Democrats targeted Morella, a liberal Republican, for defeat last year when Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening and Democrats in the state Legislature redrew the 8th District.

CNN: Incumbent Morella defeated in Maryland

He and Rivers, who has served four terms in the House, were thrown into a race together after the GOP-controlled Michigan Legislature redrew the lines of congressional districts during reapportionment.

CNN: Dingell survives Michigan primary

Running as an independent allows Traficant to avoid a primary race against eight-term Democrat Rep. Tom Sawyer, who was placed in the same district as Traficant when the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature redrew the boundaries.

CNN: Traficant files for re-election as independent

If the Republicans do seize control of Congress at this year's mid-terms, an important part of the reason will be the ways in which their state-level legislators redrew the lines in big states like Texas, Ohio and Florida after the census of 2000.

ECONOMIST: Electoral boundaries in America

In sum, all Lebanese confessions have cottoned on to a trick first employed by the country's French colonial administrators, who redrew the boundaries of Lebanon and Syria in the 1920s to make Lebanon as large as possible while still preserving its Christian majority.

ECONOMIST: Lebanon