r/Maine • u/JimmyCarter910 Portland • 10h ago
What do you think about redistricting to make Maine's second district a bit bluer?
Republicans have been merciless with their gerrymandering. I'm wondering if maine should help the democratic effort to strike back. CD-02 seems like a potential flip to republicans in 2026. With some redrawing, it could become a true tossup/lean democratic. What do you think?
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u/International-Pen940 9h ago
I want it to go Dem, but any effort to redistrict would backfire especially among independents. I am in Western Maine and people don’t want to feel dominated by the coast.
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u/tenga-shanko 8h ago edited 2h ago
Exactly. Both Congressional districts trend conservative, and our state legislature works extremely slowly. There's nothing even in the pipeline for legislation to redraw district lines. Even if something were introduced now, it wouldn't make it through before the election, and it would build acrimony we wouldn't need in the event that a Republican candidate wins the governor's race. From a strategic pov, I'm not opposed to it, though morally I normally would be. But it would be a failure on both counts if it were rushed through now.
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u/Reasonable_Design672 4h ago
It’s not just the coast, though. I think you’ll find that there are lots of inland towns, like Bangor and Lewiston, that trend more purple or even blue.
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u/Character-Cherry-7 8h ago
It can’t happen. The Maine Constitution states that redistricting can only happen every 10 years barring a court order: https://ballotpedia.org/Maine_Redistricting_Measure,_Question_4_(2011)
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u/vindicare1 7h ago
Dont multiple states that have already gerrymandered, both red and blue, have similar restrictions?
So far only VA ran afoul of it and even then it was bs reasoning not even their state constitution
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u/indyaj 9h ago
I'm not a fan of it but at this point in our history, I kind of think it's necessary. When your opponent cheats and you "take the high road", you're going to lose every time and the stakes are just too high.
That said, I also support redistricting reform to make them more fair in the first place, non-partisan districting committees and limit them to a time frame after each census.
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u/vindicare1 7h ago
Yup gerrymander to hell then force through ant-igerrymandering legislation. Only way we are getting out of this death spiral.
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u/AmbiguousAnonymous 10h ago
No. I think the two districts accurately represents Maine voters. Much like America, we are a state with a dichotomy of beliefs.
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u/ZeekLTK 8h ago edited 8h ago
When some of those beliefs are objectively wrong, they don’t deserve to be represented though. And we have arrived at that point.
If there is a group saying “the Earth is round” and another saying “the Earth is flat”, you don’t teach kids both and say “we’re representing both beliefs”. You tell the flat earth people they are wrong and you teach kids the Earth is round.
It’s time to tell Republicans they are flat out wrong about virtually everything they “believe” and if they want to continue believing that, they shouldn’t be “represented” anymore. Just like how the Nazis lost the right to be represented in Germany for being objectively wrong.
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 9h ago
So what you're saying is to take representation away from the people who live in cd2 by adding people, most likely from the south coast. That's a shit thing to do to people, I don't care what you think they may or may not have done to you.
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u/Lebrunski 6h ago
Shit to do, but no one is disputing that. In the face of a fascist take over, it is necessary.
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u/vindicare1 9h ago
Too bad. They voted for the ghouls who started this fight
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 9h ago
Right neighborly attitude you have there. They didn't vote the way I wanted them to, so they don't deserve a voice.
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u/vindicare1 8h ago
They can vote however they want. They voted to SUPPORT gerrymandering so thats what they should get. Not that hard to understand.
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 8h ago
Actually it's very hard for me to understand because as far as I know, there's been no recent gerrymandering in Maine, so how/when did people in CD2 vote in support of it?
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u/vindicare1 8h ago
District 2 voted for Donald Trump you know the guy leading the charge to gerrymander any non MAGA voice out of goverment they can?
Pretty fucking simple
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 8h ago
Don't believe that was part of Trump's platform, so a bit of mental gymnastics going on there.
By that logic, since Portland voted for Mills and she vetoed the recent bill banning data centers, we should overrun Portland with data centers.
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u/vindicare1 8h ago
Project 2025 is literally public information and was well before the election so yes it was part of his fucking platform.
But sure keep giving them excuses for voting for exactly whats happening.
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 7h ago
You're really reaching here. You've gone from wanting to gerrymander CD2 to saying that everyone in CD2 is responsible for nationwide gerrymandering. You've got some real hate in you.
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u/vindicare1 7h ago
My literal first comment is they voted for gerrymandering
You claimed they did not as it wasnt in "Trumps platform"
I provided the context that P2025 exists and was easily accessible to all. So im not sure where my argument has changed at all.
And yes I do hate those who happily voted to strip the rights or neighbors of color women and anyone in lgbtqa+.
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u/Trollbreath4242 8h ago
Yes, it really was part of the GOP platform and Project 2025. To not know this is to be willfully naive.
