Let's put the Gerrymander on the endagered species list...

Four members of Tom DeLay's Texas based PAC, TrmPAC, stand indicted of violations of campaign finance laws. More recently, five Texas democrats are suing TrmPAC for violations of Texas campaign law. These are the most visible symptoms of a fatal flaw in US election laws. That being that the majority political parties decide how to re-apportion voters and set the boundaries of legislative districts.

The whole stink in Texas is the result of Tommy's drive to seat a majority republican Texas legislature and then draw up new legislative boundaries which favored republicans, which they did. But there is a simple solution...

What is required is a Constitutional Amendment which takes the power to redraw legilative districts and put this power in the hands of a non-partisan commission in each state. After each decennial census, this board would be appointed and redraw legislative districts on the basis of, not party affiliation, but population...What a novel concept. This would provide for more representative legislatures on both the state and federal levels. This would, in turn, result in a government which, I believe, would be more in line with that envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.

Gerrymander - "Gerrymander refers to the drawing of boundaries of legislative districts to benefit one party or group and handicap another. Although the practice dates back to the colonial period, its name is derived from Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a nonsigning delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787, and a leader of the Jeffersonian Republican party."

Also see:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/national/28delay.html