Indiana should reject gerrymandering
Gerrymandering the Congressional map only four years after the last one was approved is a waste of legislators' time and taxpayer resources.
Note: This is an open letter to my state representatives and Indiana's Republican leadership.
Legislators,
Back in 2001, Indiana Democrats drew a gerrymandered Congressional district map that used a narrow sliver of Monroe County as a land bridge to put Lawrence County into the heavily Republican Fourth District. This also took Lawrence away from John Hostettler's Eighth District while keeping it away from Baron Hill's Ninth District. This gerrymandering put Bedford in the same district as Purdue University, but not as Indiana University, which is in the neighboring county. Purdue is 130 miles away from Bedford. IU is 25 miles away from Bedford.
By contrast, the Republican Party's 2011 map was a model for the nation: Compact districts that followed county lines. Breaking the Democrats' gerrymandered map worked for Republicans. Democrats held five of nine Congressional seats in 2009: The First, Second, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth. By 2013, Republicans held seven of the nine districts, with only District 1 (holding Gary and East Chicago) and District 7 (Indianapolis) held by Democrats.
Republican state legislators approved another map in 2021 that was once again a model for the nation: Compact districts that follow county lines. Indiana's map is not gerrymandered, and still resulted in a 7-2 Republican majority. There is no need to re-draw Indiana's Congressional district map, and the only way to do that now is to dump a bunch of Democrats in East Chicago, Indianapolis and Gary into neighboring Republican districts and put Republican incumbents in jeopardy. A newly gerrymandered map would look just as bad as the 2001 Democratic map that drew so much derision for the absurdly-drawn Fourth District.
Indiana is not Texas, which has 38 Congressional districts and much more room to re-draw district lines. Indiana is not even Illinois, which has 17 districts, nearly twice as many as we have here. So why is a highly unusual mid-decade redistricting being considered now? Because President Trump wants it. The Republican Party should not be a cult of personality around the random desires of one man, especially one who will be permanently out of elective office in three and a half years.
This kind of naked partisanship and blind loyalty to one man is not what I voted for last year. I voted for good policy that puts the interests of the people first, and a well-run government. Redrawing Congressional district lines in 2025 is exactly the opposite of that. I implore you to extend Indiana's status as a model for the nation and reject the cult of personality that is driving this radical break from the traditional decennial redistricting process. Breaking norms is anything but conservative.
