Reformers were disappointed this week when the U.S. Supreme Court punted on a pair of redistricting cases.
“Although these decisions fell short of what redistricting reform advocates had hoped for, the decisions leave the door open for the court to outlaw partisan gerrymandering in the future,” the Indiana Coalition for Independent Redistricting said in a news release.
The coalition has been promoting legislation that would establish a citizens redistricting commission, and advocates have pledged to spend the summer working to build grassroots support.
Debbie Asberry, redistricting reform advocate for the League of Women Voters of Indiana, said the coalition planned to survey every candidate for the state legislature to find out where they stand on redistricting reform.
“We’ll hold activist trainings and rallies and continue to pressure our lawmakers to be proactive on this issue,” she said.
Reformers do face something of a deadline. The next set of legislative and congressional maps will be drawn in 2021 based on results of the 2020 census. Getting a new system up and running will take time, which means the clock is ticking on the effort to push through the needed legislation.
Support for a citizen-led redistricting process is growing, Asberry said.
“Just last week the Highland Town Board became the 25th local government in Indiana to pass a resolution calling for the legislature to pass redistricting reform,” she said.
Advocates nearly scored a victory in the 2018 session when legislation to create a set of redistricting standards passed the Indiana Senate. The bill died in the Indiana House, though, as legislative leaders decided to wait for the Supreme Court to decide the issue.
Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana, acknowledged that the high court’s decision came up short of expectations.
“While we hoped the Supreme Court would make a final decision on partisan gerrymandering with the Wisconsin and Maryland cases, that didn’t happen,” she said in the news release.
At issue are efforts by both parties to produce legislative and congressional maps to tilt the balance in their favor.
This is not a partisan matter. In the Wisconsin case, it was Democrats who came out on the losing end. In the case out of Maryland, it was the Republicans.
For my taste, the biggest issue is the number of lopsided districts where the election is effectively decided in the primary. I have long argued that such districts share in the blame for our worsening political discourse.
Too many of our elected representatives have no incentive to reach out to opposing or even moderate voters. Facing no meaningful challenge in the general election, they can stay in office simply by catering to their party’s base.
As a result, these individuals grow frozen in their positions, with no appetite for compromise.
Advocates say the time to fix this system is now.
“We call on the Indiana General Assembly to stop its delay tactics,” Asberry said. “There is no need to wait on the Supreme Court. Do the right thing and pass redistricting reform legislation to create a citizens redistricting commission.”
Vaughn agreed.
“It should be noted that those states that have established citizens redistricting commission or other alternatives to legislativedriven redistricting are not being sued for partisan maps,” she said.
And in the end, she said, the court of public opinion has already rendered a decision.
“Hoosiers want an end to the process that allows our legislators to pick their voters,” she said. “We want redistricting reform in 2019.”
If you agree with Vaughn, it wouldn’t hurt to let your legislators know.