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Alabama's 5th congressional district

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Congressional districts , also known as electoral districts in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional body. Countries with congressional districts include the United States , the Philippines , and Japan .

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27-505: 34°46′39.78″N 86°46′51.62″W  /  34.7777167°N 86.7810056°W  / 34.7777167; -86.7810056 Alabama's 5th congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in Alabama , which elects a representative to the United States House of Representatives . It encompasses the counties of Lauderdale , Limestone , Madison , Morgan and most of Jackson . It

54-522: A Democrat for president since then. Democrats continue to hold most offices at the local level, and continued to hold most of the district's seats in the Alabama state legislature until the Republicans swept nearly all of north Alabama's seats in 2010. In the mid-1990s, it was a seriously contested seat, with longtime Democratic incumbent Bud Cramer winning reelection by only 1,770 votes in 1994. However, Cramer

81-475: A Republican to the U.S. Congress since Reconstruction . Griffith was ousted in the Republican primary by former Representative Mo Brooks. George W. Bush won 60% of the vote in this district in 2004 . John McCain also carried the 5th district in 2008 with 60.91% of the vote while Barack Obama received 37.99%. Peter Myndert Dox ( Huntsville ) John Henry Caldwell ( Jacksonville ) These are

108-582: A deviation of less than 1%. Many other nations assign independent bodies to oversee and mandate the delimitation of boundaries; however, in some nations the legislature manages this process. In the United States, legislatures play a commanding role in the redistricting (as delimitation is referred to in the United States) of congressional districts. The redrawing of boundaries occurs after the decennial census ; single-member constituencies are responsible for

135-479: A single district. There has been no official delimitation process in the Philippines since the 1987 constitution's ratification. As per Article 6 of the constitution, the requisites for creation of a legislative district are as follows: Since 1987, 43 districts have been newly added due to the creation of new cities and provinces, sundering from existing provinces, and piecemeal redistricting. As incumbents control

162-532: A state. The boundaries and numbers shown for the congressional districts are established by their respective state's constitution or court orders in the apportionment and redistricting cycle. Apportionment in the United States involves dividing the 435 voting seats every ten years. As per Article One of the United States Constitution , elections to the House of Representatives are held every two years, and

189-533: A trend which has continued up to the present. In recent years, the United Launch Alliance has located its research center in Decatur. As a result, Huntsville has become the second largest and fastest growing metropolitan area in Alabama. For a time, the district bucked the increasing Republican trend in Alabama. It was the only district in the state that supported Walter Mondale in 1984, but hasn't supported

216-591: Is currently represented by Republican Dale Strong , a former Madison County Commissioner. Strong was first elected in 2022 following the retirement of Republican incumbent Mo Brooks . Two major economic projects have lastingly impacted the 5th district and have indelibly dictated the politics of North Alabama for most of the 20th Century. Before 1933, the Northern Alabama counties were characteristically poor, white and rural. The Tennessee Valley Authority 's (TVA) arrival changed much of that, slowly transforming

243-413: Is integral in administering fair and sovereign judicial systems for nations with delimitation processes. Manipulation of this framework often results in gerrymandering , the practice of drawing district boundaries to achieve political advantage for legislators. There are currently 243 congressional districts in the Philippines. Voting representatives are elected from these districts to the lower house of

270-408: Is the city/municipality which is equivalent to a city/town in the United States. Provinces are represented by governors and can be split into multiple congressional districts, each of which elects a congressman. Provincial governors allocate resources and control patronage in municipalities across all congressional districts in the province, thus have greater exposure and power than a representative from

297-410: Is the process by which seats in a congressional body are allocated amongst constituencies entitled to representation such that each district receives seats in proportion to its population. Apportionment aims to fairly represent all voters through a principle of proportionality; however this is often difficult as proportions can be fractions whilst seats cannot be, and governments may be unable to quantify

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324-485: The Congress of the Philippines every three years. In 1946 there were originally 98 congressional districts, this number increased to 200 after the 1987 constitution was created and new redistricting articles were mandated The Philippines constitution mandates a nationwide reapportionment of setting boundaries for legislative districts; however, the legislature has not approved a reapportionment bill since 1987. Following

351-439: The 435 regions from which voting representatives are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. After the decennial census population counts and apportionment of congressional seats, states are required to define and delineate their own congressional districts for the purpose of electing members to the House of Representatives. Each congressional district is expected to be equal in population to all other congressional districts in

378-637: The House size and number of congressional districts were fixed in 1941, the Huntington-Hill method became the official method of apportionment and was used in the 2020 apportionment and redistricting cycle. The current method solves many of the issues concerning previous methods, however it still violates the 'one person, one vote' rule established in Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) due to systematic bias which gives more representation and power to small states than to residents of large states. These methods have been

