Stephanie Herseth won a close election to narrow the Republican majority in the House to only 11 seats. DailyKos points out quite rightly that their involvement in the campaign may very well have helped tip the scales, and points out the importance of grass-roots Democratic support, which is swelling enormously in this contentious election year. Herseth replaces Republican Janklow, who killed one of his constituents (which is pretty much how far a Republican has to go nowadays in order to get the police to arrest him).

This is the second big win for Democrats in special elections this year (they picked up a House seat in Kentucky earlier), and signals a likely trend for Democrats to gain seats and take over at least one house if not both in Congress–but there is a possible braking action here, an illegitimate Republican dirty trick in the form of non-census-related redistricting. Usually voting districts are redrawn only when new census figures change the number alloted to a state and require the districts to be re-drawn. If there is one party decisively in power at the beginning of a decade, they often gerrymander, that is, draw up districts to maximize their chance to win more seats in Congress.

Republicans, however, have hit upon a new strategy: instead of waiting a whole ten years for those pesky censuses, just do it now. Any time Republicans gain control of both houses in a state, they pounce on the opportunity to redistrict right then, in order to solidify their hold on power. In 2002, the GOP broke with long-standing political tradition and gerrymandered in Colorado without any legitimate need to do so; they wanted to win more seats in the next election, so they just redrew the lines for that purpose and that purpose only. This year, with Tom DeLay pushing the agenda, Texas followed suit–and Republicans elsewhere are gearing up to follow.

The Supreme Court has ruled “excessive partisanship” in districting as unconstitutional, and the recent Republican efforts in Colorado and Texas are undeniably just that. In fact, the entire redistricting effort by GOP members in control of those states is, without any question or possibility of doubt, strictly designed for the purpose of slanting the playing field so more Republicans can win, and for no other reason whatsoever. The Texas redistricting alone stands to gain Republicans at least four seats in the House. Republicans in Georgia and Ohio say they want to do the same thing next.

A case was rejected by the Supreme Court last month (Vieth vs. Jubelirer) concerning the overtly partisan Republican Pennsylvania gerrymandering (at the time of the census) on the grounds that there are no “workable standards” for courts to follow in determining whether a redistricting is partisan or not. But a new case, Jackson vs. Perry, brings forth the question of non-census gerrymandering in the Texas debacle, and may have the “workable standards” that would bring about a majority of SC justices to agree that the redistricting is unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, Jackson vs. Perry will likely not be decided until after the election–which means the Republicans will get away scot-free with another heaping handful of stolen elections. There is a chance that perhaps the Texas courts will find the reason to throw out the new lines before time runs out, but I am not holding my breath there. If the Dems fail to win a majority in the House by less than five seats, then the Republicans will have won yet another victory for governmental control via the illegal scumbag route. In other words, nothing new to see here.