WASHINGTON – Computer software that allows state legislatures to draw district lines very precisely around population and voting patterns has been one of the reasons for the nation’s slide into extreme partisanship, according to a former Republican member of Congress.

Tom Davis, a former Republican representative from a Virginia district west of Washington, told attendees at NAFCU’s 2015 Congressional Caucus that the very specifically drawn and gerrymandered districts, along with other trends, have tended to mean that primary voters have gained an outsized influence on the political process.

This software has enabled legislatures to draw districts that do not even “pass the laugh test,” Davis said, while sharing slides that displayed some sharply convoluted districts.

"If Picasso were alive today, he could make his money drawing congressional districts," Davis added.

As a result, members of the House of Representatives have begun to vote and act with their primary voters – who tend to lean toward the extreme right or left – in mind, Davis contended.

Other trends that have helped create the partisan divide include the fact that media news institutions no longer have to include opposing points of view, and the adoption of business models that depend on reinforcing opinions rather than challenging them, Davis said.

He reported that between 1982 and 2014, the number of moderate legislators from ether party dropped from 334 to three in the House of Representatives and 58 down to zero in the Senate.

Davis did not offer solutions to the partisan divide, but told attendees they needed to understand how the partisan divide had been created and its impact on legislation so they could more effectively lobby Congress on behalf of their credit unions.

Davis spoke with former Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas).