The Politics of Re-Districting

Tim Jennings

Capital Report New Mexico - The chatter around the Roundhouse late Monday afternoon (Sept. 19th) concerned a report that Senate Democrats and Republicans have been working together (yes, strange but true) on a redistricting bill for statehouse races and the two sides are close to an agreement one senator said could garner as many as 35 votes — an impressive figure, considering the Senate is made up of 42 members. We’ll see if they can pull it off. One prominent senator told us, “the next 24 hours will be crucial” towards making a deal. Redistricting is always difficult but one of the major complicating factors this time around is dealing with the shifts in population. More people keep coming to the west side of Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and parts of Las Cruces but the rural districts keep losing population. “The east side of the state is becoming practically vacant,” one senator told me. So while seats will be added in Bernalillo County, there appears to be no way around having to combine rural districts — and that means pitting one sitting legislator against another. “This is a hard time,” Sen. Tim Jennings (D-Roswell) said Monday. “Trying to come up with new legislative districts where you lose members and create slots for other people in other parts of the state is very difficult.” Read full story here: News New Mexico

The Politics of Re-Districting