The Indiana Senate elections committee voted 7-2 along party lines in favor of the Republican-drawn redistricting plan for the state’s nine congressional districts and 150 state legislative seats based on population shifts from the 2020 census.
Critics assailed the proposed new Indiana congressional and legislative districts on Monday as rigged in favor of Republicans.
They are making a final effort to have an influence on Indiana’s Republican-controlled redistricting process as new maps are drawn for the state’s legislative and congressional districts.
The Indiana House on Thursday approved new state legislative and congressional election district maps, sending the maps to the Senate for consideration.
Indianapolis would gain a new state Senate district under Republicans’ proposed district maps, but the changes likely would otherwise have little impact on the GOP’s 39-11 supermajority in the Senate.
The proposed maps essentially stayed the same as when they were released last week, with one minor amendment moving House districts in Fort Wayne to avoid splitting up an apartment complex.
Republicans will keep greater control of Indiana’s Legislature than merited by the number of votes they receive, according to a political analyst who on Thursday called the state’s proposed new election districts among the most skewed in the country.
The Indiana House elections committee opened two days of public hearings on the redistricting plan a little more than 24 hours after the new congressional and Indiana House maps were posted online.
Some Indiana House Republican incumbents could go head-to-head with their GOP colleagues next election cycle, based on shifts in the proposed redistricting maps.
Drafts of the state’s proposed new congressional and House district maps released Tuesday by Republicans aren’t likely to make a sizable changes in Indiana’s political landscape.
Other changes among Indiana’s nine congressional districts to account for population shifts don’t appear likely to shift the 7-2 control that Republicans now hold on those seats.
Republicans on Tuesday are set to release proposed new Indiana House and U.S. House maps that they’ve drawn behind closed doors.
Indiana Republicans will show next week just how far they’ll go in pushing their political control over redrawing the state’s congressional districts.
The process starts Sept. 14, with the House Republicans’ unveiling of the Congressional and Indiana House district map drafts online. The proposed Senate district maps will post online Sept. 21.
The fight over redrawing political maps is just ramping up in state legislatures and nonpartisan commissions around the country. But both Republicans and Democrats already are planning for major showdowns in the courts.
Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to begin raising money for a Senate race.
Lawmakers heard more than two hours of testimony Wednesday at the Indiana Statehouse from citizens who spent most of their time asking for a fair redistricting process.
Supporters say the rule will provide more transparency when city councilors vote on projects that benefit campaign donors. Critics say the change will benefit councilors who can bankroll their own campaigns.
The hearings will be the first public steps by the Republican-dominated Legislature on the once-a-decade redrawing of election maps based on population shifts.
Former President Donald Trump has filed lawsuits against three of the country’s biggest tech companies, claiming he and other conservatives have been wrongfully censored.
