Rokita Continues Push for Redistricting Reform | Indy's News Center - 93.1 WIBC Indianapolis

By Eric Berman
11/18/2009

Secretary of State Todd Rokita says redistricting proposals from House and Senate Republicans are steps in the right direction, but don't go far enough.

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Rokita has been stumping the state for two months making the case for taking politics out of the process of drawing legislative maps. Republican leaders in the House and Senate have responded in the last week with reform bills.

The House would turn the job over to an independent commission, a move the Senate contends is unconstitutional.

Rokita told an Ivy Tech leadership conference in Indianapolis the question of who draws the maps is a side issue.

"I was, in this plan, giving tremendous deference to the legislature and our constitution. If they can't or won't do that job, then an independent commission would be necessary," Rokita says. "Even so, whoever draws these lines still needs to follow (my) criteria."

The Senate plan would write most of those criteria into state law: compact districts which follow existing boundaries and keep "communities of interest" together in the same district. But it omits what Rokita calls "the moose on the table": a ban on using political data to draw the maps.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long (R-Fort Wayne) says constitutional requirements to protect minority voting rights mean there's no way to avoid consulting those numbers.

Rokita faults a House Republican plan for continuing the legislature's custom of coming as close as possible to giving each district an equal population. Rokita argues that's precisely the preoccupation that has led to bizarrely-shaped districts in the past.

Rokita says court precedents have found no problem with a 10-percent variance among districts.

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