Pop quiz on Indiana’s congressional districts, since they will be redrawn next year after US Census data comes out.
1. Do you know how many national districts we have in Indiana?
2. Do you know how many state congressional and senate districts exist in Indiana?
3. Do any have funny, cutesy names?
4. Who draws the congressional district lines?
5. Do you, or average citizens like you, have a say in making our districts?
6. What are the risks of congressional redistricting?
Check your answers.
We have nine federal congressional districts and seats in the US Congress. Our state congress has 100 districts and seats. We have 50 seats in our senate. Thus we have three maps to redistrict every 10 years after the US Census.
US Congressional District Shapefiles show that Indiana has progressed from 1973’s maps which had non-contiguous, funny looking districts with little trails, fingers and toes, hinting at gerrymandering. Since 2013, our maps look so sensible it would be hard to nickname these anything cutesy like “Snake by the Lake,” a name for Ohio’s 9th congressional district along Erie. Pennsylvania’s 7th district earned the name “Goofy Kicking Donald,” before Fair District PA won a case to throw out the state’s gerrymandered districts.
That’s the danger inherent in redistricting. It can result in gerrymandering, which is tweaking or outright manipulation of the boundaries of a district to favor a party or demographic group. It leads to poor legislative representation and voter disenfranchisement. When state legislatures draw the maps, which most do, they can fall into a conflict of interest because they tend to favor the majority party. That impacts citizens’ right to fair representation.
We citizens can have a say if we want to ask, ask, and participate. In recent years, 26 states have adopted some form of independent commission to guide or draw the maps. Only one state, Iowa, alone has a completely independent commission (see the NCSL site). Thirteen states have commissions with primary responsibilities. Indiana, and five other states, have a backup commission if the legislature can’t agree. This year, Indiana needs citizens to participate in non-partisan redistricting through the Fair Maps project. Check out the Common Cause or LWVIN websites for how to participate.
Without an independent commission, we may face Pennsylvania’s 2017 “Goofy by the Lake” problem, because Indiana’s maps looked pretty similar in previous decades.
“We need independent redistricting, not based on politics. It doesn’t make sense to let legislatures draw maps if their jobs depend on how the map is drawn,” notes Bryan Kleiner, field organizer on the Susan Wild campaign in 2018. Fair Districts PA won a case to redraw maps in Pennsylvania after proof that legislators had used meta-data to draw maps to benefit the majority party. Wild (D) won in the Lehigh Valley district, which had been gerrymandered by attaching a long thin finger of Republican voters that reached Harrisburg. Lehigh Valley is a blue collar, union district. Its voters tended to divide votes rather than be straight-ticket. They appreciated their retiring representative, Charlie Dent (R), who had to be moderate. Dent’s offices remained in the district’s largest community, Allentown, thus the voters in the tiny finger who voted reliably for him had fewer opportunities to meet with him.
Fair Districts PA won the state a victory on what Kleiner calls a very “unsexy” issue. Maps. Demographics. Redistricting is about mapping populations, deciding how to group them fairly, and it contains a lot of data and social science. It’s hard to hold the attention of busy citizens who feel that they lost say in such matters. It’s hard to keep up the drumbeat that we need to ask, demand, write, meet, and expect districting reform that establishes independent commissions. All attempts in Indiana to draft and pass such bills have died in committee, which may be a kind of proof that our legislators are self-preserving their positions and parties.
We should pick our representatives, but when they draw up the maps, the temptation is a golden apple. They tend to pick their voters.
History shows us that both parties will redistrict in their favor. They build a system that puts focus on the national party. But they do it through local legislators. While voters don’t turn out in droves to elect their state representatives, both national parties aim to dominate state legislatures so they can promote national agendas locally and ensure that their legislators draw maps to keep the majority party in control. It puts party dominance before local constituents. This hit Indiana in 1986 (Davis vs. Bademer).. The RNC (Republican National Committee) was so worried about Democrats manipulating maps in California, that it upended its own gerrymandering plans in Indiana. California would be a bigger loss of seats.
The parties will redistrict in their favor if voters forget that politics begins with our most local elected leaders. Fair Maps Indiana and fair redistricting reinstates our right to be represented with our local needs.Otherwise the urgent, necessary action on issues that plague our communities will be swallowed up in national party priorities. If it feels like our community’s needs — from the opioid crisis to COVID relief -— are tied up by party divisions, it’s likely because state legislators have put party before people.
The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan, multi-issue organization encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase public understanding of major policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy. All men and women are invited to join the LWV where hands-on work to safeguard democracy leads to civic improvement. For information about the League, visit the website www.lwvmontco.org or voice mail 765-361-2136.