405-499: The decision allowed voters to challenge redistricting plans. Since Shaw v. Reno (1993) and Abrams v. Johnson (1997), the courts have invalidated numerous congressional redistricting plans upon the basis of traditional districting principles. These decisions have been surrounded in controversy as the Supreme Court has not identified these 'traditional' criteria explicitly, resulting in the major political parties attempting to abuse

432-623: The demographic towards technical and engineering employees. The second major project was the space and rocketry programs including Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville where the first large U.S. Ballistic missiles were developed. Additionally, NASA built the Marshall Space Flight Center in the Huntsville-Decatur area during the 1960s. In the late 1950s Northern Alabama came to be dominated by the high-tech and engineering industries,

459-413: The election of the legislators that govern this process. In 25 states the state legislature is responsible for creating the redistricting plan, but six states (Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming) do not require redistricting for the House of Representatives and instead elect a single representative for the entire state. Each state has its own constitution and laws surrounding

486-456: The first decennial census was conducted in 1790 but was abandoned in 1840 as it favoured larger states such as Virginia, Thomas Jefferson 's home state and the most influential state at the time. Hamilton's method was used intermittently for the next half-century and was eventually replaced by Webster's as the Hamilton method resulted in population paradoxes when the House size increased. After

513-448: The institutions that determine the rules for redistricting, many of the congressional districts are allegedly gerrymandered to ensure the elite persistence of select families that form the Philippines' political dynasties. This is illustrated by the Marcos family which remained in power from 1987 to 2008 in almost 50 congressional districts, despite term limits. Congressional districts are

540-492: The lack of legislation and definition to advantage their respective parties. According to the database of redistricting laws in all fifty states and previous court decisions, the de facto principles are: compactness, contiguity, equal population, and preserving county and city boundaries. Apportionment Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

567-530: The numbers of delegates are apportioned amongst the states according to their relative populations. The Constitution itself makes no mention of districts. The U.S. Constitution does not specify how apportionment is to be conducted and multiple methods have been developed and utilized since the Article's inception such as the Jefferson, Hamilton and Webster methods. The Jefferson method was first utilized in 1792 after

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594-659: The precise number of actual voters. Delimitation or redistricting is the process of drawing congressional boundaries and can also refer to the demarcation of voting areas for the purpose of assigning voters to polling places. Delimiting is a common process in nations with first-past-the-post systems , two-round systems , alternative vote , block vote , parallel and mixed-member proportional systems and single-member districts . Nations without these processes typically have proportional representation electoral systems, such as Chile, Honduras, Norway, Spain, and many others. The methodological framework that governs these processes

621-492: The redistricting process, and most of the modern criteria applied federally have come about through rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to 1962, there was limited federal and state government regulation on redistricting, and these were rarely enforced. However, after the Baker v. Carr (1962) decision redistricting became justiciable and courts became an active participant in the redistricting process of congressional districts as

648-698: The results from the previous ten election cycles in Alabama's 5th district. Congressional district Terminology for congressional districts vary by nations. The term "congressional district" is largely used in the United States and is distinctive from legislative districts. In the United States, congressional districts were inscribed into the Constitution to ensure representation based on population. Conversely, state legislation declares that "legislative representation be (built upon) non-population related principles such as representation of counties, cities, or other geographical and political unit". Apportionment

675-561: The subject of debate for over 200 years as losing or gaining a seat affects representation which is the source of political power. Congressional districts are subject to the Equal Protection Clause and it is expected that they apportion congressional districts closer to mathematical equality than state legislative districts. The U.S Supreme Court in Karcher v. Daggett (1983) rejected New Jersey's congressional redistricting plans due to

702-755: The ‘one person, one vote’ doctrine, political territories are expected to be symmetric and have limited variance in the size of its constituencies. However, many new districts have been created that defy the basic requisites for redistricting as the constitution fails to clearly expound the due process for apportionment and redistricting. This has resulted in unequal representation in districts such as Calacoon City, and Batanes being represented by one legislator each, despite containing populations of 1.2 million and 17 000 people respectively. Philippine's 243 congressional districts are composed of territories within provinces, cities and municipalities. From an American perspective, provinces are equivalent to states, and below that

729-586: Was elected five more times with 70 percent or more of the vote and even ran unopposed in the Democratic landslide year of 2006. Cramer did not seek reelection in 2008. Parker Griffith , a retired oncologist and State Senator , won the open seat in November 2008 . However, in December 2009, Griffith became a Republican. Until Griffith's switch, the district had been one of the last in the former Confederacy not to have sent

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