighties the Tennessee legislature came up with a congressional district that meandered from the Mississippi border to the Virginia border and it looked amazingly like a dinosaur. The sad thing is that because of this incident Gerry has been remembered only as a political schemer when in fact he was an extremely important figure in the founding of the United States.
From: ‘The Mavens’ Word of the Day – February 2, 1999′ As posted at: www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990202 “The word gerrymander is an American political term that William Safire has called “one of the most triumphant political expressions.” To gerrymander is to divide an area into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible. In short, gerrymandering is designing a district to fit a voting pattern. The word gerrymander is a portmanteau from the name of Elbridge Gerry and salamander. Gerry was the governor of Massachusetts when he signed a bill in 1812 to redraw the district boundaries to favor the Democrats and weaken the Federalists, who had better numbers at the voting booth. The shape of the district he formed was likened in appearance to a salamander, and
From Wikipedia: Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are manipulated for an electoral advantage. The word “gerrymander” is named for the Governor of Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23,
