House, Senate work on redistricting bills
INDIANAPOLIS—At the start of every decade, lawmakers get interested in maps.
That’s when they draw the lines that determine the districts for the Indiana House of Representatives, the Indiana Senate and Indiana’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Drawing those lines generates conflict, because the lines often determine who will win the elections in the years ahead.
Two bills in this legislative session will attempt to carve out those new maps. One starts in the Indiana House and is primarily the work of a Democrat. The other starts in the Senate and is primarily the work of a Republican.
Senate Bill 80 passed out of committee on Monday, and will be on the Senate schedule on Thursday for a second reading.
“The bill that I am carrying, Senate Bill 80, has guidelines which will establish a rational state policy for developing those districts,” said Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville.
Lawson said these guidelines include preserving traditional neighborhoods, holding on to local communities of interest and requiring districts to be compact in size.
Lawson said her top priority was upholding the U.S. Constitution and the Indiana Constitution. She said she also worked to protect the rights of minorities.
The sponsors of both bills say they are attempting to eliminate gerrymandering.
The language in SB 80 calls for “simple shapes” of districts whenever possible, instead of the irregular district lines that often have been the case with Indiana districts.
“In the bill, it says that we need to respect county lines whenever practicable…not splitting precincts, that type of thing,” said Lawson.
Rep. Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes, agrees that current district lines are the result of gerrymandering, but says current legislation has the potential to create the same problem.
“You can still gerrymander with those rules,” said Battles about the current language for exemptions in SB 80 on following county boundaries.
Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, said that the new lines must keep communities together. He said that, if the new district lines are drawn in an effective manner, they will help the people of Indiana be more informed on voting and be more active in their communities and local government.
“We need to make districts…easily known by the people so that they can be empowered,” said Delph.
Battles agreed with the goals of redistricting and says they are with merit but questions the implementation of these goals.
“The problem we get into is how do you implement that goal and how do you implement it fairly,” said Battles.
Battles also said that all people bring a bias to any issue that is discussed, and that redistricting is no exception. He said when the district lines are changed they should be formed by a non-biased and non-partisan committee or commission.
“I have no problem with a purely non-biased [committee or commission] going in and looking at things, but I guess my fear is that if the only thing we are going to do is change the bias, we really haven’t improved the system, we’ve just changed it around,” said Battles.
Delph also agrees that something has to be done in order to fix the current problems with redistricting. The process of redistricting needs to be simple and transparent.
“Reform is not only necessary, it’s almost a requirement from the people,” he said.
Delph also said the system will be much more effective if legislators stop using political data for district drawing use, and that the people need to choose their legislators; the legislators should not pick their people.
“Put the people first,” he said.
House Bill 1013 is just getting started in committee meetings. This bill says that if Indiana’s state constitution does not force legislators to draw the district lines themselves an independent committee could report their findings to the committee for consideration.
Battles said that the chance of the House bill passing is yet to be determined.
Two other Senate bills dealing with redistricting reforms are currently in consideration. Senate Bills 136 and 289 establish committees and commissions that would assist legislators in the process of deciding new district lines in 2011.
