EDITORIAL: Reform on redistricting effort deserves support from both sides

Kokomo Tribune

Republican leaders of the Indiana Senate have unveiled a package of reforms that include establishing an independent commission for drawing state legislative and congressional district boundaries.

That's a huge step in the right direction.

All we need now is for Democrats to join the effort.

Having the support of GOP leadership means the reforms have a great chance of approval in the Senate, but the fact is that such efforts won't go anywhere without the support of Democrats in the House.

The Senate next year will consider legislation to better define how districts should be drawn after the 2010 census. The bill calls for lawmakers to draw lines based on objective principles such as compactness, contiguity, respect for local government boundaries, preservation of communities of interest and compliance with the Voting Rights Act.

At the same time, the Senate will consider a bill to require a bipartisan look into what is and isn't working among the redistricting efforts in other states. A special study committee would be asked to conduct hearings statewide to discuss how the people of this state can best be represented in the future.

Senate leaders also have put forward a resolution to shift future map-drawing responsibilities to an independent commission. Currently, the Indiana Constitution gives that task specifically to the General Assembly, so transferring the authority would require a constitutional amendment.

We would support such an amendment.

For far too long, the drawing of legislative and congressional districts has been an exercise aimed at gaining partisan advantage. Regardless of which party had the most votes, the goal was to draw districts in a way so as to keep the incumbents in office and make it easier for the party in control to stay in control.

The result was a large number of districts tilted heavily in favor of one party or the other, and that has left a significant percentage of legislative races uncontested in every election.

That is not the representative form of government our nation's founders had in mind.

We welcome the move to reform this all too political process, and we call on members of both parties to put their own selfish interests aside and join the effort.

If these measures should pass, the result will almost certainly be a legislature that is more responsive to the voters. And that can't possibly be a bad thing.