Today in The Times there is a piece entitled "Moon Duchin on the ‘Mathematical Quagmire’ of Gerrymandering"[0] and once again, The New York Times misses what matters most about gerrymandering from the Democratic party perspective. That is: DEMOCRATS NEED IT MORE!
The point is simple to understand with a cursory glance at any blue state's electoral map. Democrats might represent a comfortable majority in some state, but the map remains mostly red by county. Blue strongholds have a much higher percentage of vote share for Democrats than red areas do for Republicans. This results in a situation where if the maps were truly "fair" (as in, population based and geographically contiguous and roughly similar sizes and shapes) the Republicans would sweep. The current NY, for example, is only somewhat gerrymandered and not very gerrymandered because the proposed map in '22 was struck down [1].
Every piece I see written about gerrymandering seems to miss this point. Perhaps the point should be that without the gerrymandering Democrats could lose control for a very long period of time (when the opposition comes in, they will redraw the maps if possible). It also means that Democrats may have less firepower than Republicans in the ongoing gerrymandering war. I wish that this point would at least see mainstream publication. Either way the point stands -- it's the Democrats who rely more on the gerrymandering.