Two Democratic lawmakers quit NM redistricting task force amid national tumult

SANTA FE — Two Democratic state legislators have stepped down from a task force focused on independent redistricting, citing a Republican-led push to redraw political boundary lines in Texas that’s drawn national headlines.

The decision by Rep. Cristina Parajón and Sen. Harold Pope Jr., both of Albuquerque, to step down from the Fair Districts for New Mexico task force drew criticism from at least one Republican member of the task force.

The task force’s membership includes legislators and representatives from several outside groups. It’s led by retired New Mexico Court of Appeals judges Roderick Kennedy and Linda Vanzi.

In their resignation letters, both Parajón and Pope cited the rare mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas and other GOP-led states. The redistricting has been undertaken at the urging of President Donald Trump’s administration and is likely to lead to more Republican-leaning seats.

In response, California has launched its own effort to redraw congressional boundary lines to create more Democratic-leaning seats.

Parajón said she still believes in fair redistricting but can’t ignore the national trends, adding that majority New Mexico Democrats were being asked to “play a professional baseball game with Wiffle ball bats.”

“It’s not right to move forward with state level independent redistricting without action at the national level,” Parajón said in her letter.

For his part, Pope expressed similar reasons for stepping down, saying that Trump and his allies were trying to “rig our democracy” by drawing gerrymandered congressional districts.

Fair Districts for New Mexico was launched in 2019 by the League of Women Voters, a nonprofit group, to advocate for an independent redistricting commission. Such a commission would be empowered to redraw the state’s political boundary lines based on once-per-decade U.S. census data.

While such a commission has not won approval at the Roundhouse, New Mexico lawmakers in 2021 created a Citizen Redistricting Committee that was tasked with recommending new maps for the state’s U.S. House districts and legislative seats.

The advisory committee’s proposed maps are not binding, however, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature in December 2021 made significant changes to one of the proposed congressional maps before approving it.

Since then, Democrats have swept all U.S. House races in New Mexico. They also control all statewide offices.

The state Republican Party filed a lawsuit in 2022 arguing the new U.S. House district boundary lines were drawn intentionally to chop up GOP voting strongholds, but a judge ultimately upheld the map’s legality.

Meanwhile, one of the Republican members of the Fair Districts for New Mexico task force accused the Democrats who resigned of hypocrisy in light of New Mexico’s current congressional map.

“This immature and lackluster stunt only draws attention to the need for transparency in our state’s redistricting,” said Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, while also citing Pope’s recent announcement he plans to run next year for lieutenant governor.