By Dan Carden, Times of Northwest Indiana
dan.carden@nwi.com
INDIANAPOLIS | Senate Democrats on Monday said redistricting reforms offered by Senate Republicans are a "ruse" intended to delay real reform.
Last week, state Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, proposed legislation that could lead to creating an independent redistricting commission that would draw legislative district boundaries. Currently, the General Assembly draws legislative districts every 10 years after the U.S. Census is taken.
To give that power exclusively to an independent commission would require amending the Indiana Constitution. That process would take until at least 2012, meaning the redistricting commission wouldn't take effect until 2021.
"If the concept is good for 2021, then the concept is good for 2011 when we're actually be going to be drawing the districts," said Senate Democratic Leader Vi Simpson.
Simpson, D-Elletsville, said the General Assembly should just appoint an independent commission now and simply follow its recommendations.
To wait for an amendment, like the Republicans propose, "is a ruse, if you will, to make the voters think we're doing something historic and reforming a system, but that will not actually be implemented until after the redistricting takes place," Simpson said. "We'll have a decade of no reform."
State Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said Democrats are willing to work with Republicans right now to make redistricting reform a reality.
"If we really want to have true reform, we can do it so that we can put it into place to draw the maps this go-around," Lanane said.
But Landske insists it's more important to study the commission idea and get it right, rather than just pushing ahead to push ahead.
"There's an awful lot of groundwork that has to be done prior to redistricting, and I do have doubts that a commission would even have time to do that," Landske said.
Indiana is scheduled to receive its 2010 Census data in March 2011, giving the Legislature less than two months to redistrict before it must adjourn April 30.