Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock
The strongest proposal before the Arkansas General Assembly to reapportion the state’s four congressional districts involves a serious attempt to gerrymander. The question before the body is what does the amphibious gerrymander eat? Houseflies — and votes.
The aim is to divide the state into four roughly equal populations. My Northwest Arkansas (3rd District) has grown rapidly since the 2000 U.S. Census and that redistricting, based on the 2010 count, puts it roughly on a par with the Little Rock area (2nd District). The other two parts of the state roll through the miles to find voters. The 1st and 4th districts are very poor, the 2nd and 3rd have pockets of poverty but overall are loaded.
The state hasn’t had this obvious an attempt for political advantage come this close to success in some time. To follow geography, or at least county lines, could mean to drop Sebastian County (Fort Smith is the main city) south into the 4th. Perhaps Baxter, Marion and Boone counties (the city of Harrison is in Boone) could tumble east into the 1st District. Either option, however, surrenders some Republicans in Northwest Arkansas to rural areas, which worries — Democrats.
After the 2010 elections, only the 4th is held by a Democrat, Mike Ross of Prescott. (Don’t tell me you don’t know where Prescott is.) By putting the predominately Democratic city of Fayetteville in the 4th, Ross or a Democratic successor will be more secure. The heck with Districts 1-2-3, the GOP can have ’em.
But isn’t Arkansas more pragmatic than partisan and a strong charismatic Democrat would sway enough Republicans to win anywhere in the state (proven for anyone whose name rhymes with Chill Minton)? That would require confidence that Democrats don’t seem to have anymore.
Yet, what logic there is about the proposal nicknamed the Fayetteville Finger — the gerrymander is shaped like the digit — does makes passage likely. Besides logic, what’s needed are majorities in the two houses of the Legislature in Little Rock.
Look at this map. It’s embarrassing. You don’t need to be a Rorschach inkblot reader to see the resemblance to a prostate exam — there’s the doctor’s lubed, latex-gloved finger and there’s the … and the … even the …
I’m from Fort Smith, and I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t mind hanging with Hope and Prescott, towns to the south. Also, it’s hard to see why every Fayetteville Democratic leader would not cling fiercely to Bentonville and Springdale. Though Republican, they share huge corporate employers and, frankly, culture that transcends elephants and donkeys, which don’t eat flies, though they sure attract them.
The base of Ozark culture, despite decades of newcomers, is hill folk. Fayetteville poet Miller Williams wrote an essay on the differences between hillbillies and flatlanders. It’s nowhere online; my memory recalls that it was published in the early 1980s in the Arkansas Times when it was a monthly magazine. The differences have to do with trust and conviviality. Hill folk keep to themselves and flatlanders live to socialize. This also was discussed in a section of Malcom Gladwell’s book The Outliers, readily available.
While the 4th District has the Ouachita Mountains, it is generally flat and agricultural. That is, plants are grown on farms. In Northwest Arkansas, though not in Fayetteville, necessarily, Tyson’s chickens rule the roost, over even elephants and donkeys.
Fayetteville has some learning cut out for it.
With the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas there, plus we townies’ good-natured intellectual curiosity, let’s get to know what might be our new district.
Sister cities: The main ones are Hot Springs and Texarkana. Hot Springs has a population of 38,000, not counting racehorses (which attract horseflies). (Fayetteville has 77,000.) Texarkana has 30,000 (not counting the 36,000 in Texarkana, Texas, not a no-fly zone).
The main crops in the 4th District are cotton and rice.
The neighborly thing to, now that the average last Fayetteville frost is days away, April 15, would be to plant some cotton and rice, out back with the tomatoes.
I’ve looked into this.
Here are two decent looking websites on raising rice at home:
- How to Grow Rice from cable’s HGTV. Buckets help.
- Mother Earth News explains rice at home, at great length.
Cotton has its share of Internet interest.
- The Charlotte Observer, over in North Carolina, discusses cotton as an ornamental.
- This site makes raising cotton look pretty easy, too.
The four articles agree: You cannot grow enough rice at home for even one meal nor enough cotton for a hankie.
In this analysis, Fayetteville needs the 4th District. If the economy slides further, we all could eat and stay warm. In a good year, we can sell the district’s crops to Wal-Mart, safe in the 3rd District.
¶ 4/4/11 Update: Current legislative details are found at Stephens Media’s Arkansas News and The Tolbert Report blog.
¶ 4/5/11 Update: Proposal defeated but is not dead, reports various news sites, including The City Wire/Talk Business.