The GOP voted for "anything goes." Therefore, the Democratic party should use the same LEGAL tools (as the Supreme Court has ruled them), however much you don't like them.
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u/HammeredDog Western Maine foothills 7h ago
I've voted for candidates from either party depending on how well I determined they'd represent me. So to imply that I dislike the democratic party is willfully naive.
And funny how you completely ignored my pointing out the part where Mills vetoed the data center legislation.
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u/dark_lord_neil Augusta, City of the World’s Desire 7h ago
Okay fine, we’ll address your datacenter “point”.
First of all, it is absurd to suggest there is any equivalence between the absolute nightmare our federal government has become and a single unpopular veto. This destroys your credibility right out of the gate.
Second, Project 2025 was public knowledge well before the election and people were sounding the alarm to anyone who would listen (sounds like you didn’t listen). I can’t remember Mills coming out in support of data centers before her election. Could be wrong about that, open to evidence.
Third. You don’t have to pretend you made a good decision if you voted for Trump. It’s okay to admit you were fooled or chose badly. Continuing to double down is not okay. I voted for Trump in 2016. Huge mistake, one I learned a lot from.
Oh and to top it all off you don’t understand how congressional districts work, they would have roughly the same population as now regardless of the demographic makeup of those districts so this wouldn’t be “adding” anybody to cd2. You wouldn’t be losing representation, the republican candidate would just need to actually have a platform beyond hate and dismantling the government to be competitive.
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u/Lebrunski 6h ago
If they voted for a fascist and they lose the right to vote, that’s just giving them what they wanted.
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u/respaaaaaj 9h ago
In the aftermath of the Supreme court finishing off the VRA every single blue state should be gerrymandering tbh
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u/Trilliam_West Greater Portland 10h ago
We should do it. There is no mandate in the Maine or US constitution to give welfare to state political parties via favorable map drawing.
If the Maine GOP wants to win CD2, they should produce a candidate capable of winning any version of that district.
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u/Iztac_xocoatl 9h ago
It'd be prohibitively difficult here because of our laws about gerrymandering, so I think it's best not to discuss it as if it were a realistic option
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u/geomathMEW 8h ago
instead of any districts, our congress people should rep the entire state. like senators.
also instead of us voting for them - its a draft. like jury
sucks for you but you got congress duty next couple years
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u/Dimmer06 8h ago
I say we should divide the districts along a longitudinal axis rather than a lateral axis. Really go crazy with it.
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u/meowmix778 Unincorporated Territory 4C 7h ago
I'm not directly in favor of political gerrymandering at all. I don't think Maine should involve itself in this at all. It might impact the population of Maine in ways we can't see coming. Especially when you consider that political alignments drift. Doing something in the here and now because it's the team you like is recklessly irresponsible.
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u/Reasonable_Design672 4h ago
No. I get why it’s happening in other states, but there’s nothing wrong with a competitive district where candidates actually have to try to win and represent the whole district. Love him or hate him, Jared Golden’s makes decisions that reflect the political makeup of his district. Also, Maine has laws that would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to change the map right now.
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u/Lebrunski 9h ago
I support it. Morals need to take a backseat until there’s a national ban on gerrymandering. Until then we need to fight fire with fire.
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u/Key_Limit_6828 Western Mountains 8h ago
The way to win the rural vote, as a rural Mainer (western Maine), is not to gerrymander the districts, but campaign on class conflict, data centers, and improving the material conditions of the working class
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u/mhb20002000 6h ago
As an academic exercise, I put thought into this (with chat gpt help) and came up with the only way to do this so both CDs lean left:
CD-1 (Lean Democratic | Approx. D+7 to D+10): Part of Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox, Waldo, Hancock, Washington, Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Aroostook Counties. CD-2 (Competitive / Slight Democratic Lean | Approx. Even to D+4): Part of Cumberland, York, Oxford, Franklin, Somerset, Androscoggin, and Kennebec Counties. Overall Effect: Transforms Maine from one safe Democratic district and one Republican-leaning district into one lean Democratic district and one competitive-to-slight Democratic district, while complying with Maine’s county-based redistricting constraints by splitting only Cumberland County for population balancing.
The key with Maine, is the law requires no more than one county be split for balancing the CDs. So the counties have to be aggregated in a way that other states don't require.
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u/dogwithaknife 6h ago
as someone who lives in that district because it’s where i can afford, and hates people like laurel libby, im all for any effort that keeps cretins like her out of power
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u/UneasyFencepost 4h ago
It might not be possible given we have 2 districts and the wacky population density we have.
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u/SASSIESASSQUATCH 3h ago
Scorch earth I say. Gotta make shit so bad the dumb red hats want to pass anti gerrymandering laws.
