Top Five Gerrymandered Congressional Districts

1. Arizona 2nd
The Hopi and Navajo tribes of Arizona are long-standing enemies. Since the federal government is considered the caretaker of Indian tribes, it would be a massive conflict of interest to have both tribes represented by the same Congressman. The problem is that the Hopi reservation is surrounded on all sides by the Navajo reservation. To solve this dilemma, Arizona snaked its 2nd District down a narrow river for several hundred miles.

2. Illinois 4th
This district is the smallest in area outside of New York and San Francisco. It connects a heavily-democratic, predominately Puerto Rican area of Chicago with a heavily-democratic, predominately Mexican area of Chicago. Since congressional districts need to be contiguous, Illinois' 4th includes narrow strips of land and a section of the uninhabited Interstate 294 to artificially construct its Hispanic majority district.

3. California 23rd
This district is nearly 200 miles long yet just a few miles wide. It encompasses many of the coastal communities between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The stated purpose of this district is to ensure that the population shares a common set of values that reflect so-called coastal values. The district is heavily liberal, which is fine by the Republicans, who maintain a stranglehold on several adjacent inland districts and are perfectly happy to leave them undiluted.

4. North Carolina 12th
When it was originally drawn, this district included the heavily-black neighborhoods of Winston-Salem and Charlotte, connecting them along 160 miles of Interstate 85. The connection portion was so narrow that northbound and southbound motorists on the highway would sometimes find themselves in different districts. The structure was so obviously based on race that the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. The present iteration tones down the highway-based connection but the goal of uniting Charlotte and Winston-Salem remains realized.

5. Pennsylvania 12th
This district was drawn precisely to keep John Murtha in office and to reduce the number of Democrats representing Pennsylvania in Congress. This district includes the liberal suburbs of Pittsburgh and leaves out the conservative suburbs and rural areas. When the Republican-controlled state legislature redrew this district in 2000, it included the home of Rep. Frank Mascara (though not his driveway). As a result, two incumbent Democratic congressmen needed to run against each other. Murtha won, Mascara lost, and the Republicans gained a seat.