Trying to Thread the Needle: The Effects of Redistricting in a Georgia Congressional District

sional districts in order to gain additional seats in the 2006midterm election. In this article we present a case study of the effects of redistricting on turnout and vote choice inGeorgia’s District 8 in the 2006 U.S. House election. It is apparent both from our findings and an elite interview, that unlike themore aggressive strategy employed byTexas Republicans in 2003, Georgia Republicans tried to thread the needle in their goal of winning District 8. Conventional wisdom suggests that if a political party controls redistricting it will maxi-mize its electoral opportunities. But this was not the case in Georgia. Notlong after the 2006midterm elections, the emi-nent congressional scholar Gary C. Jacobsonnoted their historical significance: “Democrats lostnot a single seat in either body, the first electionin U.S. history in which a party retained all of its congressional seats ” (Jacobson 2007, 1). Indeed, virtually every Democrat serving in the House of Representatives breezed to vic-tory thanks to a stiff partisan wind at their backs. There were however, two Georgia Democrats, Jim Marshall (District 8) and John Barrow (District 12) who won reelection by the slimmest of margins. These congressmen, representing neighboring districts, barely survived another term in 2006 because of a redistrictin