Dem
51
GOP
49
Although the Beatles are the band most associated with the 1960s, and the 1960s were a time when many musicians created songs with strong political messages, the Beatles didn't actually record very many political songs. There's "Revolution" (and its variants), which was a John Lennon song (despite being credited to Lennon-McCartney, as nearly all Beatles songs were). And there's "Blackbird," which was a Paul McCartney song that used metaphor to express support for the Civil Rights Movement. That's pretty much it (unless you count "Back in the U.S.S.R.," which was a parody of Americans' belief in their exceptionalism, as political).
Inasmuch as Alabama (and other Deep South states) are still fighting the battles of the 1960s, "Blackbird" seemed a good choice for this item. We've written several times about how the state decided to ignore the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and to make AL-02 less Black and more white in the latest round of redistricting, despite the fact that the state's population grew more Black and less white between 2010 and 2020.
The Alabamians' efforts to dilute Black political power were egregious enough that the Supreme Court stepped in. And the Alabamians' efforts to do less than the Supreme Court ordered in map v2.0 were egregious enough that the right to draw maps was taken away from state officials. A new, special-master-drawn map has now been approved by a judge:
As you can see, AL-02 has been adjusted to include most of the majority-Black city of Mobile. Ironically, that results in a district shape that is much closer to Goofy kicking Donald Duck than the previous district was. Sometimes, the only thing that can fix a gerrymander is a different gerrymander, we suppose.
The new AL-02 is not majority-Black, but it is plurality-Black at 48.7%. More significantly, it swings from being Trump +29 to Biden +12. So, the odds of a Democratic pickup are strong. Meanwhile, we are likely to get an incumbent-vs-incumbent race in either AL-01 or AL-07.
Other states that did what Alabama did don't want to get spanked in the same way. On the other hand, they don't want to turn seats held by white Republicans into seats held by Black Democrats, either. So, they are looking at different approaches to getting around the rules. Louisiana is taking the lead at the moment, dragging its feet (with Fifth Circuit approval, so far) in hopes of running out the clock so that there's no choice but to stick with the current maps. Louisiana's approach is likely to be a model for other states under the Voting Rights Act microscope right now; Florida and North Carolina may soon try the same technique. (Z)