Panel discusses possible changes in redistricting

An interim legislative committee is likely to recommend that new guidelines be established for Indiana lawmakers to follow
when they redraw legislative and congressional maps in 2011, a state senator said Tuesday.

Republican Sen. Sue
Landske of Cedar Lake predicted that after the Census Data Advisory Committee she chairs listened to testimony on redistricting.

Landske noted that Secretary of State Todd Rokita recently made a splash in the media when he pitched a plan that
would make it illegal to consider political data when redistricting to make it more fair. Rokita wants districts to follow
county or township lines as much as possible so they are not divided, among other things.

"I think we need
to keep that ball rolling," Landske said.

State Sen. Mike Delph (R-Carmel) and some other lawmakers also want
a set of redistricting criteria — such as making districts compact and keeping cities and like areas together —
to be considered in the legislative session that starts in January.

Some support creating an independent commission
to draw and approve new maps, but that would mean amending the state constitution — a process that can take up to three
years. But Delph said some reforms could be enacted in the next session.

"Voters should pick their legislators,
legislators should not pick their voters," Delph said.

The state constitution requires Indiana lawmakers to
vote on new legislative maps following the U.S. Census every 10 years. That’s expected to make the 2010 legislative campaigns
more intense — especially in the narrowly divided House — because the parties in power will wield the mapmaking
pens in 2011 following the 2010 Census.

It often is a partisan process designed to protect incumbents or carve
out new territory based in part on voter registrations or voting patterns, which would be banned under Rokita’s proposal.
Gerrymandering has resulted in many oddly shaped districts, some splitting rural counties and small cities.

Justin
Levitt, an attorney with New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice — a public policy think tank and law firm
that has studied redistricting across the country — told the committee that having lawmakers solely in charge of redistricting
was flawed.

He supports an independent commission that would reflect the state’s diversity and a system that is
transparent. Indiana lawmakers conduct much of their redistricting in private.

Levitt said lawmakers could play
some role in a system with an independent commission, but not the only role.

"It creates a perception of legislators
looking out for their own interests," Levitt said.

Twenty-one states have a redistricting commission that
draws up a plan, advises the legislature on doing so or acts as a backup if the legislature fails to pass a plan, according
to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Morton Marcus, a former economist at Indiana University who for
many years was the governor’s liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau, said action was needed in the next session "to see to
it that redistricting that takes place in 2011 is done on a fair and transparent basis."

Julia Vaughn, policy
director for the consumer watchdog group Common Cause-Indiana, said there appeared to be growing momentum for reforming Indiana’s
current system. Tuesday’s meeting was another sign of that, she said.

Rep. Russ Stilwell (D-Boonville) said it
was too early to tell if the committee would come up with recommendations before the session. He said demographics make it
impossible to make all districts competitive.

But he said Democrats who control the House were open to debate on
the issue.