OPINION: Democrats have been the granddaddies of gerrymandering for generations

It was a little ironic that Texas Democrats came to New Mexico last month to wallow and wail about congressional redistricting.

After all, state District Judge Fred Van Soelen found in October 2022 the New Mexico Republican Party and other plaintiffs — that included Roswell Mayor Tim Jennings, a Democrat — had made a “strong, well-developed case that (New Mexico’s new congressional map) is a partisan gerrymander created in an attempt to dilute Republican votes in congressional races in New Mexico.”

However, the Clovis judge ruled the radically different map that upended decades of political balance and the tradition of north-south oriented congressional districts didn’t violate our state Constitution.

The congressional map adopted by New Mexico House and Senate Democrats in a special session in December 2021 also ignored months of work by a newly created Citizen Redistricting Committee that was designed to limit partisan influence over the drawing of political boundaries. The Citizen Redistricting Committee, chaired by retired New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Chavez, presented three proposed congressional maps for state lawmakers to consider, none of which were adopted because the redistricting commission’s recommendations weren’t binding.

The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the new congressional map and ended the state’s tradition of having a heavily Democratic northern district that included Santa Fe, another based in Albuquerque that leaned Democratic but was within reach of Republicans, and a third rooted in southern New Mexico that leaned Republican but was within reach of Democrats.

Our high court said the redistricting plan enacted by Democratic state lawmakers succeeded in substantially diluting votes of their political opponents, but that the changes fell short of “egregious” gerrymandering.

Somehow, carving the most conservative region of New Mexico into three congressional districts, dividing Hobbs between two congressional districts and Chaves County between three, and splitting Albuquerque in two was less than “egregious” to our Supreme Court justices.

While the gerrymandering squabble made a lot of news in New Mexico, it didn’t rise to the national level, in part because New Mexico Republicans didn’t flee the state to block a vote. It wouldn’t have done any good, anyway. The New Mexico House and Senate require only a majority of members elected to reach quorums, whereas the Texas House requires two-thirds.

The delegation of seven Texas House Democrats met July 29 with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham behind closed doors to build alliances with high-profile “friends.” The governor, who signed our gerrymandered congressional map into law in December 2021, had to feel like the cat who ate the canary during the hour-plus meeting.

“After meeting with Texas lawmakers today, I share their concerns about redistricting and the assault on fair representation,” the governor had the gall to say. “These dedicated state legislators are understandably doing everything possible to remind states everywhere that this isn’t how democracy is supposed to work.”

Well, it’s how Democrats practiced democracy in New Mexico in 2021, although admittedly it wasn’t a mid-decade redistricting like Texas Republicans are attempting.

I was in the bubble of a nakedly partisan gerrymandering decades ago as an intern in the Indiana House of Representatives. Democrats, who held a slim majority in the Indiana House in 1991 and who occupied eight of Indiana’s 10 congressional seats at the time, hired a mathematician from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to redraw Indiana’s legislative and congressional maps. He worked in a private room right down the hall from my office and his door was always closed and locked.

However, as an intern, I could go see him on behalf of one of the House Democrats for whom I worked and ask for the latest maps. To say the process was secretive would be an understatement. Only Democratic interns and top House Democrats knew what was going on behind the MIT guy’s door on a daily basis. His maps would ultimately be adopted in a bitterly divided second special session that poisoned the political well in Indiana for years to come. Sound familiar to New Mexico?

Redistricting commissions, formed to keep like-minded communities together, prioritize communities of interest, protect marginalized groups, and not favor political parties or incumbents, just haven’t worked.

For example, California Democrats held a 34-19 majority over Republicans in the U.S. House after the 2010 election. In 2012, the first election using congressional maps drawn by a newly formed California Citizens Redistricting Commission, California Democrats increased their margin in the U.S. House to 38-15.

Today, of California’s 52 House members, 43 are Democrats and nine are Republicans.

Now, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants more. He is encouraging a voter referendum in November that would allow California legislators to override their state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and redraw congressional maps mid-decade. However, it’s going to take some gerrymandering gymnastics for California Democrats to improve upon a 43-9 majority.

Of Illinois’ 17 House members, 14 are Democrats and three are Republicans. There’s not much more Illinois Democrats can do to tip the scales.

All 21 of New England’s U.S. House seats are held by Democrats. There’s nothing more New England and New Mexico legislators can do to add congressional Democrats.

Gerrymandering has completely shut out Republicans in several states. Democrats hold every U.S. House seat in the multi-member states of Connecticut (5-0), Hawaii (2-0), Maine (2-0), Massachusetts (9-0), New Hampshire (2-0), New Mexico (3-0), and Rhode Island (2-0).

To be fair, GOP gerrymandering has shut out Democrats in several states, too. Republicans hold every U.S. House seat in the multi-member states of Arkansas (4-0), Idaho (2-0), Iowa (4-0), Nebraska (3-0), Montana (2-0), Oklahoma (5-0), Utah (4-0) and West Virginia (2-0).

Now, Republicans in Texas and elsewhere are trying to catch up on gerrymandering in an unusual mid-decade redistricting.

It would appear we are entering a gerrymandering arms race. Republicans are much better positioned because Democrats have over recent decades already expended most of their gerrymandering ammo for political gain.

Jeff Tucker is a former Opinion editor of the Albuquerque Journal and a member of the Journal Editorial Board. He may be emailed at jtucker@abqjournal.com.