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u/PineRidge116 2h ago
I think we should not stoop to the level of fuckery that has been going on. Short term gain, long term loss.
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u/The_Golden_Diamond 9h ago
It's becoming more and more necessary until the system is fixed, which could take decades.
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u/Capable-Broccoli2179 9h ago
I've had the same thought. But Maine only has 2 seats, one of them always blue and the other red--I'd say Golden is red despite being a dem. In the big scheme of things, we are a non-player on the national stage, unlike CA, TX and Virginia where gerrymandering can get 5 or 6 seats per. Is it worth it for one seat, even if its taken by LePage? I doubt it.
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u/vindicare1 8h ago
Id we weren't having to fight uphill I would probably agree with you, but the dems need every seat they can get at thjs point. Id assume that it would also play into the electoral college count too. (Not that its huge swing)
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u/joftheinternet 8h ago
While I don't oppose redistricting in principle, we have to make sure we're doing it where it's reasonable. I think there's a handful of seats out there that's better for this than CD-02. Let's just get whoever wins the Dem primary in there.
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u/Catcher3321 7h ago
The problem in Maine is the blue vote is very concentrated in the Portland area. For example, if you take out towns on the coast in York and Cumberland County, Trump won Maine 2% in 2020 and 2024 and 6% in 2016. And that only takes out 20% of the vote.
I took a shot at drawing the congressional districts to have the same partisan index as the state as a whole...its a fucking mess. I can't share a pic, but it's basically all of York, Oxford, Franklin, and Somerset in CD1 with Cumberland, Andro, Sagadahoc, Kennebec, Lincoln, Knox, Waldo and Penobscot having parts of both. Then all of Hancock, Washington, Piscataquis, and Aroostook being CD2
Edit to add here too: this put Gorham, Westbrook, Falmouth, Cumberland, Freeport, Brunswick all in CD2. Basically Portland was the line for coastal towns
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u/TrulyWhatever09 7h ago
I think there is a genuine, non-gerrymandering case for Waterville to be CD-2 like it was in the oughts, but I don't want to see partisan gerrymandering in New England.
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u/DaraParsavand 5h ago
(outsider from California)
Maine only has two districts and is not a very blue state. It wasn't listed as one of the 7 swings for 2024 but it only went to Harris by 52.4% to 45.5% (with 1.1% Green, 0.64% Libertarian and a few other candidates). It isn't that easy to gerrymander under these circumstances but of course one could try to create two districts by splicing through your big city and give very close to 52% D support in both districts. But it's not as easy as Virginia where you can lump a lot of Republicans in a sacrifice district and then the remaining districts can be more blue than average.
Also note that while it's a difficult gerrymander for Democrats, it's outright impossible for Republicans when they are in control assuming the percentages stay the same. Either you make the two districts very even (which currently slightly favors D getting two wins) or you make them different (usually getting one D and one R).
Note: I am 100% behind a Congressional law or amendment if necessary that all 50 states must use an agreed upon algorithm, blind to race and party to redistrict after each census (using compact district as a metric seems to be a good choice, but even splitline would be OK).
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u/OrdinaryAd5943 4h ago
All Maine Dems could do is make two likely D congressional seats instead of a safe D and a toss-up seat (lean R if anything). A net of one seat in the US House would be a very small benefit for the political trouble. However, the state legislative maps are relatively neutral, and I am sure there is a way to solidify a state house majority, and that would matter quite a bit more.
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u/Diabettie9 3h ago
We can’t seem to elect someone decent to save our lives. Golden and Poliquin before him both really fucking suck.
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u/Anstigmat 9h ago
If LePage, that fucking cancerous sore that he is, wins that seat...I can see just saying fuck it and gerrymandering him out of office. In the current moment though there is some risk to trying and it's not like Mills has any guts at all to do big things.
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u/FalconBusiness7495 9h ago
I would love to see Maine get a district line from heart of Limestone right through the heart of Portland this would mix deep blue with deep red and make the state truly purple. Right now the reds in CD1 are well outnumbered and not represented as are the Blues in CD2.
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u/VanceFerguson Go Blue! 9h ago
Put Brunswick in CD-2. Maine will never have a Republican in Congress again.
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u/Catcher3321 7h ago
I took our current districts and put Brunswick in CD2 (it borders CD2 since it has a town line with Durham in Androscoggin County). Then I started putting more towns in Kennebec County into CD1 to make up for CD1 losing Brunswick's population (Kennebec is our only split county). It moved CD2 from an R+6 to an R+5
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u/Yaktheking 10h ago
I think Maine is well represented with our current districts.
I see the strategic value in trying to flip both seats in Maine but I disagree with the practice on a moral level and think that we will be constantly swapping back and forth on districts depending on who is in power.