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House Speaker John Boehner speaks while flanked by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor after attending the weekly House Republican conference at the U.S. Capitol March 25, 2014 in Washington, D.C. Mark Wilson, Getty Images

Even if Democrats recruit great candidates, raise gobs of money and run smart campaigns, they face an uphill fight to retake control of the House in this year's congressional elections, regardless of the political climate in November.

The reason? Republican strategists spent years developing a plan to take advantage of the 2010 census, first by winning state legislatures and then redrawing House districts to tilt the playing field in their favor. Their success was unprecedented.

In states like Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina, Republicans were able to shape congressional maps to pack as many Democratic voters as possible into the fewest House districts. The practice is called gerrymandering, and it left fertile ground elsewhere in each state to spread Republican voters among more districts, increasing the GOP's chances of winning more seats.

Geography helped in some states. Democratic voters are more likely to live in densely populated urban areas, making it easier to pack them into fewer districts.

The first payoff came in 2012, when Republicans kept control of the House despite a Democratic wave that swept President Barack Obama to a second term. The next payoff is likely to come this fall when candidates once again compete in House districts drawn by Republican legislators in key states.

Gerrymandering has a long history in the United States, pursued enthusiastically by both Democrats and Republicans. But the GOP's success at it this decade has been historic: In 2012, Republicans maintained a 33-seat majority in the House, even though GOP candidates as a group got 1.4 million fewer votes than their Democratic opponents.

It was only the second time since World War II that the party receiving the most votes failed to win a majority of House seats, according to statistics compiled by the House Clerk. Democrats gained eight seats but were still a minority.

"The fact that Republicans controlled redistricting (after 2010) meant that they were able to build up a wall, stopping a lot of the tide from running out," said Justin Levitt, a law professor and redistricting expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "They were able to shore up a lot of the districts that had been won by, in many cases, tea party freshmen or other Republican freshmen."

The Republicans' advantage will fade as the decade wears on and the population changes. In the meantime, lopsided House districts are having a direct impact on the ability of Congress to tackle tough issues. House districts are drawn so that Democrats and Republicans often represent very different groups of people with different views on divisive issues. That can make it hard to find common ground.

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Republicans have built-in advantage in fight for House

Pope and president, both progressives
President Obama meets Pope Francis, discussing their common goal to fix the world #39;s problem with income inequality. Ed Schultz and Jim Wallis discuss.

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Pope and president, both progressives - Video

Present Progressives by Megan and Kassidy
Our Spanish Project on present progressives.

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Present Progressives by Megan and Kassidy - Video

Source: Tanjug, Veernje novosti

BELGRADE -- Leader of Progressives (SNS) Aleksandar Vui will start official talks on forming a new government with potential partners early next week, writes a daily.

According to Veernje Novosti, the head of the Progressives should invite all parties that had won seats in parliament in the March 16 ballot, "and are willing to talk."

Vui should present the leaders of these parties with an economic recovery program, "the writing of which has been well under way" - and that will be a part of his inaugural speech as prime minister, the paper said.

It noted that as early as next week Vui could make a decision on whom to invite to join his government, so that the names of new ministers could be announced before Easter, April 20.

One of SNS vice presidents, Bratislav Gai, told the daily that the party "has not talked with anyone so far," and that it will be known who they will negotiate with about a new government "after the completion of the new round of dialogue in Brussels."

BRUSSELS -- The Serbian representatives voiced the "principled position" that Serbia does not want to take any steps that would erode its ties with the Russian Federation.

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Vui says "the best possible result for Serbia and Serbs in terms of judiciary in Kosovo and Metohija was achieved, under difficult conditions."

BELGRADE -- The session of the Serb Progressive Party (SNS) concerning the constitution of the future government will be held on Saturday, April 5, Tanjug said it learned.

BRUSSELS -- A spokesperson for EU's Catherine Ashton says Serbia's stance towards the crisis in Ukraine will not be the topic of today's Belgrade-Pritina dialogue.

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SNS to start talks on government "next week"

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, seated beside UN Women's Donelle Wheeler, greets Opposition Leader Bill Shorten during the International Women's Day parliamentary breakfast. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has urged ''progressives'' to cast politics aside and embrace the Coalition's paid parental leave scheme as a watershed moment for feminism in Australia.

Mr Abbott spoke about his own conversion to paid parental leave at an International Women's Day breakfast in Canberra on Tuesday, comparing it to US President Nixon's historic 1972 visit to communist China.

''I believe a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme is an idea whose time has come,'' Mr Abbott said. "Just imagine if a progressive had come up with this idea. The usual suspects would have been cheering and saying: 'About time.'

But because a conservative has come up with this idea so many people are saying there must be something wrong with it.

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"Let's drop this silly guilt by association and let's get on with something which is unambiguously good for the women of our country, for the families of our country and for the economy of our country."

Mr Abbott said he opposed paid parental leave as a minister in the Howard government but his views changed after considering what would be best for his three daughters.

''It is a little disconcerting when a conservative, when a traditionalist such as myself, comes up with something which is not regarded as a conservative and a traditional position,'' he said.

"It is a bit like when Nixon went to China, conservatives thought: 'My God, has he suddenly abandoned the faith?'" he said. "Progressives thought: 'My God, is China no longer a progressive country?' The truth is this was a historic breakthrough. This was one of those moments when people from all sides of politics needed to realise that a watershed had been reached.''

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Tony Abbott compares his change of heart on paid parental leave to Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to communist China