Common Cause Maryland Hosts Birthday Party for Gerrymandering's Namesake
Common Cause Maryland hosted a birthday party Thursday for Elbridge Gerry, widely credited as the first politician to perfect the dark art of manipulating legislative lines for partisan purposes. Gerry, a former Vice President and Massachusetts governor, signed into law oddly shaped districts meant to solidify his party’s majority in the legislature while he was governor. The Boston Gazette drew a political cartoon in 1812 comparing one of the districts to a salamander and naming the district a “gerrymander.”