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All 4 Kansas seats to the United States House of Representatives |
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The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Kansas were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 to elect the four U.S. Representatives from the state of Kansas. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including a quadrennial presidential election.
The 2010 United States Census reflected a shift of population "primarily from rural western and northern Kansas to urban and suburban areas in the eastern part of the state."
In spite of Republican political control of the governor's office, the state senate, the state house, and the entire U.S. Congressional delegation, redistricting had to be decided by a federal court. To decide the case, a three-judge panel was appointed by Mary Beck Briscoe, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit: Briscoe appointed herself, along with two judges from the District Court for Kansas: Chief District Judge Kathryn Hoefer Vratil, and District Judge John Watson Lungstrum.
According to the Court:
While legislators publicly demurred that they had done the best they could, the impasse resulted from a bitter ideological feud—largely over new Senate districts. The feud primarily pitted GOP moderates against their more conservative GOP colleagues. Failing consensus, the process degenerated into blatant efforts to gerrymander various districts for ideological political advantage and to serve the political ambitions of various legislators.