Talk:Lionel Van Deerlin

I am challenging the accuracy of this part of Lionel Van Deerlin's article: "Since then, Democrats have only cracked the 40 percent barrier twice in the district" If I could believe this, I would conclude that Van Deerlin was such an awesome politician that no other Democrat could come close to his success. But the demographics of San Diego reveal a different story.

Every ten years redistricting makes substantial changes in this part of California. Duncan Hunter won Lionel Van Deerlin's district in 1980, but in 1982 Duncan Hunter's district was moved away from the core populations of Van Deerlin's old district. This core area includes North Park, East San Diego (south of El Cajon Boulevard), Southeast San Diego, National City, Imperial Beach, and Lemon Grove. Van Deerlin's district included Chula Vista and Coronado, but subsequent redistrictings moved those two cities out and back in, so I won't include them here. If you follow the history of this core area instead of following Duncan Hunter, you will see that Jim Bates was elected to Van Deerlin's old core area in 1982, and Democrats have held this area ever since, except one loss in 1990. In fact, redistricting of the 2000 census split Van Deerlin's core area in two, with both halves electing Democrats ever since.

Analyzed from data at (Website of The American Redistricting Project).

68.116.88.173 (talk) 05:14, 18 May 2024 (UTC)