My guess is that at least one of them is quite likely to be punished for it. I am talking about boundaries here – new boundaries.
Let me explain. Few realize it, but millions of us will be living in different legislative and congressional districts when we go to vote two years from now. That’s because the legislature will receive the results of the 2010 census, and by law, they have to draw new lines for every state and federal legislative district.
The rule is that everybody’s vote should count the same, and to make that happen, all districts should have the same number of people in them, based on the census.
Naturally, the population has shifted in the last decade, and so every district has to be redrawn. That includes, first of all, congressional districts. We have 15 of those which are likely to now have to be folded into 14 new districts, since Michigan is probably losing a congressional seat to some other faster-growing state.
But the so-called “one man, one vote” rule also applies to 110 state house and 38 state senate districts, all of which will have new boundaries. That’s a lot of calculating, and the end result needs to be approved in plenty of time for the 2012 elections.
Trouble is, this is not just a matter of math, but of politics. Republicans want to draw the lines in a way designed to elect as many Republicans as possible. Democrats want to do the same thing. That process is called gerrymandering. Republicans did this quite successfully ten years ago, for example, with the state senate. Four years ago, a solid majority of the people voted for Democratic candidates for senator, but a majority of Republicans were elected.
Next year, they’ll draw new lines, and if, as is now the case, each party controls one house of the legislature, you can almost count on a major battle that will end up in the state supreme court. In some cases, in fact, the courts have ended up setting the boundaries.
But freshman State Rep. John Walsh, a Republican from Livonia, wants to take politics out of this process. He is sponsoring a bill – HB 5908 - to turn drawing of the lines over to the non-partisan Legislative Services Bureau.
Mark Meadows, a Democrat from East Lansing, has offered a similar bill, though his wouldn’t apply to congressmen. Both bills give the legislature chances to approve, amend or reject the plan.
Making redistricting non-partisan makes sense. But the politicians are apt to hate it – especially the Republicans. They are counting on making big gains in Lansing this year. Meadows has less to lose politically; he can serve only one more term.
But John Walsh may not be too welcome at Republican Party social gatherings this year. My guess is that his sensible bill may not even get a hearing, which is too bad. In this hyper-partisan age, a man at the beginning of his career is trying to put principle over politics.
That should be noticed. And if you don’t like the way Lansing works now, you might even think about giving him some support.
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