Indiana’s congressional districts unlikely to change shape in redistricting

(The Center Square) – Public hearings on Indiana redistricting took place last week in several cities in Indiana and citizens representing Democrat-aligned groups showed up to complain the state’s legislative and congressional districts are gerrymandered to benefit Republicans.

“It kind of looks like the head of an elephant, with a trunk that goes up,” said Bob Raz of Osceola at the hearing in Elkhart on Aug. 7, describing the district of Rep. Timothy Wesco, who chairs the Elections Committee in the Indiana House of Representatives.

But long-time Republican operatives counter that Indiana’s congressional and legislative districts, which were drawn by the Republicans 10 years ago for the first time in decades, are actually much less gerrymandered than they were when Democrats last drew the lines, in 2001.

“That time they really did a number – the worst case of gerrymandering I’ve ever seen in my life,” says Chris Callaway, who was a county Republican chairman in Monroe County, in southern Indiana, in the late 1990s.

He describes how Democrats drew the map that year for what became the fourth congressional district – a large, rural district in the western part of the state.

“They took [Rep.] Steve Buyer who was way up north. They took his district and they put it all the way down to Morgan County, and then they took the western slice of Monroe County, just so they could make it contiguous, and then they made it touch Lawrence County, which is all Republican….so what they did, they created a super Republican district. And then the rest of Monroe County was in the 8th district, and that was to make the 8th district as Democrat as possible to help the Democrats win that seat against [Rep.] John Hostettler.”

The district prompted one constituent, who lived in Lawrence County, just south of Monroe County and Indiana University, to question how he could be in the same district as Purdue University, which was 137 miles north of him, but not in the same district as Indiana University, which was only 20 miles to the north.

Congressional and state legislative districts are redrawn every 10 years, in the year following the U.S. Census. And in Indiana, as in most states, it’s the state legislature that gets to draw the lines, with the governor having veto power.

The Republican Party is firmly in control of the legislature, with 72 of 100 seats in the state House of Representatives and 39 of 50 seats in the Indiana Senate.

Democrats will likely be entirely cut out of the process – just as they were 10 years ago when Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, was in office and Republicans had majorities in both Houses.

Democrats controlled the process in 2001, when Democrat Gov. Frank O’Bannon was in office and Democrats had a majority of seats in the Indiana House of Representatives, and also 10 years before that, in 1991, when Democrat Gov. Evan Bayh was in office and Democrats had a House majority.

At the time, Indiana had 10 congressional seats. It now has nine.

Hearings were held in several cities in the state Aug. 6 and 7, and a final public hearing will be at the Statehouse in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Aug. 11 from 1-3 p.m. Members of the public are invited to attend and comment on redistricting, and how the lines should be drawn.

On Aug. 12, the Indiana General Assembly is expected the receive the U.S. Census numbers from the federal government and in September, legislators are expected to reconvene at the Statehouse to begin the actual process of redrawing the maps.

Despite the intense lobbying campaign by groups including the League of Women Voters, Citizens Action Coalition, the Indiana ACLU, Common Cause Indiana and the Indianapolis Urban League, major changes are not expected.

In fact, people familiar with the process say Indiana’s nine congressional districts will probably remain about the same, with minor adjustments to reflect shifts in population.

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