The New District
The Democratic Incumbent
The Republican Incumbent
The Analysts
How to Teach this Case

The New District
Every ten years, the United States Census is taken. Following the census, congressional seats are reallocated to the states based upon population - a total of 435 seats are awarded (this process is called reapportionment). Then, within each state, congressional seats are redistricted so that each district has an equal population. Many districts change only a small amount after each redistricting; some, like this one, become reborn as something different from what they used to be.

This district is actually a combination of two old districts. After the last census, the state of Rockland lost one congressional seat. The Democrats in the state controlled the redistricting (they had a majority in the state legislature and controlled the governorship). They carved up the 7th congressional district (occupied by a Republican) into three parts - these parts were added to the 4th, 6th, and 9th districts, each controlled by Democrats. The Republican incumbent whose district was carved up decided to challenge the incumbent in this district, the 4th congressional district of Rockland.

The 4th has the largest African-American population in the state - almost 30%. This includes some economically depressed communities, as well as a number of middle-class African-American neighborhoods. The African-American voters are the most consistently Democratic voters in the state. The district also includes some blue-collar areas with large numbers of union workers. The redistricting also brought in some economically well off, socially conservative suburbs. About 70% of the current district was part of the old 4th district; the rest is part of the old 7th district.

The Democratic Incumbent - Regina Flett
Regina Flett was elected to Congress eight years ago after serving in the state legislature for six years. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Rockland after graduating from college. She raised her family and then, just before her 40th birthday, went back to school to get her law degree. While in law school, she became politically active. She worked for the district attorney for five years after law school, then ran for the state assembly and for Congress. She has generally had a safe seat.

Flett describes herself as a liberal pragmatist. As an African-American woman, she naturally can be counted on to play an active role on issues of concern to both women and African-Americans. She is a strong supporter of affirmative action, abortion rights, and greater social spending on anti-poverty programs. She has also attempted to pass legislation on sexual harassment issues. She believes very strongly that the government needs to invest more money in inner cities, either through greater spending or through targeted tax breaks to companies that create jobs in urban areas.

Flett has had success within Congress working with members who do not share her ideological beliefs. She joined forces with a conservative Republican from her state to get a tax break for a local defense contractor, which saved hundreds of jobs. She has the reputation of being a consensus-seeker who is capable of making a deal. This disappoints some ideologues in her party, but likely makes her more effective in the end.

The Republican Incumbent - Al Sparks
"I'm angry, I'm down, but I'm not out," Al Sparks said the day he announced he would oppose Regina Flett in the redrawn 4th congressional district. Sparks had seen his old district, the 7th, redrawn by the Democratic legislature. Sparks was determined to run again. He chose to run in this district because his home is located here, and because this district offers the best chance for a Republican among the three districts that hold a piece of his old district.

Sparks has one critical problem to overcome. Despite his fourteen years in Congress, it is almost as if he needs to start completely over. Over two-thirds of this district is unfamiliar territory to him. He consequently has had to spend much time here in the last few months building relationships with his new constituents. Since his old district was almost 100% white, white-collar and suburban, he also has had to work harder at familiarizing himself with issues of greatest concern to African-Americans and union workers.

Sparks was popular in his old district. He supported conservative economic and social policies - low taxes and spending, anti-abortion, pro-business, etc. This formula worked well in the old district, as he was able to secure reelection by safe margins. But, given his age (he is now 67), the Democrats chose his district as the one to carve up since they thought he might retire. Sparks surprised many by sticking around for the fight.

Sparks expects to hold his old constituents fairly easily. But to win, Sparks knows that he will need to secure votes from the part of the district Flett has represented. He intends to do this by concentrating on the religiosity of African-American voters. Sparks suspects that churchgoing African-Americans are not completely against a socially conservative agenda on issues such as school prayer and abortion. He is counting on this, coupled with his reputation as a fair and consensus-seeking legislator, to give him a shot at winning.

The Analysts
Political analyst Sam Balish describes the race as follows: This is an old-fashioned turf war, and Regina Flett controls the turf. She has a tremendous advantage in terms of name recognition in this new district, and must be favored given the large percentage of union and African-American voters in the district. But, she's never had a challenge like this before. She's never had to deal with a strong challenger like Sparks. He's a proven votegetter, and the social conservatives who support him tend to turn out at higher numbers. If the turnout numbers favor Sparks, he has a chance. Leans Democrat.

Democratic Party consultant Barry Simon has offered the following advice to the Flett campaign: It is certainly scary to imagine an election where your opponent is a distinguished, long-serving incumbent from the other party. That would cause me to lose sleep. But, upon further inspection, we need to remember that Flett has represented more of this district. Sparks has a good reputation in Washington, and with his old constituents. But the same can be said for Flett, and her constituents outnumber his by two-to-one. Moreover, I love it when we get to run a Democrat in a district with large numbers of African-American and union voters. This will be a challenge, but we'll win.

Republican Party consultant Adam Newman offers this advice to the Sparks campaign: I admire Al Sparks for running again even after the abomination pulled against him by the Democrats in the legislature. Obviously, the deck seems stacked in Flett's favor here. Sparks has a pro-business record, which will really hurt him with the unions. And, he is running against an African-African woman, which won't help him with African-American voters. We have two chances, both somewhat long shots. First, we must get much higher turnout among his supporters than among hers. And, we must be able to at least cut into her support among African-Americans with abortion- and religion-based appeals. If we do both of these things…maybe. If not, forget about it.

How to Teach this Case
This case provides an opportunity to teach about redistricting. This sort of partisan redistricting is quite common in states where one party controls the process, as the Democrats do here. Teachers might use this case as an opportunity to address some of the strategic aspects of districting. Note how the Democrats carved one Republican district up to completely eliminate it. Is this fair? This could get a nice discussion going.

Turnout will be important here. Poorer people, less educated people, and younger people turn out to vote less than richer, well-educated, older people do. And, significantly, African-American turnout is lower than white turnout. Flett will thus need to run two campaigns - in addition to getting people to decide to vote for her, she will need to mobilize her supporters to come out and vote on Election Day. This presents a different challenge to her in commercials and speeches.

This campaign also features an African-American woman. It might spark some nice discussions about some of the obstacles women may race in running for higher office. And, African-American voters have certainly faced many obstacles as well. While these obstacles are presumably not central to the case, students may be tempted on their own to create commercials for Flett that use empowerment themes directed at women and minorities. The Sparks team may have to come up with ways to counter this, being sure to avoid any appeals to racist and/or sexist impulses.

See also "How to Teach with Case Studies"