JD Vance heads to Indiana to push redistricting, but legalities remain unclear
An Indiana House Democrat called defeating mid-cycle redistricting “a knife fight for democracy.”
An Indiana House Democrat called defeating mid-cycle redistricting “a knife fight for democracy.”
The map ordinance—released Friday as part of the City-County Council’s agenda and formally introduced Monday—could also fold four Democratic incumbents into two districts, Democratic leaders confirmed Monday.
Proposal 157 and the accompanying map come after a two-month, 10-part public forum series and a summary report published earlier this month.
“The report makes clear council leadership’s determination to create space for a wide variety of community voices to be heard at the very outset of the redistricting process,” the council said in written statement.
Common Cause Indiana announced Wednesday that it has formed a nine-member, “politically balanced” group called the Indianapolis Citizens Redistricting Commission, similar to a project it led last year aimed at Congressional and state redistricting.
The event will be remote. The Zoom meeting is set for Feb. 24 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and is open to any interested Marion County resident with registration online.
IBJ talked to City-County Council Chief Financial Officer and Policy Director Brandon Herget to learn how council staff chose the forum locations, why it contracted out the hosting work and how feedback will actually get used.
As Indianapolis embarks on the once-a-decade task of redrawing City-County Council districts, officials are soliciting public input at community forums in January and February.
Under the leadership of new party chair Joe Elsener, IndyGOP has worked to build a sturdier foundation: rolling out a new website, maintaining a consistent presence on social media, launching a new weekly newsletter and starting a young Republicans Club.
After long-time Republican dominance, Democrats now hold a 20-5 supermajority on the City-County Council under maps drawn by Republicans in 2012. Now, it’s the Democrats’ turn to draw the maps.
Freshman Rep. John Jacob, himself a Republican, says Republican leaders “butchered” his legislative district and redrew it in a way that is designed to deny him re-election.
Gov. Eric Holcomb’s signature was the final step in the redistricting for Indiana’s nine congressional seats and 150 seats in the state Legislature.
In the finale of the once-in-a-decade redistricting process, the state legislative and congressional maps made it out of the Legislature with few changes from when they were introduced two weeks ago.
Democrats tried and failed to make several changes to the proposed state Senate and congressional maps.
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.