Democrats and the redistricting blues
Complaints made, complaints overlooked kept pace in Indiana’s redistricting effort this week.
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Complaints made, complaints overlooked kept pace in Indiana’s redistricting effort at the Statehouse Monday, where proposed Indiana House and U.S. congressional maps popped out of the Indiana House Election Committee on a 9-4, party-line vote.
Meanwhile, in downtown Lafayette, Greater Lafayette’s two Democratic state representatives, along with the most recent Democrat who took a shot at running in a solid-red 4th Congressional District, on Monday continued to press for more transparency and more balanced General Assembly district maps, drawn by Republicans and on the verge of being finalized Thursday at the Statehouse.
They also continued to be convinced that no matter how much they point out flaws in the once-a-decade process, their protests will fall on deaf ears this week.
“They are knowingly using a broken system in favor of self-preservation and their special interests,” state Rep. Chris Campbell, a West Lafayette Democrat, said during a press conference in downtown Lafayette Monday morning.
State Rep. Sheila Klinker, a Lafayette Democrat, painted a slightly less dire impression of maps proposed a week ago for Indiana House and U.S. House districts.
But Klinker said that when Democrats this week introduce alternate versions – ones she and Campbell insisted were more reflective of an Indiana that gave Joe Biden 41% of the vote, instead of an Indiana House that has Democrats at 29% of the 100-seat chamber – she said she doubted there’d be more than small tweaks. If that.
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