Do Redistricting Right, Coalition of Minnesota political all-stars tells Legislature

Byline: Bill Salisbury
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
Date: January 11, 2008

Led by former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale and former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson, a parade of Minnesota's elder political stars Friday asked state lawmakers to give up some power to control their own political futures.

The Mondale-Carlson coalition urged a Senate committee to create a nonpartisan, independent commission to take over the job of drawing new legislative and congressional districts to reflect population changes after the 2010 census.

That, they asserted, would take the worst politics out of redistricting.

"You can't take the politics out of politics, but you can minimize it," Carlson told the Senate government operations committee.

Former Gov. Al Quie and former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, both Republicans, and former Secretary of State Joan Growe and former state Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, both Democrats, joined Mondale and Carlson at the witness table. They served on a redistricting reform panel sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance and co-chaired by Mondale and Carlson.

The U.S. Constitution requires redistricting every 10 years to reflect population shifts detected in the latest census. All districts must be approximately equal in population.

Under current law, state legislators are empowered to draw their own lines - an action that can mean political life or death for them.

That creates an "inherent conflict of interest" for lawmakers, Carlson said. It's difficult for them to resist the temptation to protect their incumbency.

Legislators typically try to draw "safe" districts where they are almost assured re-election. As a result, most incumbents don't have to compete with strong challengers.

Only about one-third of Minnesota legislative districts are competitive, said Larry Jacobs, director of the U's center. In 2006, 84 percent of incumbent state senators and 89 percent of House incumbents were re-elected.

"Incumbents are increasingly able to pick their own voters," Mondale said. A lack of competition means less accountability to voters, more petty partisanship, exclusion of voters from campaigns and fewer incentives for citizens to vote.

That fuels political polarization, a study by the U's center said. Democratic lawmakers whose seats are considered safe are likely to be more liberal, and Republicans are prone to be more conservative. That contributes to partisan gridlock in state and national legislative bodies.

Moreover, Minnesota lawmakers aren't very effective in getting the redistricting job done. In three of its past four attempts to draw new districts, the Legislature failed to complete the task and dumped it on the state Supreme Court. The only time legislators got it done, in 1992, it was the result of what Moe called an "honest mistake" - a failed veto by Carlson.

"The current system is simply broken," Moe said.

Blatz said the courts should be the "last resort" for redistricting because the judiciary shouldn't interject itself into the legislative branch's constitutional responsibilities.

The Mondale-Carlson group proposed that a five-member commission composed of retired appeals court judges who have never received a partisan endorsement draw new district lines.

Lawmakers have introduced three bills offering different approaches, but all of them would create an independent commission to prevent legislators from drawing their own districts.

Similar ideas have been proposed for years but never seriously considered by legislators, who tend to jealously protect their map-drafting powers.

What's different this year? "The gravitas of this group," said Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, a Minneapolis DFLer who's sponsoring one of the bills.

Or as Pogemiller said before the hearing, "We've never had this much oomph behind it before."