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Every 10 years, congressional districts are redrawn based on the census, and the idea is that the shift will create better representation. In reality, the process has turned into one of the dirtiest tricks in American politics: gerrymandering.
Both parties do it. In New Mexico, a cohesive, geographical balance of constituents was turned into a nonsensical map in order to shore up Democratic votes to give the liberal candidate in New Mexico’s southern second congressional district an advantage. But make no mistake, the GOP is much more egregious and dubious in its efforts to secure as many seats in Congress as possible. And the current threat from Democrats in California to do away with the state’s forward-thinking, independent way of drawing congressional lines is merely an effort to balance the scale.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the redistricting proposal on Thursday, and it will now go to voters.
Republicans haven’t been shy about their effort to tip political maps in their favor at the expense of fair representation. After the 2010 census, the party launched the REDMAP project, pouring money into state legislative races to seize control of redistricting in key states. The strategy worked. They were able to either crack urban, left-leaning districts or pack them to silence Democratic voters. The 2010 election was the “Red Wave” that changed the country. Republicans took control of 21 legislative chambers across the country, giving them more control over election maps.
The result is a bigger deal than partisan advantage. It’s fueled extremism, which is why most of us disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job. The most recent Gallup opinion poll found that 26% of us approve of Congress and 67% of us don’t. We reached an approval peak at a time of crisis, when in October 2001 Congress had an 84% approval rating. Traditionally, public approval of Congress has hovered around 40%, going back to 1975. But that approval rating has plummeted since 2010.
What has happened to lawmakers as a result? They surrendered independent and critical-thinking skills in order to toe the party line. Break the ranks, and you’ll get “primaried.” Look what happened to Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in Wyoming, who stood up to President Donald Trump after his followers stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election. She then lost her primary by roughly 30 percentage points.
Many of us want representatives who will cross the aisle and pass smart bills that put the American people before the powerful. That’s now a pipe dream. Moderate voters have been corralled.
Princeton University launched a Gerrymandering Project that ranks states based on how they have drawn their congressional maps. Fifteen states received a D/F ranking from the group — including New Mexico. We were one of four states that ranked poorly for rigging elections in favor of Democrats. Nine states changed maps in order to favor Republicans, and that doesn’t include the two states — Tennessee and Louisiana — that received an F for manipulating congressional districts based on race.
So it’s no surprise, given the current political climate, that last week two New Mexico Democrats resigned from an independent redistricting task force because of the Republican-led effort in Texas to redraw the state’s political boundary lines. It’s a fight fire with fire approach.
New Mexico had it right. Since we’ve had three seats in the House of Representatives, we’ve had a member of Congress for northern New Mexico, Albuquerque and southern New Mexico. That made sense. We’re a diverse state and each of those districts has differing interests and needs, and they deserve a voice in Congress. But in 2021, lawmakers created a new map that included parts of mainly liberal Albuquerque in District 2, which was historically the southern New Mexico seat. Meanwhile, conservative-leaning areas around Artesia, Roswell and Hobbs are in District 3, which has historically been the voice for northern New Mexico.
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There are solutions. California, which is now making news for threatening to gerrymander to put more Democrats in the House, had it right. The state uses an independent commission to draw its maps. Yes, some might argue that California looks gerrymandered because it has 43 Democratic representatives and nine Republicans. But the reality is there are just a lot of Democrats in California, and if voters approve it, the state could shift those numbers more in favor of liberals. Arizona and Michigan are other states that have relied on nonpartisan commissions to make sure that the voters in those states have an equal voice.
New Mexico is also on the path to restore fair representation by opening up primaries to independent voters. That will allow people who sit in the middle of the political spectrum to have a voice before deciding to check “D” or “R” on Election Day.
Both parties have dirtied their hands by trying to silence voters in order to seize power. But Republicans have been shameless in their efforts to use gerrymandering. Making maps isn’t very exciting, but if we could take politics out of the process our country would be better off. Unfortunately, it’s proving harder and harder for states to act like California and restore independence to the process. Reform is needed, because voters should get back in the business of picking their politicians, not the other way around.
