In this day and age when we are dealing with crime and drug problems, you often hear about “packing” and “cracking,” but I’m asking you to think about those terms in a different way—as gerrymandering techniques. “Packing” is when the party in charge of redistricting tries to “pack” voters from the rival party into as few districts as possible, to minimize the number of seats the opposition is likely to win. “Cracking” is when blocs of opposition voters are parceled out among several districts, to achieve the same goal. In either event the general public loses. Proliferation of these techniques makes the need for redistricting reform even more important.
Michael Li, a New York University expert who analyzes redistricting across the country, was one of the resource persons the Redistricting Legislative Study Committee utilized, Li said getting redistricting right is more important than ever, since new mapping technology and greater access to consumer databases make it easy for politicians to effectively select individual voters and place them in specific districts.
I’ve heard it said that only Democrats favor redistricting, but I submit to you that redistricting is a non-partisan imperative. Others have said it better than I:
- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, defines gerrymandering this way: [Democrats] get to rip off the public in the states where they control and protect their incumbents, and we [Republicans]get to rip off the public in the states we control and protect our incumbents.
- Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Thirty years ago, my hero, Ronald Reagan, called partisan gerrymandering ‘antidemocratic and un-American, “and it’s only gotten worse since then.”
- Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming: “Quite literally, gerrymandering is killing our system. Most Americans think politicians are corrupt, and when they’re rigging maps to pick their own constituents, they’re giving them reason to believe it. We can, and we must, do better.”
- John Mutz, former Lieutenant Governor of Indiana strongly endorsed the need for redistricting reform, saying that he felt that “gerrymandering is one of the biggest threats to democracy.”
- Former Senator Richard Lugar: “Unfortunately, today’s unrelenting partisanship on Capitol Hill means that the best interests of the public too often fall by the wayside. One of the causes of this dynamic is gerrymandering, whereby too many seats are safely controlled by one party or the other. For the good of our country, it must end.”
- John Kasich, the Governor Ohio (where 71% of the voters in a referendum supported non-partisan legislative redistricting): “Ideas and merits should be what wins elections, not gerrymandering. When pure politics is what drives these kinds of decisions, the result is polarization and division. I think we’ve had enough of it. Gerrymandering should be in ‘the dustbin of history.’”
The time is ripe for change. Gerrymandering benefits the party over the electorate. It has resulted in only 44 of 100 Indiana’s House districts having any competition in 2014, and Indiana has recently had the lowest voter turnout of all states in the nation. Many believe redistricting is the most important issue in our state, but those who benefit from avoiding it need to know that the people “back home” want it to happen.
I hope that La Porte will join with Michigan City, Valparaiso, South Bend, Lafayette, West Lafayette, Vincennes, Crawfordsville, Greencastle, Anderson, Kokomo, Muncie, Bloomington, Evansville, Carmel and many other cities, towns and counties in urging the Indiana General Assembly to act on the recommendations of its Legislative Study Committee to reform redistricting after the 2020 census. Gerrymandering cheats the voter and undermines the effectiveness of government. We need to act now to change that. Your support of the resolution before you would be an important step in that process.