Your Statehouse in Action

For those of you who don't read Sheila Kennedy's blog, I highly recommend it. She had a post yesterday regarding a bill presently pending in the Indiana state legislature that would have struck a blow to partisan gerrymandering practices.

For those unfamiliar with the practice, gerrymandering is a process whereby the incumbent controlling political party shapes districts such that it can obtain an outsized portion of power. For example, you can imagine a situation, albeit an extreme one, where one party gets 51% of the vote yet 100% of the seats.

Here in Good Ole Honest to Goodness Indiana, the Indiana state legislative seats are set up so that one party gets about 55% of the vote but 70% of the seats in the legislature. Guess which party that is.

Anyway, there is a bill (HB 1014) pending in the IN state legislature that would reform this practice.

Currently, districts are drawn by the party in power. There is no reason to believe that the party in power would not draw districts to its own advantage. Doing otherwise would be political malpractice. However, it generally has a variety of negative consequences. For example, a Democrat from a solidly democratic inner-city district who wins the general election by 30% has no incentive to moderate his positions; her only political concern is losing a primary to someone more "loyal" and "pure" to the party. The same analysis goes for the Republican from the solid-red district. Her only concern is losing a primary to a more "conservative" and "pure" candidate. Given this reality, why would either the Democrat or Republican ever cooperate or compromise with the other in order to do what is best for the state? There is no incentive to do so.

HB 1014 would reform this process by putting the power to draw legislative districts in the hands of a non-partisan commission. There was a hearing on this bill the other day, and State Representative Milo Smith refused to even allow a vote on it during committee. Just so we're clear, the bill was not voted down. There was not even a vote on it, because Rep. Bumpkin Milo Smith decided it was not worth a vote.

I, for one, believe that the positions of those on the Elections and Apportionments Committee (the committee assigned to this bill) should be public. Along those same lines, I'd like to know the position of my own elected officials on this.

Rep. Macer?

Sen. Young?

Bueller?