‘The Tippecanoe Way:’ No drama as new county maps are approved
Above: Proposed commissioner districts. From left: Current commissioner districts, proposed council districts, current council districts. The following reports from contributing writer Dave Bangert were first published in his Substack newsletter, Based in Lafayette, Indiana. UPDATE: If you were looking for political beef, maybe the caliber of the one that drove the Indiana General Assembly’s redistricting effort this fall, amid the mad scramble to draw political lines for Tippecanoe County government seats, well … you came to the wrong place, I guess. Rushed into production last week due to a delayed 2020 population counts from the U.S. Census and then late-arriving…
Despite the rush, maps from Monroe County’s bipartisan redistricting are well-received
What if politicians redrew election district maps and both Republicans and Democrats were happy with how it went? That seems to be the case in Monroe County, where county commissioners recently approved districts that were recommended by a bipartisan local redistricting committee. “It worked really well,” Democratic commissioners’ president Julie Thomas said. “I cannot say enough about the work those folks on the committee did. Everything they voted on, everything they sent to us to be approved, we knew it was bipartisan.” County council member Marty Hawk, county government’s only Republican elected office holder, also approved of the process. “I…
MORE DRAMA, TIGHTER DEADLINES: The scramble to redistrict locally continues along familiar battle lines. Some might not even bother.
The following report was written by veteran journalists Janet Williams and Bill Theobald for The Indiana Citizen. Nov. 18, 2021 Maybe you thought the political drama of redistricting was over for another decade. That would be wrong. Very wrong. It’s been more than six weeks since Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law Indiana’s new congressional and legislative district maps, but dozens of Indiana counties, cities and school corporations still face the complex and critical task of redrawing the boundaries for their own local offices – against a much tighter deadline because of census delays. According to one oversight group, some local government…
John Krull commentary: Gerrymandering and the race to the bottom
They steal that which does not belong to them. And then politicians wonder why people do not trust them. What politicians crave most is power. They will do anything to hold it, to exert it, to wield it like a whip. That is why most politicians—Republican and Democrat—are so opposed to anything resembling a fair system of redistricting. They don’t want the maps drawn the right way, one that makes elections competitive and reflects the will of the people they’re supposed to represent. They hate fair maps because such maps take the power away from the politicians and put it…
In South Bend, a debate over racial gerrymandering and hiring of outside consultants in local redistricting
UPDATE: After an hourlong debate, the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday officially approved a redrawing of the districts from which the board's three members will be elected for the next decade. The 2-1 vote reflected division within the all-Republican board. Public testimony at the morning meeting and a community forum the night before similarly was split between those who described the decennial redistricting as an overdue fix for the current one and others who said it unfairly consolidates -- and limits the impact of -- minority populations and Democratic votes. The key point of contention involved the…
A MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR INDY DEMOCRATS: Will the City-County Council’s redistricting follow the example of Bloomington or the Statehouse?
The story might be familiar by now: The once-a-decade duty of redistricting rests with a legislative supermajority, and calls for an independent, nonpartisan redrawing of district lines are ignored. It's a story that just played out in the Indiana Statehouse, with a Republican-led juggernaut resulting in congressional and legislative districts already criticized as some of the most gerrymandered in the nation. Six blocks east on Market Street in the City-County Building, the story has a twist: It's a Democratic supermajority that will be in charge of redistricting, and its plans remain unclear. Will the City-County Council -- which went on…