When George Washington took the oath of the presidency in 1789, each of the 65 members of the inaugural Congress represented roughly 30,000 people. As the population of the country grew, it became necessary to reflect those changes in the representation of congressional and state legislative districts.
So it was decided that every 10 years after the census - the first of which was taken in 1790 - additional congressional districts would be added to accommodate the growing population.
However, by the 1920s, the number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives had swelled to 435, a number so large it was a hindrance to congressional efficiency and effectiveness.
As such, the Reapportionment Act of 1929 fixed the size of that body at 435. Instead of adding new members of Congress to account for population growth, the size of each congressional district was increased.
Currently, there are some 800,000 people in each congressional district, a number so large that it presents its own set of problems of representation.
With each decennial census, there is still the need to adjust congressional districts to reflect changes in the population. For instance, people continue to leave New York and move to Florida, so the Empire State loses representatives while the Sunshine State gains them.
But this raises the sticky question of where to create the new districts.
The problem with the apportionment of congressional districts is that it is up to the politicians themselves - the state legislatures - to design the districts.
There are few guidelines to govern the process other than political self-interest, and throughout American history members of both political parties have shown themselves to be incapable of restraint and fairness.
The grandfather of them all was Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and, later, James Madison's vice president.
While serving as governor of Massachusetts, Gerry redrew legislative districts to favor members of his own party. An imaginative journalist described the new, bizarre-looking districts as a salamander. The act of politicizing the shape of districts was christened in "honor" of Gov. Gerry - it became known as a gerrymander.
The districts in Florida have been rated as among the most shamefully gerrymandered in the United States. So, in 2010, in an effort to provide fair guidelines for reapportionment, Florida's voters passed Constitutional Amendments 5 and 6 by large margins. The amendments mandated that districts be compact, contiguous, community-based, and population equivalent.
Unfortunately, the state Legislature, which after straight party-line votes just unveiled its initial maps for the next decade, seems to have forgotten about the will of the people. The districts are still unforgivably convoluted and politicized. And legislators produced yet another embarrassing wrinkle in the history of gerrymandering.
Popular Republican Congressman Tom Rooney, who represented District 17 (in Palm Beach and Martin counties), announced with obvious displeasure that he was leaving the district he represented, a district where he lived and raised his family. Rooney would move west across the state to run for re-election in newly configured District 17.
Within an hour, bombastic Congressman Allen West announced he was leaving District 22 in eastern Palm Beach and Broward counties to run in Rooney's old district, which would be a safer seat for a very conservative politician. The next day, former state Republican leader, Adam Hasner, announced he was abandoning his U.S. Senate campaign to run for West's seat in District 22.
As is apparent in this game of musical chairs, our political leaders are showing their true colors as "office shoppers," who feel entitled to safe seats and very little loyalty to their former constituents.
To think that such popular constitutional reforms were co-opted by backroom deals is a disgrace. Massachusetts may have had its salamanders, but Florida certainly has its own lizards.
Robert Watson, Ph.D., is a professor and coordinator of American studies at Lynn University.
'Office shoppers' shame district system
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