Pols protect themselves in redistricting

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Inside some non-public office, somebody you don’t know is plugged into a computer, mesmerized by some map-drawing program — figuring out who our next state legislators are going to be.

At some point this month, their handiwork will see the light of day ... that’s after they’ve been run up an internal flagpole. Party leaders, legislators and some major stakeholders will all see the next legislative and congressional maps first.

You and I may like the maps. We may not. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.

Redistricting is not an open process to the chagrin of public policy do-gooders and the political party not in power.

To the general public, the decennial exercise of redrawing districts to match the U.S. Census is about as sexy as George Washington’s powdered wig. To individual lawmakers, it’s the Daytona 500 and the NBA playoffs wrapped into one.

Getting roped into the wrong district or being drawn into the district of an incumbent colleague is a politician’s worst nightmare come true.

So while map-drawing should be about keeping common areas of interest together and breaking up as few political boundaries as possible in the name of sensible representation for the people, redistricting becomes about keeping incumbent officeholders happy first and everything else second.

The Ingham County redistricting maps released a couple weeks ago makes contorted ribbons out of the city of Lansing and carves up a Holt/Delhi Township district into some strange hieroglyphic. 

The redistricting committee gets a big pat on the back for trimming the number of county commission seats from 16 to 14, but what districts evaporated?

Those represented by Mark Grebner and Andy Schor, both of whom are not running for re-election. The rest of the 14 incumbents? They all have districts to run in.

Ingham County Republican Party Chairman Norm Shinkle said he’s not happy with the map, but he likely isn’t taking the issue to court. Unless the new district population numbers are completely out of whack, the Court of Appeals won’t touch them, Shinkle said. 

Under the proposed map, the least populated district (No. 4) has 19,368 people and the highest-populated district (No. 13) has 20,854. It’s not a big enough difference to jump up and down about.

Maybe more important, all four Republican members basically kept their districts. Instead of being in a 12-4 minority, this map improves the R’s lot, putting them in a 10-4 minority.

The same incumbent pacification is going on in every other map the Lansing region cares about. A proposed congressional redistricting map published in The Detroit News last week keeps U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg in Eaton County but takes him out of Calhoun County, creating a funky island in the new 7th District.

Why? Walberg is tired of getting hammered in the Battle Creek area and doesn’t want to run again against Cereal City resident Mark Schauer in 2012. No Calhoun County and the problem is solved.

Republicans concocted a meandering 9th Congressional District in southeast Michigan with the sole intent of putting two Democrats — Reps. Gary Peters and Sandy Levin — in the same district, even though MIRS and Target Insyght have published maps that create more compact districts that keep common communities together.

One of the more bizarre situations may be breaking down in the state House districts, where the legislative Black Caucus is preparing to pop maps that succeed in creating tailor-made districts for all of their incumbents.

The U.S. Voters Rights Act requires that any redistricting map attempt to maintain at least the same number of districts that contain a majority of minority voters. If more can be created, that’s even better.

But in keeping its incumbents happy, the Black Caucus drew a map that doesn’t create as many "majority minority" districts as possible. Maps drawn by Target Insyght’s Ed Sarpolus and commissioned by MIRS actually create more.

That’s the problem with maps based on self-preservation as opposed to keeping an eye on the interests of the state’s minority population.  

When a state allows politicians to draw their own maps, this is what inevitably happens —a self-serving exercise where a party in power can protect their own at the expense of an oblivious public. 

Four states — Arizona, Hawaii, Washington and New Jersey — give independent commissions the job or drawing congressional lines, and 12 states take state legislatures out of the job of redrawing their own lines.

Until a similar step is taken in Michigan, every 10 years, we’ll see that same predictable result. The party in power will draw favorable lines for their friends. Whether it’s good for the public is an afterthought.

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the MIRS Newsletter. He can be reached at melinn@lansingcitypulse.com.)

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