Better Maps, Better Politics

Byline: Pioneer Press
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
Date: January 12, 2008

It's great to see some of our most distinguished retired politicians join hands for a good cause. Former Vice President Walter Mondale, former Govs. Arne Carlson and Al Quie and former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe are about as distinguished as it gets.

And the cause they are bringing forward this year is an important one. They want to change the way Minnesota draws its congressional and legislative districts so that the process is fairer, less overtly political and aimed at encouraging competition rather than protecting incumbents.

This is a worthy goal that most Minnesotans would support. The problem is not the goal but the process itself. The drawing of congressional and legislative districts is such an arcane and bewildering art that few outsiders can fathom it. Yet these decisions affect all of us.

Perhaps the sun will shine on political map-drawing. The proposal by Mondale (a Democrat) and Carlson (a Republican) is one of several redistricting-reform plans kicking around at the Legislature. Their plan would assign the task to a nonpartisan, independent commission of retired appellate judges. The Legislature and the governor would then have to either accept or reject the commission's plan without amending it. Another bill, authored by Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, seeks to amend the Minnesota Constitution to turn over the job to a redistricting commission. A third plan relies on legislative employees in the House and Senate.

Every 10 years, states are required to use new U.S. Census figures to redraw their congressional and legislative districts and ensure that each includes roughly the same number of people. In Minnesota, that job is left to the Legislature and the governor. If they can't agree - and they usually can't - the courts step in.

Mondale and Carlson, who co-chair the advisory board of the Center for Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute, said the current process produces safe legislative and congressional districts that favor incumbents. Geography affects policy, they argued, by eliminating competing political pressures from individual districts. The result is the loss of moderate voices and a strengthening of partisan extremes.

Carlson said it is an "inherent conflict of interest" for legislators to essentially pick the people who will vote in their next election. Mondale said the process consumes legislative time and energy and ultimately breaks down along partisan lines. Larry Jacobs, director of the center, said the map-drawing after the 2010 census could be extremely important because Minnesota, based on population trends, is in danger of losing one of its eight congressional seats, and the map-makers may have to make wholesale changes.

The Mondale-Carlson plan establishes a five-person commission of retired appellate judges - four appointed by legislative leaders of the two parties and one selected by the four appointees. Their commission's redistricting plan would go back to the Legislature and governor for an up-or-down vote. Mondale and Carlson believe there would be strong political pressure to support the commission plan.

We like the concept and the bipartisan group of luminaries supporting it. The process of redistricting, like the conducting of elections, should be as nonpartisan and fair as possible. Minnesota has seen blatant horse-trading but some states have had scandalous power grabs. The new commission will have to have a clear goal of encouraging competition and may need more independence from the Legislature than the Mondale-Carlson plan allows.

We thank the retired leaders for working to make Minnesota government fairer. When they talk, Minnesotans should listen. Making maps that serve the people rather than mere party power is in the best interest of us all.