Posted on 12/28/2021 1:05:05 PM PST by CedarDave
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham owes retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Chavez and retired Court of Appeals Chief Judge Roderick Kennedy an explanation — if not an apology.
Chavez and Kennedy co-chaired a Redistricting Task Force that worked for 12 weeks “to bring justice, fairness and transparency” to the contentious decennial process. The 25-member task force studied state and federal requirements, the best practices from other states and concerns from specific New Mexico communities before laying a foundation for a fair redistricting process. The group developed 18 consensus recommendations for the subsequent seven-member Citizen Redistricting Committee, chaired by Chavez and formed by lawmakers for the express purpose of avoiding partisan gerrymandering.
It was probably too much to hope self-interested lawmakers would follow the task force’s recommendations, available in a report at NMFirst.org. And they didn’t.
Legislators instead passed a gerrymandered bill with congressional boundaries that split Albuquerque, Roswell and Hobbs for naked political gain.
Beginning in January 2023, the 2nd Congressional District will include Albuquerque’s West Side and South Valley, whose population will dominate the southern part of Hobbs that was also included in the district.
Meanwhile, the east side of Albuquerque will drown out the portion of northern Roswell that was put into the 1st Congressional District.
And CD3 will lump southern Roswell and northern Hobbs in with Santa Fe.
So much for keeping like-minded communities together, prioritizing communities of interest, protecting marginalized groups, avoiding court intervention, and not favoring anyone, specifically political parties or incumbents.
State Republicans now are contemplating a lawsuit to stop implementation of the maps. So is New Mexico Open Elections. Here we go again — court battles over redistricting cost state taxpayers more than $6 million in 2011 and $3.7 million in 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
New map:
To the victor go the spoils, or as Rushbo put it, Elections Matter!
Democrats are inherently criminal.
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I fail to see how it will have any impact on outcomes. It looks like CD2 will still go Republican, the way it is drawn.
Gerrymandering is evil, and both sides do it. If it were up to me, districts would be drawn in a grid. Done.
Nah, just write a sternly worded letter.
Or in such a way that they *must* be as compact as possible.
Personally, I think they should be drawn to make it as close to even as possible. *NO* elected official, Democrat or Republican should *ever* be able to take winning the general for granted, ever.
Safe districts seem to turn even the best men into criminal slouches sometimes.
No politician should ever be more assured of keeping their job than the lowest wage earner in Retail.
“It’s ‘Gerrymandering’ when *they* do it”
A joke literally older than the Republican party.
Both sides do it, every chance they get, to the greatest degree possible.
Gerrymandering is evil, and both sides do it. If it were up to me, districts would be drawn in a grid.
No, only Pubbies Gerrymander, the motives of Dims is as pure as new snow, only wanting to help people. Or so they say.
Plus, the media covers for dims and kills reps on these issues.
The new map includes the heavily Democratic area of south Albuquerque and eliminates conservative areas of eastern Roswell, in Hobbs north of Marland Blvd., and in all communities in northern Lea County including Lovington (the county seat) and Tatum.
Yep but NOPE! Can't be done at all because of the umbra & penumbra of the Civil Rights Act(s). Minority CDs are sacrosanct, once a minority, always a minority, although a pale minority can win if of the correct party! So just remember to be Civil about it, it is their Rights, you know!
Oh, and would someone page Eric Holder, Obama's Attorney General? He has been very loud on illegal gerrymandering ... in red states! Blue states like NM, IL and CA? Eh, not so much!
Nope. Half of Hobbs is moved into district 3. The conservative population in the state was carefully split in two and now all 3 districts will be reliably leftist.
W.I.N.N.E.R.
Egolf has also threatened Rep. Rebeca Dow’s (a friend of mine who is running for governor) district, saying he would unseat her through redistricting. He is absolutely despicable.
Please check her out and vote for her to unseat MLG.
“Every once in a while, the ABQ Journal gets something right.”
Note the date and time, it’s a very rare event.
Why is NM so liberal?
Well, looks even worse in the new map than I thought it was in the more crudely drawn earlier one. All of Lincoln County and even a little bit of Otero County is in Commie District 1...
On the earlier map, it looked like Ruidoso might have remained in District 2, or at least part of it.
So depressing.
Well, maybe if Texas secedes, they will annex the south half of New Mexico and save us from the evil idiot leftists in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
(I can dream, can’t I?)
It’s time to return to the numbers our Founding Fathers used for apportionment.
Increase the size of Congress and watch the real fun begin.
L
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