INDIANAPOLIS — In the final day of public testimony on proposed maps for the Indiana and U.S. houses of representatives, advocates for nonpartisan redistricting continued their criticism of the “nontransparent” process and perceived Republican bias.
Rima Shahid, executive director of the nonpartisan advocacy group Women4Change, warned that the maps would decrease voter turnout and harm Indiana’s democracy.
“These extremely partisan maps threaten the general welfare of our state … (and) rig the outcome of any and every election,” Shahid said. “These maps will lead to more extremist and polarized candidates because it will result in more uncontested races.” Republicans hold a supermajority in the state Legislature, meaning they need no votes from Democratic lawmakers to approve the decennial redistricting.
Women4Change paid Christopher Warshaw, a political science professor from George Washington University, $10,000 in private donations to conduct an independent analysis of Indiana’s proposed redistricting maps, releasing a policy memo Thursday morning.
Warshaw’s memo said previous Indiana district maps led to “substantial bias” in favor of Republicans, and were more pro-Republican than 99% of other district maps he’d analyzed. His analysis of the “extreme gerrymandered map(s)” released Tuesday concluded that the new maps were even more skewed.
“Certainly, no one thinks this is a uniquely Republican phenomenon. Indiana Republicans are doing it today, but could be Democrats tomorrow,” Warshaw said. “Under the new maps, Democrats would basically never win the 5th District.”
Changes in the intersections of the 5th, 6th and 7th congressional districts also dominated public testimony on Thursday before the House Elections and Apportionment Committee.
The maps would change the boundary lines for the 7th District to include the northern two-thirds of Marion County, a reliably Democratic area. This would take Marion County out of the 5th District and distribute the bottom third of the county to the 6th District, which currently represents much of rural Southeastern Indiana.
To Misty Hollis, the former vice chair of the Indiana Republican Party and current district chair of the 6th Congressional District, the incorporation of urban Marion County conflicts with the rural identity of the rest of the district.
“The majority of our district is rural Indiana, and we take great pride in preserving those values that represent our way of life,” Hollis, of Richmond, said. “The changes being made to our 6th Congressional District are very concerning to our constituents. … “Re-imaging the district to include a portion of Marion County would in all likelihood lessen the inf luence of those who live in eastern Indiana.” Hollis called for two separate votes, one on the Indiana House maps and one for the congressional maps, to better track lawmakers’ votes. Jul ia Vaughn, executive director of
advocacy group Common Cause Indiana, believes the changes also would weaken the Democratic trend of the 5th District, which had a closerthan- expected 2020 election.
“With the removal of the northern part of Marion County from the 5th Congressional District, the organic competition that was emerging in that district … is being stifled,” Vaughn said.
“We’re not asking you to manufacture competitive districts and ignore all other criteria, but we are disappointed that you had an opportunity to make a swing district and instead you shored it up for the incumbent.”
Additionally, critics pressed lawmakers on decisions to split southern Hamilton County into several smaller districts — which typically lean Republican — rather than leaving Fishers and Carmel in their own districts.
Warshaw called the division an “artful” move that packed Democrats into a number of smaller districts rather than equally dividing them.
“What you have is a very small number of very heavily Democratic districts and a large number of Republican districts around them,” Warshaw said. “Whereas a fair map might have unpacked those Democratic voters in Indianapolis to create more competitive districts in the wider Indianapolis area.”
The House committee will vote on the maps Monday, and the full House will meet afterward to conduct its own vote. State Senate maps will be released Tuesday with testimony Sept. 27 and a full vote Sept. 28.
Senate maps are expected to be added to House maps on second reading, meaning the Senate isn’t planning to make any alterations. This allows the House to finalize all three sets of maps in one vote Sept. 22, before Senate testimony.
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