Four Years Out, Debate Over Redistricting Begins in Minnesota

Byline: Martiga Lohn
Source: The Associated Press State & Local Wire
Date: January 11, 2008

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The lines on political district maps won't budge for another four years. But with the potential loss of a congressional seat looming after the 2010 census, the maneuvering has begun over who draws the new districts.

Those zig-zags on the map largely determine whether Republicans or Democrats win elections and get to steer state policy in the Minnesota Legislature or shape federal decisions in the U.S. House.

Political luminaries including former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Gov. Arne Carlson lined up Friday to support the idea of curbing the Legislature's influence over redistricting. They said their plan to give retired judges the job would result in more competitive elections and more power for voters.

"A legislative body should remove from itself its own conflict of interest," Carlson said at a hearing of the Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee.

Former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, a Democrat who participated in redistricting going back to 1971, said the process can easily be manipulated to protect incumbents.

"Redistricting acts like a slow-moving political toxin, poisoning the policymaking environment and basically mucking up our business for a year or two," Moe said. "Then after all that angst, the courts usually end up doing it anyway."

The difficulty lies in persuading legislators to give up the power of drawing the district lines.

Sen. Ann Rest, who heads the state and local government panel, said she expects debate in this year's legislative session to center on the definition of guiding principles such as political competitiveness. Those standards could be written into law to guide an independent redistricting commission.

Three separate bills propose independent redistricting commissions. But the Legislature would still have a say, either by picking the panel members, voting on the maps or both. Two proposals would let lawmakers draw some lines themselves if agreement eluded them.

The Carlson-Mondale plan would create a panel of five retired judges who have not been active in partisan politics. DFL Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller is sponsoring the bill, which would require the commission to define and consider political competition when drawing new lines.

Rest's bill would ask voters in November to amend the state constitution to create a redistricting commission of nine voters. Legislative leaders would select four of the voters, but lawmakers would have no vote on the redistricting plan.

A proposal from Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, would make the revisor of statutes and the heads of House research and Senate counsel draw the lines before legislative votes.