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The self-serving process by which members of the Louisiana Legislature redraw district lines for themselves and other elected officials is usually one of backroom deals that are aimed at protecting incumbent members.
It’s long past time to change this process.
The Public Affairs Research Council has recommended that Louisiana step into the 21st century by creating a fairer, nonpolitical process for creating new district lines.
When the results of next year’s national Census are in, district lines for members of the Legislature, Congress, the state Public Service Commission and other bodies are to be redrawn so they will more closely reflect the constitutional rule of “one man, one vote.”
What typically happens is that everybody gets together out of the public eye and deals. The computers are fired up, and lines are drawn that help out incumbent members of the state bodies and the U.S. House of Representatives.
If a Republican member has too many people in his district, he will offload some parishes or precincts that tend to vote Democratic. If a Democratic member has too many, he’ll drop some Republican-leaning areas. It’s almost always 100 percent about incumbent protection.
More progressive states require that a nonpartisan commission draw up lines based on principles of common sense: That districts do not sprawl across the map for political advantage. That the Voting Rights Act is followed. That parishes, or even small voting precincts, are split as little as possible. That a community not be splintered among several districts to appease political needs.
We believe it is long past time for Louisiana to follow the lead of Iowa and other states that have reformed their redistricting processes.
“Completely eliminating political influence or potential abuse of power from the process is not likely,” the PAR study said. “However, Louisiana can transform its redistricting model into one that will have less potential for conflict of interest, be more transparent and accountable to the public, and place greater controls on those who have the power to move district lines.”
As PAR points out in its study, now is profoundly the time for reform in Louisiana in particular.
Because of decades of bad government choices and poor educational outcomes, Louisiana has been a laggard in population growth in the nation. When the 2010 Census numbers are in, it’s inevitable that Louisiana will lose a seat in Congress.
That would be a crisis in redistricting in itself, as one of the seven people representing Louisiana in the U.S. House of Representatives will end up in a district with another incumbent, no matter how creative the line-drawing might be.
But that’s not the most pressing circumstance for Louisiana and the 2010 Census.
The massive population shifts occasioned by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita make the next Census and reapportionment an incredibly important event for Louisiana.
Not only because our state must do everything it can to be sure there’s a completely reliable count of residents, so that we don’t fall further behind the nation in population growth. But because the state government’s leadership should not be trusted to ensure a fair redistricting process once the numbers are in.
If this process is to be credible, some form of nonpolitical redistricting must be implemented.
If a parish or section of the state feels it has “lost out” in redistricting — almost certainly some areas will, through no fault of their own — the political process will be tainted in the minds of residents for a long time to come.
We call upon Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature to heed PAR’s message and come up with a nonpartisan redistricting process the public can trust.
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